How do you spend your evenings in your 30s, 40s, and beyond?

Palladium

Palladium

Palladium

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Joined
18 May 2013
Posts
120
I've mostly planned on being child-free throughout my life. Occasionally I like the idea of having them, though. Right now at 37 and married, I sometimes feel a bit bored by life. We're getting to a point where the DINK factor will really kick in soon, so maybe that will change things. But right now, it just feels like the same cycle of watching TV, having a few drinks, travelling somewhere a couple times a year, and repeat, for the next 40 years. People with kids basically aren't part of my life, and there's no pressure from anywhere for me to have them. But part of me does wonder if they'd provide some structure... Anyway, this isn't about how kids would change things. This is about, well, how do you spend your free time as an adult in ways that feel fulfilling and exciting?
 
Try living in rural wales, the nearest bowling alley is 90 mile round trip and nearest ice rink or Airport is 170 mile round trip.
And the same with everything decent, its a long long way and a real slog to do anything that people near a City can easily do on an evening.
 
Dink?

You have no kids taking up all your free time so do what you want really. Get a hobby or join a club either as a couple or on your own.

Get a dog if you want some responsibility :p
 
I have a 2 year old & another to arrive shortly, & honestly my evenings are currently the same now as they were 5 years ago - watching TV/films, going online. Kid is in bed at 7pm.
 
Home from work, eat quick, bit of time with the kids, bath/bed for them at 7.30 ish, walk dog, few rounds of COD, collapse exhausted into bed. Rinse and repeat. No adult time for the next 5 years or so.
 
Work too late. Eat too late. Realise by the time you've cleared up it's too late to watch anything worthwhile on telly. Watch rubbish on telly, half fall asleep on sofa. Go to bed. :p
 
dave28 said:
Try living in rural wales, the nearest bowling alley is 90 mile round trip and nearest ice rink or Airport is 170 mile round trip.
And the same with everything decent, its a long long way and a real slog to do anything that people near a City can easily do on an evening.
Click to expand...

dave, you start by saying, “Try living in rural Wales”, then proceed to give perfectly valid reasons to give rural Wales a wide berth.
As a dyed in the wool Londoner, I wouldn’t fancy it, but I remember thinking what a nice place mid and north Wales was, when I was running tanker loads of transformer oil from London, up the A5, (pre any M-Ways in Mid Wales), to Wylfa Power Station on Anglesey.
I only ever stopped for coffee, but I recall signs for places like Llangollen, Betws-y-Coed, Blaenau Ffestiniog, Bangor, then over the bridge to Anglesey.
 
I've done stuff likesetting up a football group with friends to play weekly.

Bought a second car to tinker on.

Buy and sell stuff on eBay.

But yeah.. First world problems.

You could go out and help a charity, not with money but in time served.
 
Jean-F said:
dave, you start by saying, “Try living in rural Wales”, then proceed to give perfectly valid reasons to give rural Wales a wide berth.
As a dyed in the wool Londoner, I wouldn’t fancy it, but I remember thinking what a nice place mid and north Wales was, when I was running tanker loads of transformer oil from London, up the A5, (pre any M-Ways in Mid Wales), to Wylfa Power Station on Anglesey.
I only ever stopped for coffee, but I recall signs for places like Llangollen, Betws-y-Coed, Blaenau Ffestiniog, Bangor, then over the bridge to Anglesey.
Click to expand...

“Try living in rural Wales” Was not serious. The same way someone might reply to a person complaining about their brand new BMW. Someone could say "Try driving a 20 year old Fiesta"
 
Puzzled said:
Dink?

You have no kids taking up all your free time so do what you want really. Get a hobby or join a club either as a couple or on your own.

Get a dog if you want some responsibility :p
Click to expand...
I agree. I'm in my seventies. I have children and grand children and we love them dearly when they come to visit for a few days. And just as dearly when we send them home!
But the dog is my companion. A big gentle fellow.
 
Every thread over the last few days has made me question whether I am on a forum for tired old men, and being groomed.
 
Personally if we both earned decent money and I wasn't going to have kids I would look at both going down to 80% hours or something and having 3 day weekends. Having an extra day every weekend would be magical.

Other than that. I watch TV and play games mostly in the winter when the weather is **** and its dark by the time its even close to the end of the day. I used to climb 3x a week in the evenings but thats tailed off a bit now.

In the summer I go out on the bike as much as I can which can be 3x a week.

TLDR: get some hobbies.Work less.
 
I watch loads of sport and TV dramas. Do my exercise and look forward to a couple of beers. I'm retired now, but found working life extremely time limited so I'm happy just to waste time now.
I do a lot of flying in VR which actually seems to help a lot.
 
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