Panorama Programme About Cost of Entertainments

What a coincidence we were row B also.

Thoroughly enjoyed it, we laughed and cried.

Despite there being a 16 year age gap (I am the older sister) it was a favourite book for both of us, in fact the entire Shoe Series books were well worn 📚📚

GrannyGravy13

RosiesMawagain you were lucky getting Ballet Shoes tickets for £60, do you mean the production at The National Theatre, Southbank?

My sister and I paid £110 each for matinee tickets December 2025 (circle)

Yes, I took GD in January 25 as her Christmas present- being only 10 she qualified for a child ticket and we had brilliant seats also circle (row B)
I’d rather not think what my ticket was, probably closer to yours!

WithNobsOnIt

I think that spending a lot of money on a family meal at a chain food outlet is down to several things.

Yes, and l.know it is a break for usually the mother's not to have to shop and cook.

A lot of would be middle class families like to boast to their friends about how much they have spent on a family meal outing.

Yes we spent around £100 on a family meal with our two children at Burger King on Saturday. We take them out every week.

They are keeping up with Joneses and this is a status thing for them.

Pester power. Children are now very well drilled and brainwashed by the media and their friends on fast food. Outlets and take aways. Total spoiled brats

They play on their parents guilt many of whom may work full time.
To pay for massively over priced junk food delivered at every turn.

I think it is sad the way Children can really call the tune on their slave like parents. How did we get into this situation?

Also l.recckon you could knock. up a better than Burger King family meal with top of the range ingredients from ALDI and an air fryer.

For about half the price.

Parenting includes basic cooking , household economics,and nutrition capability. I wonder if boys and girls at school are given a few lessons on nutrition. It does not take many lessons to teach the basics.

RosiesMawagain you were lucky getting Ballet Shoes tickets for £60, do you mean the production at The National Theatre, Southbank?

My sister and I paid £110 each for matinee tickets December 2025 (circle)

As a child I have only an occasional recollection of being taken out for a meal by my parents other than an occasional a high tea of fish and chips with bread and butter- and tea- and I don’t feel any poorer for that.
Meals «out» tended to be in hotels anyway - Brown Windsor soup or tomato juice, overcooked meat, soggy veg and maybe trifle for pudding.
No great loss.
But I agree- it is expensive these days- Pizza Express is popular with the children and adults as a mid range meal out.
I do like to buy tickets for something rather than things though especially for the teenagers- theatre tickets recently for « Dear England» were £60 each and «Ballet Shoes» last year about the same 🙁🙁
But isn’t it all relative? How much does it cost to go to a football match? How much do some people spend in n holidays?
It can be hard however when a granny on a pension gulps at one ticket alone costing more than a weekly supermarket shop.

pooohbear2811

Allira

Zoos are concentrating on conservation now.

Their costs must be massive.

I appreciate costs for places like zoos are expensive, but if the entry costs were, say half of what they are, would you not get twice as many people going? Making extra money off of more people buying while they are there

Not necessarily, because if you had twice as many people going, you'd need to employ more staff - admin, catering, general groundspeople, first aiders, shop assistants, security etc - and also instate more facilities for the number of visitors. The extra money would just be swallowed up.

This makes me chuckle.

My Dad was so tight that as children we never ate out - nor indeed had a cup of tea in a cafe ... "Why pay those prices when you can make a cup of tea at home for next to nothing?"

I was promised a family meal out if I passed the 11+, which I duly did. We went to Dad's works canteen!!

It took me a very long while after I left home to work out that people went out for meals for pleasure.

Dad also put Stick-a-Soles on his slippers! Although I do have some sympathy with that, others thought it was a joke.

Just feel obliged to chip in regarding "treats" and families.

We had five children and if we wanted to visit certain relatives (long long journeys) I'd pack an enormous box of sandwiches, take fruit etc but we would still have to have a second stop somewhere to break the journey.
I can remember egg and chips at a little chef or similar.

The children saw this as a real treat - but it was very expensive. On the way home we'd usually leave late and so not need to eat twice on the way as the children would sleep.

It saved a fortune.
I'd say eating out was ever thus!

My DD's family get discounts through work mainly, but also Clubcard offers.

They also pay annual memberships which are cheaper but means they go to the same places all the time. Even I get bored with going to the same wildlife park!

I am taking two GC out today, indoor trampoline park (£40 for two hours) and then lunch.

If we go to McDonalds it will probably be around £30 if we go to the local independent tea room (licensed and delicious fresh cooked food) it will be around £60.

Everything is already pricey and due to the current situations in the Middle East and Ukraine will only get more expensive.

Allira

Zoos are concentrating on conservation now.

Their costs must be massive.

I appreciate costs for places like zoos are expensive, but if the entry costs were, say half of what they are, would you not get twice as many people going? Making extra money off of more people buying while they are there

Caleo I think it depends on their ages too, my grandchildren used to love a wood/river walk, my daughter had them out every weekend - when they were younger. Now, the 13 year old is out with mates all weekend, the older one studying for exams for now. A family meal out is time to connect for longer than at the daily dinner - they do sit down together for that.
However, a meal out is a school holiday treat, or a birthday,not necessarily all half terms either.
WithNobs no showing off in the circles I move in, that includes friends of my children, probably not ‘middle class’ enough!

Total spoiled brats

They play on their parents guilt many of whom may work full time.
To pay for massively over priced junk food delivered at every turn.

Just Say No.
You're making a rod for your own back.

Yes we spent around £100 on a family meal with our two children at Burger King on Saturday. We take them out every week.

£100 at a Burger King? 😲
How old are your children, btw? Still children?
If teenage boys, I can understand them getting through a large amount of food.

WithNobsOnIt
Do you mean that You take the children out every week or are you referring to the would be middleclass whatever that means.

I think that spending a lot of money on a family meal at a chain food outlet is down to several things.

Yes, and l.know it is a break for usually the mother's not to have to shop and cook.

A lot of would be middle class families like to boast to their friends about how much they have spent on a family meal outing.

Yes we spent around £100 on a family meal with our two children at Burger King on Saturday. We take them out every week.

They are keeping up with Joneses and this is a status thing for them.

Pester power. Children are now very well drilled and brainwashed by the media and their friends on fast food. Outlets and take aways. Total spoiled brats

They play on their parents guilt many of whom may work full time.
To pay for massively over priced junk food delivered at every turn.

I think it is sad the way Children can really call the tune on their slave like parents. How did we get into this situation?

Also l.recckon you could knock. up a better than Burger King family meal with top of the range ingredients from ALDI and an air fryer.

For about half the price.

Yes, a little bit of boredom - will push children back on their imagination & their own resources.

Boredom gets a bad press these days, but rushing around trying to fill every available minute has got to be a trigger for anxiety at some point.

Chocolatelovinggran

I wonder if the cost of such activities as a percentage of household income has changed significantly- or not?

Absolutely it has. Energy costs, water rates, business tax take a far bigger percentage of profit than it did back in the day.

Here is the edited response from Chat:

"It’s not that children today are any less capable — it’s that their environment gives them fewer chances to develop those skills. When they do get the time and space, they’re just as able to be creative and entertain themselves as previous generations.

A bit of boredom can actually be a good thing too — it often acts as the spark that pushes children to use their imagination, come up with their own games, or find something to do for themselves rather than relying on being constantly entertained."

missdeke

I used to take my kids to the zoo maybe twice a year, the occasional local pantomime and very little else that cost money. These days kids require entertainment apparently aand no longer know how to entertain themselves.

That is what concerns me. I simply don't know if kids are or are not generally dependent on commercial entertainments.

I had hoped that quite few Grans could comment on whether modern children are less independent than previous generations.

Maybe I shall ask Chat if educationists are noticing this happening.

I used to take my kids to the zoo maybe twice a year, the occasional local pantomime and very little else that cost money. These days kids require entertainment apparently aand no longer know how to entertain themselves.

I can only recall one outing to cinema when very young with DM only. Snow white, and I apparently cried thriugh a lit of it. Was 10 ish when went to Saturday club cinema with friends. As for meals out, only once for afternoon tea, again with DM. Did enjoy wedding receptions as a meal then a party! Never taken for meals out; it was picnics in parks, bus trips but no restaurants. We were not poor but not well off either. I did see tge programme and I think given my background what the families were asked to do would not be a monthly event, more a now and again, soecial occasion type outing.

Costs are horrific!!

Recently, I offered my DGDs a takeaway meal. We had 4 pizza and two salads; no one had anything fancy. I was horrified that the bill came to nearly £90!

Chocolatelovinggran

I wonder if the cost of such activities as a percentage of household income has changed significantly- or not?

I don't know. When we went to the place I mentioned it was roughly the equivalent of about £12 each in Happy Hour, which with a drink each for me and two children would probably come to £50 or so in today's money. So not something we did every week, but not out of the question.

I think the thing that has changed significantly is the cost of housing. Even with the high interest rates of the 90s (when my children were young) it was much cheaper than the equivalent today. The house we lived in then has recently sold for 5 times what we sold it for. Incomes have not gone up anything like that.

According to Google, the average UK salary in 1998 was £15085, which, if multiplied by 5 (like the house price) would be £75425. Obviously many people earned for more and far less than that, but that is true today.

The average UK salary in 2026 is £31100, so average income has doubled over the past 28 years, whilst the price of a 3 bed semi has multiplied by 5. And that is in this area - it will be far worse in London and the SE.

I don't think you can look at a percentage of household income for things like this - it is income after housing costs that matters. And if you add the cost of childcare to that it is even worse.