Moms and Babes- What do you think?

Dimi - where in CT are u?

Ok here's my problem: I would tend to agree with the comments against mom and baby groups, i.e. don't think will fit in at all, but I have zero friends with kids in Cape Town (where I live at the moment) and am feeling very alienated from my friends without kids. I spend my days at home (work from home) with my 7 month old baby boy, both of us feeling miserable, him because he needs to get out more and have some little friends to play with, me because this whole mum thing is being really, really difficult and I have noone to talk to about it! So how to I meet some new mums with whom I might have something in common to make some new friends, and how to I get my baby to socialise a little?

p.s: my latest attempt at improving my current situation is to join internet forums (there seems to be millions of them!), just joined this one (second one i join, other one was not very helpful unfortunately)

RM- You crack me up! But you are right, I don't think I would tolerate bragging moms. I really just want to go to maybe be taught a few interesting things(Yes, I am a first time momma and my middle name is "sponge", could be interesting.). I really hope the group is nice. I did tell the woman I will do it for October and then decide.

Elamsmom- I am glas someone enjoyed it cos I was starting to see my moola cruise down the toilet!

I will let you know how it goes, and hoping it is nice!

I went to one (with Brandon) which I really enjoyed - the teacher / facilitator was wonderful and actually discourage bragging, which meant that we could just have our coffee and chat about general stuff, leaving baby poop out of it

Then she went to NZ and I was devastated, tried 3 other groups with Liam, thinking they were all like the first one and HATED each and every one of them for the same reasons RM mentioned. I even swapped times & days to see if perhaps the other classes were less critical
Landed up just playing with Liam at home on our own using the things I had learnt with the first group.

It really does depend on the teacher and the other mothers

Listen, I totally get there is a market for this, or they would not exist.

But there is this underlying current of competition - who has the best kid, and who is the best mom ....... whose kid is doing xyz first.

As 2kidmamma said, your child is not going to do anything "naturally" that they do not do in these classes anyway.

I must confess I did like the idea of taking newborn baby swimming at the gym or a heated pool - I liked that part, but I did that sort of stuff on my own.

<I really really did try this entire mommy and baby group thing, more than once ..... and .... it just does not fit with me .....>

Reluctant Mom wrote: Can I possibly throw in another "perspective" on these groups.

I tried them each time thinking it would make me a better mom and I would make so many mates and it would all be fairies and unicorns.

Unfortunately I kept finding it was these groups of woman sitting around telling everyone how fantastic their child was - and it often made me feel a bit "well, less" as my child was not rolling over or giggling when I walked in the room or what ever.

I found the experience excrutiating, and I really took very little from these mommy and baby groups other than it made me feel less than a great mom, and there was truly something wrong with me as I just was not that excited about junior all the damn time.

Okay, so that is my opinion and my experience.

For Sure RM, that is exactly how I felt about Moms and Babes when I did it with my Son who was about 3 months old. It's very competetive and to be quite honest I felt it was a waste of money becasue the things they do with you are so basic that you can do them easily at home and still bond very well with your child just without the beady eyes of the other Moms that think their baby is the Bees Knees.

RM - I am actually a little worried about the same thing especially since it will probably be filled with loads of first time moms.

But Jack needs some friends his own age - all my friends and my kids friends have older kids.

So my hope is that I gel with at least one of the moms there