Toddler playgroup

[ailbhe]

Last night, Linnea fell asleep of her own accord, sitting on the arm of my chair and watching TV, at 11:30 pm. We were amazed. She woke at 3 am and was soothed to sleep with patting, by Rob, and didn't wake again until after 6, for milk. Then she actually got up at nine.

So that's definitely progress. We then went to a toddler playgroup with NikkinikkiIzBabyJO (I think they're three people, Linnea isn't so sure). It was maybe 15 minutes' walk away, and I was very impressed.

They were absolutely welcoming. This has not been the case with other playgroups. They welcomed me, and for the 50p entrance fee, we got a couple of hours of playtime, a cup of tea, a cup of juice, and a snack (Linnea couldn't eat her snack because it was a cake with dairy in it, but usually it's fruit, apparently). Linnea settled in beautifully from the start, and I didn't see a single altercation over a toy - somehow she felt comfortable and not possessive. There was a story, and singing, and nursery rhymes.

One corner was partitioned off with a chest-high partition with a doorway cut in it at toddler-height. There was also a child-sized phonebox, and a small plastic slide, which Linnea adored. Someone had gone to a lot of trouble to cut out large butterfly shapes from coloured paper, and there was glue and crepe paper to decorate them. There was Lego, and a farm, and dinosaurs, and a huge plastic kitchen in the "room" in the corner, with yemons and yawbrees and onanges.

Two mothers came over to talk to me. I am incredibly bad at small-talk, but I appreciated the effort, even though I froze, and had to force conversation out as naturally as gluten-free wheat. I will have to work out how to do this kind of thing. When I'm pregnant enough to show it will be easier; people will just grill me and offer advice and experience. That was easy, last time. Not always exciting or restful, but easy.

I'm wondering what I can do to contribute. I'm not much snuff at network-forming, which is how most of the women there contribute, but I'd like to do something. If I cull some books soon - mainstream ones, I mean - I might bring them as a Bookcrossing sort of giveaway.

Oh - another nice thing about this group is that it had a far more representative racial mix than some of the others I've seen. It's not normal, round here, to be in an all-white group. It makes me nervous. But then, the other groups made me nervous for all sorts of reasons. Perhaps I'm not really middle-class enough to mix with most playgroup mothers round here.

Comments

[richtermom.livejournal.com]

Yay, new playgroup! Whee!

[k425.livejournal.com]

I hated going to groups the first few times because I didn't know anyone and went very shy. I'm glad L had a good time!

[oldbloke.livejournal.com]

Shy? You?

I learn something new every day!

[k425.livejournal.com]

You met me in a pub, where the alcohol chased away the shyness. Also, I already knew you on-line.

[ruthi.livejournal.com]

I find remembering to ask the questions back helps in small-talk.
"...and you?"
But it's still very scary.

[nicolechan.livejournal.com]

I'm glad Linnea had fun! So is this playgroup a business? I've never heard of one where you pay to go play and meet others. That's a pretty innovative idea if so.

The only type of playgroups we have here are hosted ones. Like one of my friends hosts a p.g. every month.

[ailbhe]

Well, I host a toddler group in my house most Thursdays, but it's too small to be a playgroup really - up to four toddlers. And of course very few people have the space for the big plastic toys like slides and kitchens and things. It's not a business - it's run by volunteers, and the 50p probably barely covers the cost of the refreshments, and certainly not the venue hire or electricity bills. I don't know whether this one is charity-run; I know it's in a building owned by the YMCA. Most of them are in church-affiliated buildings, though I've only seen one where there was any religious content (some of the songs at songtime).