Thinking of starting a playgroup for knackered mums/parents/carers - would this work do you think?

[inthekitchensink]

I’m in the early stages of researching setting up a playgroup for preschoolers at the local hall, where adults can come and get shit done on their phones, or read or whatever with tea/coffee/biscuits - while I play with the children.

All the playgroups I went to with my toddler encouraged parental interaction and really all I wanted was somewhere I could get admin done for an hour or read mumsnet while my child had quality play & learning.

I’m a montessori practitioner with a few spare hours a week and really miss working with kids, but don’t want to do it full time. I would provide montessori materials to play with, arts and crafts, story time.

Would you be interested in something like this or am I just projecting? !

I'd go especially as you mention Montessori trained.

Have you looked at rates and staffing/child ratios?

I would come and my youngest child is 11
Brilliant idea
I’m not joking btw

How much would you charge?

Defo!

What a brilliant idea!

I'd definitely go. Great idea.

Oh my gosh, this is everything I want from a playgroup! Where are you based??

So basically a crèche. Sounds good but don’t think you can set it up as a mums and tots if the mums aren’t going to be supervising.

Glad it’s not just me! Early stages of research so I will need to thoroughly gauge ratios, liability, cost, safety etc but I do have a lot of experience teaching young children and I am good at it which puts me off paying a fortune to franchise an existing play group scheme.
I would need to recoup costs of hall hire, refreshments and insurance - early thoughts are £5 per child per hour...

You'll need a lot of adults to have a sensible adult/child ratio for under 3s. I can't see how you'll make this economically viable. Unless you're meaning parents to stay and count in the ratio, but then the point of it goes away as many DC of that age would expect their parents to come and play with them.

This sounds amazing! I'm really hoping you're in South Devon

Honestly, no and although it does sound tempting in a way it’s also would make me feel lazy.

Plus I wouldn’t get to talk to other parents?

I'd use this, although I'm not sure how regularly 🤔

Maybe once every month a two, give me a chance to sit on my phone and do 'life admin.'

I probably wouldn't use it as a weekly thing.

I love this in theory but in practice my kids would be hanging off my leg! They wouldn’t accept me being there but not joining in. This might just be my offspring though!

So the mums would be in the same room, just encouraged/allowed to relax while the kids are entertained? I don’t think you need to worry about ratios etc for that, presumably if a child needs a feed or a nappy change you just tell their mum?

But yes absolutely I would have loved to go to something where my kids were entertained by somebody else for a while. It always pissed me off that the children’s centre playgroup would hassle me to play with my child - I did that all day at home and was losing my mind, the whole point of going was so that my kid could play with other kids and I could stare into space blankly and drink coffee without him climbing me!

Yes the ratios thing would be an issue I’d have thought. Either the parents are properly involved in care, in which case you have enough for ratios but it isn’t what you’re describing, or they’re not, in which case you don’t satisfy ratios? (Unless you are planning to hire staff but then why not have it drop off).

What about a playgroup that is drop off but all parents have to take a turn to attend as “staff”, on a rota basis? There’s one near here like that.

@UserAtRandom

You'll need a lot of adults to have a sensible adult/child ratio for under 3s. I can't see how you'll make this economically viable. Unless you're meaning parents to stay and count in the ratio, but then the point of it goes away as many DC of that age would expect their parents to come and play with them.

Yes the adults would have to stay, and there wouldn’t be a lovely quiet space for them like I dream of far too often, but I’m good at peeling away reluctant children and encouraging them into an activity so that could provide a bit of respite

I'd have gone, my children generally went off on their own at groups and I'm not good with social situations. It usually ended up with me hovering over them and them playing happily as I tried to avoid the other mums but also not look like a loner.

So you’re offering something more like an entertainer at a party? I don’t think it’s a bad idea at all.

My favourite playgroup when dd was a preschooler was the local village hall one where we all just chucked the kids in the middle with a shed load of toys only intervening if necessary they used to mix up with a rotation of various equipment/toys/disco lights and music but their main selling point was cake and coffee. The only thing I would point out was it was also really cheap (£2 I think) but they weren’t even pretending they were offering anything other than somewhere to let the dc romp about.

It sounds like a brilliant idea to me!

It’s a fantastic idea. Some playgroups are so judgy about parents who just need a small break for themselves.
The issue will be ratios I suppose but the idea is excellent.

I used to go to a yoga class a little bit like this. There was one adult teaching and one supervising the babies but the parents tended to their own children if upset, needing a nappy change etc.

I can't see the appeal really - bog standard playgroups are generally pretty easy if your child likes playing with others. i could sit and chat / read while my dd played, and that was £2 for a 2 hour playgroup run by volunteers (we all chipped in).

If you're in the same room, it's not really so different for parents as they'll have half an eye on their child. What admin are we talking about - bringing a laptop to work for a couple of hours? If in another room, you'd need proper ratios and it wouldn't be financially viable.

It's an interesting idea - feel I'm always very can't-do on new ideas so happy to be proved wrong.

@Cornettoninja

So you’re offering something more like an entertainer at a party? I don’t think it’s a bad idea at all.

My favourite playgroup when dd was a preschooler was the local village hall one where we all just chucked the kids in the middle with a shed load of toys only intervening if necessary they used to mix up with a rotation of various equipment/toys/disco lights and music but their main selling point was cake and coffee. The only thing I would point out was it was also really cheap (£2 I think) but they weren’t even pretending they were offering anything other than somewhere to let the dc romp about.

Yes! This is an interesting angle I hadn’t considered, thanks

I think this is only good in theory. Would you take bookings per session? What if only one or 2 children booked, could you still afford to run? Would you employ staff only when your bookings reached a certain amount, so no guaranteed income for them? If so how could you ensure their availability?