How do you make friends when you WFH FT and have small children?

[Onlyrainbows]

I'm part of a local mum's group and they've already told me there's no chance they'll do it! WFH can get lonely especially in a fairly rural county/region.

I tend to rule out anyone who says "weekends are family time" because that is no good to me. Our wider family is abroad, and I absolutely want us to be social on the weekends - luckily my friends do too. I think if you work full time and then want to keep weekends for the family, you realistically aren't offering much to prospective friends. Suggesting you could squeeze them in at 6pm on a weekday is not going to work.

I'm open to meet over the weekends, what I meant is that I can understand why they wouldn't want to.

I made a lot of friends when everyone started meeting for 3rd birthday parties. Before that the kids don't really bother with each other.
Plan a nice birthday party for you kid and invite everyone.

In the summer, family picnic in park with another family. Then you get both family time and social time.

Encourage your partner to keep an eye on the kids so you can chat more.

I also find people are up for weekend play dates as it gets the kids out of the house for everyone. We had a lovely zoo trip with DS best friend recently, the kids entertained each other and the grownups chatted.

Ou drop off was early (from 8am) so we met every week at local cafe. Even those who had work at 9am could come for a quick cuppa, and most were either self employed or had done flexibility.
It was drop in come if you can set up. Only once did only two of us show up and we often had ten or 12 mums there. Low key - I didn't really click with anyone, though I have met with three of them a few times for lunch. But in another year group I did and have become long lasting friends - we still try to meet up most weeks even though that year group are now in university!

Thanks for your replies ladies... It seems that most socialising can be done once he's in reception.. or at least older

I think you don’t until your kids start school

I never did any of the baby club stuff.

Most of my socialising at that time was with family as friends had older children. SIL also had my niece a couple of months after ds so we kept each other sane during the day during maternity leave. I didn't meet many new people until he was a couple of years into primary and had also started some activities.

@Onlyrainbows

I'm open to meet over the weekends, what I meant is that I can understand why they wouldn't want to.

Probably because they have their own family commitments and friends already. Don't give up you'll meet someone eventually who is also looking for some company.

My foster son goes to play cricket and I made friends with other parents cheering on their team. The matches last for hours do you find yourself with same group every Saturday from April to September. Then drinks in clubhouse after. They often have family BBQs at some grounds and I offered to cook bacon sandwiches ahead of Sunday games. Suddenly I became very popular. Cricket club has evening social events too, quizzes, Italian day where you have to dress in colours of Italian flag to get cheaper drinks and pizza. Always a formal Awards dinner.

How about trying the Peanut app? You can state in your bio what sort of meet ups you'd like and what days and go from there.

Try different groups - what are your interests? WI, local politics, rambling groups at weekends, yoga/evening exercise groups, Book Club etc? I lived quite rurally when our DS was young but found lots of different groups to join ...and to be honest I preferred to widen my circle rather than just meet 'people like me'.