To expect baby group to be open during the holidays

[PeggyPatchandPoppy]

I live in the countryside and I'm fairly isolated. I have a newish baby and enjoyed going to baby group 3 days a week. I didn't particularly have any friends there but enjoyed the process of going somewhere different to the village shop and talking to different people.
The groups finish this week because it's the end of term. That means that me and DD have no where to go to interact with other parents. The library clubs have always stopped for half term so we are really stuck for things to do.
I know there are reasons the clubs can't run during term time E.g. Parents have to older children they need to do activities with. Am I being unreasonable in thinking they could keep at least one club a week going?

Could you offer to hold it at your house ?

This used to do my head in! I empathize, OP.

I'm impressed you have 3 a week!! Do you mean like a playgroup/parent and toddlers?

Who is running them? Do you pay for them?

Well it might stop during the holidays because staff get school holidays off like in schools?

I'm not surprised most of the clubs have stopped - they rely heavily on volunteers who often have school age children of their own to factor in. I am surprised the Library has stopped though. Ours has a specific team of retired people who carry on a special programme through the summer holidays.

Could you get together with some of the other mums over the holiday holidays? Maybe start a WhatsApp group to arrange meet ups?

Are they run by volunteers? They're probably ready for a summer break themselves TBF.

There are probably other things you could take it up in the meantime, but it might mean more £££ for structured franchise type groups.

Same problem here and I'm in london!
So annoying.
All the classes seem to have been replaced with summer clubs for older kids.

Are there other first time mums there that you could arrange to meet up with over the summer?

I would have it here but it's quite a drive but lll put the out there as some people may be interested.
Flower the children's centre. They are different themes one is music, one is exploring and one is breastfeeding cafe.

YABU for complaining when you don't volunteer. My baby group doesn't run in holidays, so those of us who can organise other stuff and invite people along or just set up playdates.

You're going three times a week. Try giving something back, it's not hard.

Maybe attendance is typically low over summer and so it's not worth the group paying to hire out the venue.

Is there a leisure centre or another library that might run activities over the holiday?

Depends who it is run by. If it is run by volunteers YABU to expect anything.

Don't know if yabu to expect it but i would also like them to continue

Why not offer to host them yourself?

Wow the children's centre near me just does targeted groups so there isn't anything for general public anymore.

Im impressed you go to 3 free groups a week (!!) as i would have loved that and is what i think the childrens centres as first envisaged should be doing.

Maybe use the time to meet up with some mums from the centre and develop some friendships?

It's the pits.

It's the fucking pits and I hate it so much, things for wee ones shutting down for so long and leaving you high and dry.

A couple of months ago I'd have scoffed at what SmugMarried said.

I've moved to a country which basically shuts down for 8 weeks and I've just posted on FB an SOS for play dates at mine one morning a week.

I'll report back after Wednesday but if it goes well I suggest you do the same. Bite the bullet, buy in some biscuits and coffee and get all the toys out. Social isolation with a new baby is utterly awful.

--social isolation plus nothing AT ALL
ON EVER FOR WEEKS with a massively active toddler is purgatory--

Mostly posting just to say "man do I feel your pain".

It's the same at all the groups and clubs we have ever been to.

The exception to this was a stay and play at our sure start centre. I used to take ds there when he was tiny, it was after the clinic and was for babies up to walking age.
During the holidays they changed it to a kind of holiday club and allowed older children in, with crafts and snacks and stuff.
We could still go with the babies though.

May be worth checking if your sure start centre (if you have one) does similar?

We used to run one. All volunteers. Some of had older dc. The usual volunteers weren't all available all holidays and so it would have been hard to guarantee enough people to run it.
Get involved and suggest some holiday sessions.

If any of them have Facebook groups, you could suggest meeting at a park for a picnic, or somewhere child friendly

Sorry x posted, I've just seen that it's the children's centre groups you attend now.

All of the paid for baby groups stop over summer as well. We go to swimming and baby massage and they along with all other groups I've seen stop over the 6 weeks holidays. I understand that there are probably reasons for this but it is hard for new mums who are looking for support during this time. Making your own baby group only works if you have already made friends.

I sort of agree with you Chunky re

Making your own baby group only works if you have already made friends.

But I'm happy to be the test case here as I know literally nobody where I am plus it's not English speaking.

As a natural chatterbox gobshite having nobody to speak to and being at home alone with DD is stifling.

Yes defo offer to host. If it's too far for people, they might take the idea and offer to host themselves too. You could take it in turns.

I used to find the children's centre a godsend! Ours didn't close in the holidays and for a while turned a blind eye to older children but it must have got a bit much or they got told off because they started asking people to stop bringing them.

But if they keep running you'll be back on here upset because the seven year old child of the person who runs this group for free and has no childcare options ran near your PFB in a supposedly scary way.