To ask how your zoom-only NCT classes went?

[blink1eight2]

We're booked on a zoom-only NCT course in December and wondering how it will be?

Mine were a complete waste of time, I knew I wouldn't get much from the course content but it was worse than I expected - the leader kept putting us in to break out rooms to discuss certain topics, but when we got together again there was no debrief and no telling us information, so I'm not sure if anything I learned was true or hearsay, and we missed out on the other half of the discussions. Hopefully your course leader is more effective than ours was!

I had hoped we would make some NCT friends but the group chat just fell silent after all the babies were born. I made mum friends from baby classes instead.

Ours were OK - right at the start of the first lockdown though so they've probably improved with practice!

Practical information was all clear and our online resources were good. Mums WhatsApp group was a life saver and we have enough proactive people in the group organising things that we still keep in touch and see each other. Dads never really met though so that side of the socialising isn't really there at all.

@PlanBea

Mine were a complete waste of time, I knew I wouldn't get much from the course content but it was worse than I expected - the leader kept putting us in to break out rooms to discuss certain topics, but when we got together again there was no debrief and no telling us information, so I'm not sure if anything I learned was true or hearsay, and we missed out on the other half of the discussions. Hopefully your course leader is more effective than ours was!

I had hoped we would make some NCT friends but the group chat just fell silent after all the babies were born. I made mum friends from baby classes instead.

Eek... not good!

@Lockdownmummy

Ours were OK - right at the start of the first lockdown though so they've probably improved with practice!

Practical information was all clear and our online resources were good. Mums WhatsApp group was a life saver and we have enough proactive people in the group organising things that we still keep in touch and see each other. Dads never really met though so that side of the socialising isn't really there at all.

That's kind of what I'm after - the WhatsApp group.

I'm new to the area and really want to meet some parents!

We did in-person nct with my son but we didn't click as a group very well, and obviously I've since moved away.

Fingers crossed I make at least one mate out of it!

The only use for NCT is meeting other mums who are due around the same time and thus getting a support network. Everything else is a bit crap: the partners never establish anything, the information is fairly basic, there is a lot of fluff and it’s all presented in a really patronising way. But the Whatsapp contact with other mums is worth every penny.

So my advice is: go in with that attitude and exchange the phone numbers early to establish that Whatsapp group! Then sit back and enjoy the awkwardness of the breakout rooms.

Ours were OK, the group whatsapp during the course was painful (mainly due to the leader making them a bit...weird), but we set up separate girls and boys whatsapps and they worked a lot better. The group has bonded really well and we're currently in the 1yr birthday party phase and I'd say I'm almost certainly the least involved in the group.

The information was OK but I feel not always as helpful as I'd wanted (or expected from my prior reading etc), the breakout rooms were awkward and weird (but we all kind of bonded over the fact it was weird..) I'm not sure how it would've differed if it was in person.

Mum's whatsapp group has been great for me, and if I'd have been more inclined to go out drinking with the girls I'd have seen even more of them than the coffee & walk type meet ups we've had. There's definitely a couple I've gelled with better than other though.

Never found any NCT classes any use whatsoever tbh, but congrats on the pregnancy.

Wow @EatYourVegetables that’s a bit of a sweeping generalisation! I’m an NCT teacher and my feedback is awesome, and consistently remained high throughout lockdown on Zoom. For sure some teachers struggled more than others, but don’t tar everyone with the same British!

Lol brush not British! OP have a look on the website for actual feedback from parents.

She's getting some actual feedback from parents.

I wouldn't do it. We're doing one next month that was in person when we booked it; it's now one session online and the rest in person. We're going to cancel if it goes entirely online.

The WhatsApp group could be great, but I've heard from quite a few people that their groups are dead, and nobody really chats - and that's more likely if you've never met in person, it's much easier to keep a group chat going when you actually know each other.

I was initially rather worried as we're in a new area and I wanted to meet people, but so far everyone has said baby groups are better than NCT classes for making friends anyway.

@PhiOmicron sorry I meant collated feedback - the courses are rated really highly overall.

@EatYourVegetables

The only use for NCT is meeting other mums who are due around the same time and thus getting a support network. Everything else is a bit crap: the partners never establish anything, the information is fairly basic, there is a lot of fluff and it’s all presented in a really patronising way. But the Whatsapp contact with other mums is worth every penny.

So my advice is: go in with that attitude and exchange the phone numbers early to establish that Whatsapp group! Then sit back and enjoy the awkwardness of the breakout rooms.

My thoughts exactly.

Please explain a breakout room

@blink1eight2 A breakout room is where the Zoom host divides you into separate rooms - so your own little mini Zoom meeting with another couple or a few couples, if you see what I mean.

Then you all come back into the bigger room at the end.

I’ve heard from some people that it helped them to have some 1:1 chat with another couple of a few people; but also that the other people in the room didn’t talk or weren’t interested… it’ll heavily depend on who the other people in your group are. Which is the case in person too, but in person, most people will put in more effort. Online after a year of Zoom fatigue, it starts feeling like a lot of long meetings…

Why are some courses in person and others online?

@Somethingsnappy Depends on the course leader and venues, I think, and probably local Covid rates.

Ours has been moved into a bigger venue, but all but one session are still in person at the minute, albeit with mask wearing and windows open.

We did ours all online in May. We found them really useful and tbh, we used the breakout time to chat between ourselves than necessarily concentrating on the task at hand, which helped to get the whatsapps going!

Unlike a pp, i have found baby groups really hard to make friends (maybe because im naturally a bit shy in social situations and because everyone else seems to have gone as a group from their NCT class ), so the NCT whatsapp group was really helpful. It was quiet at first but the first couple of people to have their babies got the convos going, then everyone else joined in when their babies arrived.

Like anything in life, i suppose you get out what you put in!

Ours was awful, our in person classes were changed to online only and they refused any refund. The group chat didn’t even get off the ground, total waste of money

They were fine - a bit awkward at first but fine after the first one. We've stayed in touch and I have made one lovely mum friend from a group of 7 of us, so not bad!

@Somethingsnappy

Why are some courses in person and others online?

No idea

I'll just have to cross my fingers I think. Luck of the draw isn't it!

We did in person classes with my first born. Waste of time and money. Patronising sessions and some ridiculous ice breaker activities that I wouldn't do with my secondary school classes as they were so cringey. Took away nothing from the sessions apart some mum friends that lasted about a year because I was so fed up with the competitive parenting.

Shite, hated them, waste of time. Stunted conversation, no rapport, an over reliance on putting couples into 'rooms' to awkwardly talk amongst ourselves.

Absolute waste of time. Though I can't say it would be any better in person. The content in general is dated and patronising.

As for mum friends our group actually did really well at meeting up. But it got very bitchy with 2 ring leaders bullying others. It was very sterotyoical NCT mums - middle class. I left the group and am glad I did.

Also there's one or two breastfeeding specific lessons in the course and ours was APPALLING. It was run by some woman who I'm sure hasn't updated her course content in decades, it was full of Word clip art moving titles and graphics sweeping across the page, and all of her breastfeeding holds/techniques she had the camera pointed over her head so nobody could see anything. She was just a tiny little pea head in the bottom right corner of the screen.

I'm getting the rage thinking about this course again 😂 honestly it was so bad I wouldn't recommend it to anyone.