To think most things should be up and running again by now?

[Peaplant20]

Sorry this genuinely isn’t supposed to be goady and I know it’s probably been done to death (don’t comment on the thread if you’re not interested!), but genuinely not sure if it’s unreasonable or not now.

I was looking through baby and toddler groups in the local area and some of them say things like… hoping to open in January 2022. It will nearly have been two years of closure by that point and I’m inclined to think the time to re open would’ve been summer when there could’ve been outdoor activities etc.

It’s no skin off my nose as I didn’t have my heart set on going to anything in particular and there’s still plenty of things going on that are running but im just wondering if these places haven’t been able to open by now will they ever?

Would just be interested in some civilised opinions on it, a discussion, not looking for argument, as I said it doesn’t particularly matter to me either way just wondering what other people think.

I think the natural cycle of these groups is that a few regulars develop, which means as new mums come to try it out, there are some people who will talk to them and ease them in. Then, sometimes when the volunteers running it move on, some of those regulars may step up to help out. But having been completely cut off for 18+ months, they would all be starting from scratch with a bunch of strangers in a room, which is harder to get going, and people are less likely to volunteer to help if they weren't involved already.

I agree with this.

I run a breastfeeding support group, baby social group and a toddler group. They are all drop in group and don't require booking. They free or cheap to attend. There are a few other groups locally that have opened up too.

The baby group and bf group are all very busy with new mums/ mums of babies and older kids but there is barely any demand for toddler group group at all and it's always very quiet.

At least we can offer it though, I feel really sad reading about all of the groups that haven't opened back up.

In two years the children using playgroup s have mostly gone to nursery or school...the children who would go now the parents not used to it. I also suspect lack of volunteers...DD has started school but I planned to help after she left but life gone on now and I'm working. I know alot of mums who still not gone out with their lockdown babies