I Don’t Get Baby Sensory

[SlyAvocado]

And I’m not sure my baby does either

We spent twenty minutes thanking the sun for shining on us and the corn for feeding us, and everyone else seemed to know all the sign language.

I don’t actually like corn so I didn’t particularly want to thank it, but the other mums seemed to really be appreciative of the corn and the other things in the song. The only sign I got to grips with was waving.

My baby didn’t give a toss anyway and spent most of the class staring at a bottle of hand sanitiser.

Then we waved some scarves over our baby’s faces, while the instructor danced around blowing bubbles to ‘Morning Has Broken’

My morning was broken at 4am anyway by my crap sleeper of a baby, 10am is practically afternoon for us.

I am new to the area so I tried to be jolly and talk to the other mums but they weren’t interested, I don’t know if it’s because I didn’t thank the corn.

I wore my Tears For Fears t-shirt with a sequinned blazer which might have been an odd choice but I thought, sequins are sensory aren’t they? The instructor asked if I was off to an 80’s party and I said no, I’m on my way back from one.

We will finish the course because I paid £65, so it’ll be like that time I got drunk and signed up to Zumba classes and made myself keep going even though I hated every minute of it and was rubbish and was asked to stand at the back by the fire exit.

Is there something I’m missing, are all baby sensory classes like that? Do I need to learn all the sign language?

I’m not overly bothered from a friendship point of view because we go to a music class too in a different area which is held in a pub and the parents are really friendly at that one. The baby also loves to shake a maraca like Bez, so I think he prefers it too.

This really made me laugh! No I didn’t get it either OP, the whole concept went completely over my head and I just felt like a big fat fool.

It improved massively the longer I went and my baby absolutely loved it, so now I can look back with warm fuzzy memories (safe in the knowledge I’ll NEVER have to go back, what with baby two being a lockdown baby so none of this shit has been booked).

I've always thought there is such a huge market for groups that are focused on parents rather than babies.

Ha ha haaaa.

You sound like my kind of person. I wish I'd bumped into you at baby sensory when I had my first and was lonely as hell having a fairly rough ride among all the performance mums.

You're not missing anything, but it is something to do, at least.

I went with my first and the whole class ended up with some sort of vomiting bug including the mums. Was terrible. I haven’t taken my second to any baby classes.

Ah this made me chuckle so much! I also signed up for a baby sensory and remember looking round in amazement at all these mums bent over their babies with rictus grins doing the signs and words. For a few seconds I actually wondered if this was a song everyone else had always known and I’d missed out on it somehow. My son also didn’t like the class, too much sensory overload.

'My baby didn’t give a toss anyway and spent most of the class staring at a bottle of hand sanitiser.'

This really made me laugh I dragged myself to bullshit baby classes with DS and hated every awkward moment. DD2 is 6 months and finds the school run and sometimes a short trip to Tesco sufficiently stimulating that I don't feel guilty about not doing the classes!

I also took DS swimming when he was like 6 weeks old. What was all that about? He only lasted about 3 minutes before almost freezing to death.

I found the same. I only went as I wanted to make friends and in the early part of the pandemic it was literally the only thing running.

The other mums did not want to know me. And I didn’t even have a sequinned coat on. They knew each other somehow but were not interested in talking to me. Not only that, the mats on the floor were precisely two metres apart and we weren’t allowed to get up from them. One mum next to me (ish, 200cms away) asked me to turn away from her because ‘corona virus’. I’d only been rummaging in my nappy bag for something. I found it expensive, a bit sad and my baby just laid there largely nonplussed. He’d also go bananas at the end because he was soooo knackered by all the overstimulation.

The woman was nice but had a pop at me when I asked for my money back when lockdown sent it online, as I’d said that if I’m providing all the props and the music, what is the point of us being on Zoom and what was I paying for? 😬 Oops.

@waterrat

I've always thought there is such a huge market for groups that are focused on parents rather than babies.

Like one where they take your baby and look after them for an hour while you have a coffee and are under no obligation to talk to anybody? I'd go to that!

I'm always sorry to hear about unwelcoming baby groups. I was lucky, everyone was always very nice at mine.

Omg OP I felt the same at the first one I went to, I was like... what the actual f was that, that is not for me thanks.

Two months later I was desperate to do anything to get out of the house so booked on the a full 6 weeks of classes

Then I booked on to another 6 weeks

As you're baby gets older the more they enjoy it and it's something fun for you to do together

But yeah, I totally hear you 😂

Yanbu op. Do you live in South London because I wish you were my mum friend.

I could have written something very similar about the ill-fated baby swimming lessons I took my dd to. We also paid for a full course of ten/twelve classes. I can't remember if it was 10 or 12 because we stopped going after three thank god. I hated it, my dd hated it, my dh hated it, I'm pretty sure the instructor hated it. Sunk costs, op.

I found the baby one really ott and a bit creepy tbh. Having been to the toddler one with a more down to earth leader it is much better. The songs are certainly better and the kids love it.

Ps as for all the pp's saying it's really just a way for the mum to get out of the house and make more mum friends. I mean, that is true of course. But why are they so unfriendly then 🥲 they all either know each other already through nct and don't seem interested in making new friends OR seem slightly competitive/judgy.

I don't know, maybe I'm just as bad...at the soft play the other day my dd (17m) was playing with some toy pots and a brutish boy came and snatched them roughly off her. She looked indignant but didn't cry or retaliate and I said loudly "well done dd for being so forbearing" and the other mum apologised and tried to make him give it back, but also looked at me like I was Cruella de Vil...that's another mum I haven't made friends with oops. Making mum friends is hard lol

Swimming class is really good, gives you something to talk to the other mums about. Our baby sensory is run by the local nursery, it's a quid and really just some sensory toys given out and we chat while the babies chew stuff. It's great!

I went to baby sensory and hated it. Paid £70 for the privilege and thought it would be akin to the lovely little music group that I'd attended with my previous babies.

First time I went in and chose somewhere to sit, whilst feeling like an absolute lemon as all the other mums, and the leader, completely ignored my attempts to be social. Just as the class was starting, two mothers came in together, and proceeded to both sit in the one empty spot next to me, despite the fact that there was another perfectly good spot over the other side of the room. One of them plonked a baby with an obviously dirty nappy half onto my mat, and then, rather than change the poor soul, decided she needed to spend the next ten minutes yakking to the woman next to her.

Half of the class was free play that I could have had at the local mums and tots group for a quid, and once the class was finished, practically the entire group felt the need to whack their boobs out and have an impromptu breastfeeding session.

That, coupled with the fact that there was the pressure to buy other things there, (book club the first time, photos the second time) meant that I only went to two sessions before I couldn't cope with it.

This has really tickled me OP because I went to this exact class and can now (2 years later) see it for the middle class swizz that it is. The class leader was evangelical about the benefits (obviously given she was shilling the most expensive class around) but I honestly don’t think it’s more than a mums social club. There was some sort of brag that the youngest ever class member was six days old or something, as if that’s anything to be proud of. Fair play for that mum getting out (presumably with an older sibling) but really? DS used to stubbornly sleep through at least half of the class.

The leader was also really strict about joining in with the songs and hand movements which is a bit awkward when you are new and don’t know them. I thought it was a bit much to be honest, a bit like a strict mum school with very serious teacher and the mum cliques.

Just remembered one other thing about baby sensory / in the middle of the session there was a kind of free play time where she’d drop toys in piles around the mats. It was a moment when the groups beside me (I think nct groups) would all have a good chat with each other and it felt so awkward, randomly waving toys at your baby while everyone else chatted around you! I think it’s a group that works well for NCT mates but hard to make mum friends from it.

Don’t know if this is the same as baby sensory but we did sing and sign. My theory was if my daughter could tell me if she was cold or hungry it would make life easier for me so it was worth a try

Family sceptical to start with. what I wasn’t prepared for is that DD would focus on the signs she found most interesting (mostly animals) and by the time she was 8 months old had a reasonable repertoire. Then the family picked up signs for her and we realised she understood much more than We realised.

At 11 months she began making up signs for things which helped her to be understood and when she was talking she would sign and speak together which helped us to understand when her speech was unclear. It was brilliant.

She’s now 13 and talks in grunts.

It’s not Hart Beeps is it? That made me want to pull my own eyeballs out. It was more cult like than going to a random place in America and drinking Kool aid.

once the class was finished, practically the entire group felt the need to whack their boobs out and have an impromptu breastfeeding session.

I was with you until this. What was your objection to this?

Makes me wonder what they would have said about the session.

I love your post. I find these classes literal hell on earth.

I think you're either in to them or you're not. If you're in your NCT clique then fine. If you're a loan wolf, then not so much. The corn can fuck off as far as I'm concerned.

I went to a music class with my son. I was so excited to find a class that was on a saturday so we could do an activity together. I feel I was ripped off! He had fun but I could have recreated that in my living room.
The evil looks I got from the yummy mummy's who didn't like the fact that somebody had a different shade of skin to them was so frustrating.

@TH22

I love your post. I find these classes literal hell on earth.

I think you're either in to them or you're not. If you're in your NCT clique then fine. If you're a loan wolf, then not so much. The corn can fuck off as far as I'm concerned.

How about if you're a lone shark?

Sorry, I don't mean to be unkind. It's an easy mistake to make. I just like the idea of a wolf going around Baby Sensory giving a sales spiel on his attractive rates of interest and wondering why nobody wants to talk to him. Made me chuckle.

I love this. Hated sensory and so did my son! That Say Hello to the Sun song makes me feel queasy if it ever comes on my Spotify nursery rhyme playlist- I associate it with pacing round the outskirts of a circle trying to stop my son crying while everyone else did actions at their children. I went out of desperation to meet people, but had a similar experience to you, with everyone else seeming to know each other. I'm definitely more into doing our own thing now! I also hate the way you have to block book so many baby groups, before even getting the chance to try them!

@DrSbaitso

once the class was finished, practically the entire group felt the need to whack their boobs out and have an impromptu breastfeeding session.

I was with you until this. What was your objection to this?

Makes me wonder what they would have said about the session.

I know! Jeez. God forbid I fed DS before we left to avoid him yelling for milk on the drive home.