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.

Another pp mentioned Jo Jingles - we did that, and the woman running it was fond of singing in the operatic stylee. A wobbly soprano rendition of Hop little Bunnies has to be heard to be believed!

Ha. I remember going to a free trial for one that was Valentines-themed. They played Take That. The lady running it was a bit intense. My kid puked on me from top to bottom, had to strip and just wear a cardigan as a dress. Didn't have a car at the time. He wasn't normally pukey... I took it as an omen. Not that I needed one... never went back. I don't get it either. Sensory toy pro tip though, B&M might still sell sparkly scourers. Bloody loved our pink sparkly scourer. 😆

I loved baby sensory with all my babies over almost a decade. I made a big close group of friends with my second who are still a huge support five years on, like the nct were with the first but most of us were on our second and just bonded into lasting friendship. I will forever look back with huge fondness for it, the babies loved the songs and the puppet shows. We had a great baby sensory party first birthday too. It's easy (and perfectly fine) to be unimpressed but I loved it. I also did sing and sign, rhythm time, waterbabies, and all the others but baby sensory will always have a very special place in my memories.

I bloody loved Baby Sensory. It was the highlight of my week.

But I was perhaps too sleep deprived to know how bonkers it was.

DH swears the corn sign is nothing to do with corn. He finds it filthy.

@OfstedOffred

I think swimming is the exception to this, 100% worth the (extortionate) money. You can take a one year old swimming but I couldn’t have taught my one year old safety skill

Your one year old won't remember those safety skills when they are 3!

My DS hasnt done any baby swim. I just took him myself every week to splash out. He's now (age 5) in a swimming class with a mix of children and the ones who did baby swim are no more advanced than the ones who didn't

Maybe not necessarily more advanced by the age of six or seven but it was brilliant when we went abroad when my daughter was two and I was confident enough in her swimming ability to let her splash around in the baby pool while I sat at the side rather than go In with her on holiday. Definitely some advantages to getting them swimming early!

I wouldn't leave a 2 year old (or 3 r 4 year old) competent swimmer in the pool without an adult actually. I don't think that's ever a good idea.

I had club swimmers - the one I started later (fun swimming/ then 1-1 at 5, lengths by 6...) was far better than my swim from birth older one!

In fact if anything I think it could be dangerous to think a small child "can swim"...

@WoodenReindeer

I wouldn't leave a 2 year old (or 3 r 4 year old) competent swimmer in the pool without an adult actually. I don't think that's ever a good idea.

I had club swimmers - the one I started later (fun swimming/ then 1-1 at 5, lengths by 6...) was far better than my swim from birth older one!

Jeez it was little more than a paddling pool and I was RIGHT THERE! And she could easily swim 10 metres in a. Pool that came up to her knees. It was hardly the depth of the English channel

Also you’ll be happy to know she is now 13 and didn’t die. So that’s good news isnt to?

Also congrats OP you helped me win my bet of someone balling me out in less than a minute for being the worlds worst parent. Mumsnet bingo!

I bloody hated baby sensory. Went for a few weeks because some friends recommended it, but my baby was a screaming mess the rest of the day. So.much.happening. bubbles, puppets, parachutes, music!!!
Really recommend sing and sign though, it's much calmer and just some singing and a few instruments. and signing with babies generally.

I always thought it looked a bit rude the sign for corn 🤣 or is that just me?

I loved going to the cinema with my baby and bring baby Ted talks - far better than baby sensory

Not at all worlds worst parent! But other parents with young toddlers read the thread and it's something I think is quite important. It's often when we let our guard down that accidents happen.

On that note though I'd love to see OPs review of one of the waterbaby/similar franchises!

Why did you sign up? I never got the appeal either. People kept telling me to put different textured stuff in a bag or a basket for the baby to find. I just let my baby touch whatever it found.

I did a taster session and that was enough it was really awful
We then did toddler sense which was good fun and then enjoyaball I’m all for having fun with my kids and baby sensory was just cringe and my baby also wasn’t interested, then I had another baby so I had 2 babies and one pair of hands so it wouldn’t have worked

Haha it’s usually a working men’s club decorated with foil and loads of fairy lights. I don’t get it either.

I went, felt like a dick, left and never returned. Great if that’s your bag, but not for me! It was worth losing the £50 to not worry about were the bloody hell these loin cloths had been I had to waft over my babies face… who also stared at me like I’d gone round the bleedin pipe

I signed up for baby sensory that ended up being on zoom due to lockdown Jan 2021....

Listening to a woman (through appalling sound quality) tell me I must always always ask for my 2 month old babies permission before I change her nappy so she has an understanding of consent was the tip of the iceberg.

Baby is now 14 months old and I have to pin her down to change her dirty nappies most of the time because she'd rather crawl off to her toys. If I waited for her permission she'd have a very sore bum!

@WoodenReindeer

Not at all worlds worst parent! But other parents with young toddlers read the thread and it's something I think is quite important. It's often when we let our guard down that accidents happen.

I made it quite clear that my kid was a competent swimmer already and that she and also that it was a baby pool she could stand in. She was probably a better swimmer (at that age) than a lot of six or seven year olds. Yes of course if you have a non swimming toddler you’d be right in the pool with them (give MN parents some intelligence!) but I doubt you’d have been telling parents of non Swimming seven year olds that they had to get into the baby pool with them, even though their skill level was lower. You’d have been hoping they would have kept a watchful eye at a close distance. You know…like I was.

Honestly…mumsnetters!

Wow! I just came on here to start a thread on this topic, having been traumatised by a baby sensory class this afternoon.

With my first, I went to a children’s centre where they prepared an environment that was age-appropriate for babies, it was drop in and the environment was baby-centred. My child learned to reach, sit up and crawl there, among many milestones. It was diverse, it was for all types of carers and, most of all, the people running it had expertise.

With my second (now), the children’s centres are standing empty, and my only choice is to go to these dreadful groups run by out of work actors where a select group of very similar sorts of women sit on beanbags with their babies held on their laps like ventriloquist’s dummies while the person organising spends the first ten minutes making everyone a hot drink (to put on the floor next to your baby . We were invited to scrunch up a chiffon scarf to dab on our child’s body parts while singing heads, shoulders, knees and toes, and then the person running it dressed up in neon disco clothes and gyrated at us.

What’s more, we now seem to have a generation of mothers who can’t do the Hokey Cokey, can’t wind the bobbin up and who don’t know how to bounce their babies to ‘Hop Little Bunny’. I tried to demo it last week for them, but this week I just felt sad, and exhausted by the bubbles and the Al Green ambient music.

This is where a decade of Toryism has got us.

my only choice is to go to these dreadful groups run by out of work actors where a select group of very similar sorts of women sit on beanbags with their babies held on their laps like ventriloquist’s dummies while the person organising spends the first ten minutes making everyone a hot drink

Goodness, I can't imagine why they didn't warm to you.

Never did baby sensory but I remember "sing and shake" when he was around 2.Everyone dicking about with tambourines and scarves and ds just wandered off and tried to open all the cupboards and pull stuff out.

I did baby sensory and thought it was okay. But I much preferred baby music class and swimming. At the music class especially he just seemed to be much more free to crawl around, make noise, play with the other babies where as sensory was quite regimented and I always felt like he was being a nuisance trying to clamber all over the room whilst everyone else's children were sat still doing the actions 🤣

@DrSbaitso

What a bizarre thing to say.