To bin off baby sensory

[autoclave]

Hi all, FTM posting for advice.

After a long time on a waiting list, I recently became eligible for baby sensory in my area. It's incredibly popular here and one of my friends raves about it.

I've now been to 4 sessions and I hate it, I'm just wondering whether it's important for development to go to the class. From what I've experienced everyone sings a song with matching sign language (which seems a bit culty to me but I admit that it could be my opinion clouding my judgement). Then the leader seems to go around the room handing out rattles. We listen to a song shaking the rattles, and then they're collected and we get given pom poms to shake while we listen to music, and the rest of the class follows in the same way.

I find it incredibly tedious to attend, but I'm not sure if I'm missing something as it's so popular! Baby doesn't seem to care about any activities and I'm just wondering whether doing things like rhyme time (free at the library) might be just as good as paying for the class.

YABU: Baby sensory is important for their development. Suck it up and do the class.
YANBU: sack it off and get a coffee instead

I work with mums and new babies. I am always fascinated when I realise how much the babies are taking in just by being somewhere new. How much it blows their minds to see the dark shape of the projector on the ceiling! And also how focused so many of them are on their mothers' faces.

I didn't appreciate any of this stuff when I was in it but from this distance I can see how babies just need you to talk to them and the most simple things to learn about the world.

Bin it off, save the money for a nice cafe visit while your baby sleeps in the buggy!

I do hartbeeps with my baby, it gets us out the house, I get to speak to other adults and it gives me ideas for games to play with her at home. I don’t like the sneeryness towards people who do these groups, my baby does get something out of that she wouldn’t at home for sure.

Sing and Sign is fab if you have one of those near you. My daughters became amazing signers long before they could talk. I loved it!

If your baby isn't loving it then not right time perhaps. It took aaaages for me to get into Hartbeeps in my area and although I still go as my son likes it I don't get the hype really, I find a mixture of things and trying new things is fun. I tried a messy play class and just found it dull and my son wasn't fussed so I didn't go again.

Book bugs? 😆

When my babies were babies, many years ago, there was only tumble toys and Jo Jingles.
for me they saved my sanity because I was able to meet many like minded mums who were going crazy at home.

was definitely about mums not babies.

I’d sometimes look around the circle of mums, manically shaking maracas and singing songs, while our babies were crawling around the fire extinguisher wondering how to set it off.
meanwhile the ‘leader’ would be telling us to carry on singing and shaking because the babies would eventually come back into the circle.
never happened.

But as an aside I did make incredible friendships that saw me through those early years.

None of the great inventors, explorers, composers or even dictators throughout human history attended baby sensory. Which suggests it isn't necessary.
Did you attend as an infant? Did you develop normally?
FTMs are often desperate for any group activity, such is the monotony of life with a baby. All these groups are just cashing in on that desperation. Find a singalong with tea and biscuits instead.

Amazing how the people who run these franchises manage to con first time mums that it is essential to the child's future development.
If there is one nearby and you both enjoy it (and you have the money) then go but it isn't essential.
But there are free events at local libraries and groups at church and community halls which are informal which little ones gain a lot from seeing other people doing things.

I have 2 fully functioning well rounded adults who have never been to any baby “classes”

Sack it off and do something you’ll get more out of -these things don’t suit everyone

At my first baby sensory class, baby had to feed about half way through and the instructor (or whatever they're called) was handing out rattle-y things and quietly said "oh you're not breastfeeding in here, are you?". That was enough for me to know that group wasn't right for me.

I think most babies will develop just fine without structured classes. They learn so much from just being part of our day to day life.

It’s a grift imo, human babies will get all the sensory development they need from leading every day human baby lives.

I went to a few with my other mum friends mainly to socialise rather than for the baby. I didn't enjoy it, it did seem really rigid. I found a fun and more laid back music class which my baby absolutely loved

None of the things for babies are actually for the baby.

If you don't get anything out of it, your baby won't care.

Try a baby and toddler group where you can have a chat or go along to the church cafe. Your baby won't know any different.

That's not to say they don't have a place. I enjoyed a few but it is about friendship and sanity in an environment a baby can be happy rather than any kind of development.

I always found B&Q pretty good for a baby sensory experience! Loads going on there and I could get on with some home improvements.

If it’s not for you don’t worry, it’s not essential. I wouldn’t have thought I would enjoy it, and I was a bit over it all by the time mine was one, but we went from 4 months and my LO definitely enjoyed it. I didn’t go to other groups, so it was a weekly chance for him to see other babies and be entertained by lights and music. Tbh during the hardest times it was the highlight of my week!

I went with my second baby to baby sensory, after doing Hartbeeps with my first. I didn’t find it as useful as a second time mum. Plus after being asked to move ‘so my friend doesn’t have to sit on the end’ I decided that particular group wasn’t for me, and didn’t book another term.

There are lots of things you can do for enrichment with baby, I only went to those types of groups for my own sanity!

Isn't it just more as case of it suits some people and not others .I would never have gone to such things ( any baby classes in fact) but I don't give a shiny shit whether others spend their money and time attending them. However some people seem to project that all these things are necessary and babies will be deprived if they are not taken which is rubbish

There's no point going if you doing enjoy it though. Baby won't care

Maybe try a different class? I take my baby to a baby sensory class on a Friday morning, I enjoy the class as does he. It’s a different “theme” every week so it doesn’t get boring. DS definitely enjoys it and engages well& us parents have a good chat/ laugh. I have been at others before with nephew which were a bit dull.

I also love the routine it gives us as he is so engaged he is always exhausted after, so takes a big nap. There’s a lovely cafe upstairs so I usually have a coffee/scone and take an hour to relax, catch up on life admin or just mindlessly scroll… bliss😇

Babies managed to develop just fine for rather a long time before 'baby sensory' was invented.

Those (expensive for what they are) classes are about as much use as an ashtray on a motorbike if you ask me, and tots can get just as much stimulation in other ways.

I didn’t really enjoy baby sensory. I took my daughter to one term and decided it wasn’t for me. We loved Bloom baby classes though and attended them for over a year! Check them out if they are local to you!

I didn’t like baby sensory but did have respect for the group leader who seemed to be making an absolutely killing from not doing very much at all. Fair play!

The only way parents benefit is that it gives them the satisfaction of thinking they are providing something essential for their baby's development.

The only person who really benefits is the organiser, who is being paid quite a lot of money for old rope.

I'm not sure baby sensory really did anything for my DC but I met some really, really lovely friends there, still friends now, 14 years later!

These classes are always for the parents rather than the babies. One of my children went to similar classes, one did not. Both are now teens- can you tell the difference between which went and which didn’t? No, no you cannot. You are not going to affect your little one’s development by not attending a mum and baby class 🙂

I don't really understand baby sensory. When my older dc were babies, sensory groups were for babies/children with special needs. Some time after that it became a thing for all babies and sensory rooms started appearing at softplays. But for babies, not for older dc. So older dc with special needs aren't allowed to use them but babies without disabilities can which I find really weird. I was curious at what qualifications baby sensory class leaders had so I looked one up on google. She had qualifications in drama and performing arts so totally different to the lady who did sensory classes with my dc.

My youngest is 10 so things have changed but we did groups at the children's centre, although our local one has gone now and I think it's mainly expensive classes available now.