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 went to one class and both me and DD loathed it. Not for me/us!

Don't give it a backward glance!

If you and your baby aren't into it, then don't worry about it. Find something your LO is interested in, there's more than just baby sensory out there.

My boy loved baby sensory up until about 9 months and then got very bored. So we stopped. Equally he hated reading time at the library so I went once and never again.

He loved Forest School (was 12 months by this point) so we go to that.

Find what works for you and your baby, thats the most important thing rather than trends.

I hated baby sensory too and it's not nessesary. If you do want to take them to a class and you have it in your area then the bloom baby classes are much better. But not necessary for development

The classes are partly to allow parents to meet other parents and partly because today’s parents seem to think you need to pack your days with scheduled classes so providers are happy to well provide them for a price.

in reality all babies need are to be taken about doing normal day to day things and a bit of socialisation but a drop in in a church hall is just fine as is coffee with neighbours/family/friends. A paid class isn’t any better than stimulating your little one at home with music, toys etc

Ours was called Baby Bounce and Rhyme. Still is, I think it's still going. DD2 is now 16.

Youd be better off taking your baby for a walk and letting her see the birds, I the trees, the sunlight, the park pond, other children playing etc. than a fake environment waving rattles in her face. Then if y old enough, little goes on the swings.

Rhyme and repetition is in my opinion helpful, and my kids enjoyed Bob Marley, Weezer etc.. and also some of the children's purtamayo CDs.

We played things like round and round the garden (making circles on hands), wind the bobbin up etc. them later clapping games.

I’m not anti baby class at all and did a fair few right until I went back to work, but I hated baby sensory! Only kept going because I’d paid for the whole term, and any excuse not to go and we’d miss it. But my NCT group seemed to love it and went every term, so each to their own

As others have said, your baby gets plenty of other stimulation so don’t put yourself through the misery of it if you hate it

i don’t think that’s true for all. I didn’t do sensory but did other classes, especially when my eldest was born. As I said upthread, I was brand new to my area (moved when heavily pregnant and my sister died when I was about 20 weeks pregnant. Getting out the house every day to do something stopped me from spending hours sat, just breastfeeding and waiting for my husband to come home. Meant I wasn’t lonely, depressed and grieving by myself (or so it felt).

The first year is a tricky time for so many mums (not just those in my situation) and having a routine is good. Many people don’t have local friends and family who are around on a week day to see so it’s nice to have groups that mean you get to see people.

Bin It, OP. I remember taking DS1 to a baby music class, everyone else’s baby sat on their mums lap, not my DS, he just kept looking out the window 😂 total, and utter waste of money.

Oooh I loved these classes because I got to chat with other mums!! I had a whole routine- Monday baby yoga, Wednesday mum and baby pilates, Thursday baby sensory, Friday baby music class. It was all 100% a social for me and a few mums were doing the same and we kept running into each other at each of these, it was great.

Bin it off! I went for ages with my first and I wish I’d saved my money! Didn’t bother with my second.
I think those classes are good for first time parents in that it gives a bit of structure to your week and some people enjoy socialising with other new parents and make some friends… but that wasn’t my experience and it doesn’t sound like it’s yours either!
Baby will get plenty of sensory stimulation going to a cafe with you and watching everything around them 😊

Oh I love going to classes, I am not a sneerer! DD2 is almost 3 and we still do multiple a week. But baby sensory (the official franchise one with the corn song) was expensive and shit.

Well … you didn’t enjoy it which is totally fine. It sounds like I work for them or something and I don’t; I’ve never actually been.

But there’s a waiting list, which does indicate some people enjoy it.

Our children’s centre does baby sensory and it’s paid for if you qualify which does suggest to me that it does someone good: parent or child, they are interchangeable to me when the baby is under a year old. But on MN anyone going to a baby class is wasting their money as we should all be in a largely fictitious church hall with lovely old ladies making us coffee and making friends. The reality is a bit different.

It’s by no means essential. Round our way it’s the follow on from NCT - what nice, middle class mums do to meet other nice, middle class mums. Other, cheaper (or free) classes without waiting lists are available but - of course - they’re not quite as ‘selective’. I did Baby Sensory and the free/cheap mum and baby sessions at my local library and community centre and enjoyed both. Others definitely didn’t want to be in with ‘the teen mums’ and would only go to particular types of classes.

We have two of those fictitious church halls in our village, it’s amazing. The old ladies bring home baking and they will happily hold your baby while you drink your tea or coffee. One of them is run by a church and the other by the Homestart charity, all for free. We are very lucky! Makes a big difference having stuff like this available to all.

Baby sensory itself as a concept is fine. Baby sensory the franchise I found not worth the money, partly as it was very scheduled (perhaps this was just our one) so didn’t actually allow any time for the adults to socialise or chat, which sort of defeats the purpose a bit for groups aimed at such young babies. Whereas our Tiny Talk had 30-45mins at the end for just chatting and tea and biscuits and you got to actually meet people.

Anything you do in the first year is really just to get out of the house, meet other mums and give a bit of structure to your day. Don't do any activity that's inconvenient, boring or stressful. What matters more than the activity itself is that you and baby both enjoy it, you look forward to going, and it fits in with your life.

This is the thing @doodleschnoodle , some people assume they exist everywhere.

We have one near us. I went once, it was really grubby (and I am not a clean freak, far from it) but the toys were filthy and worn, the lovely old ladies were actually childminders who sat around gossiping about the parents of their charges and it was quite honestly boring.

i am glad this isn’t the same for you. I’ve no skin in this game but it’s a MN thing that anything fun that costs money should be avoided like the plague and it’s annoying. Baby sensory? No, go to the supermarket. Kids birthday party at soft play? Absolutely not; what’s wrong with your house and party games. Night out with friends? Horror, why not just go to someone’s house. It becomes rather tedious. If you enjoy it, do it. If you don’t, don’t.

I did sing and sign with my youngest for two terms but sacked it off and switched to BSL signs (with English grammar so technically SSE).

Signing is good as there’s evidence it supports the building of spoken language.

Couldn’t be arsed with the classes though.

It's very much the in thing where my daughter lives. I went to one session with her and thought it was horrendous. No idea what the kids were meant to get out of it and I left with a splitting headache.

No doubt in 5 years nobody will remember what it was.

I didn't like baby sensory and I HATED hartbeeps, proper culty and I tried 3 different locations. I tried every class going in an attempt to make friends and get out and about. The ones where you learned something like sing and sign were ok

I never actually did make any friends at these things. I met one friend at a free rhyme time and another friend standing on a bridge feeding some ducks.

Oh god that twee shite. Genuinely dreadful. Get handed a toy, shake it in your oblivious baby’s face, that gets taken away, get handed something else for two minutes, rinse and repeat.

All while smiling at your baby in a creepy ‘aren’t we just so blessed’ way while the baby sleeps/cries/chews its own fist/shits itself.

Bin it and go to a cafe with your mates instead.

The classes weren't for me. Great if you're able to make new mum friends but I didn't find any of the groups particularly sociable, so likely very hit or miss. The only one I enjoyed was sing and sign but that's because my son was a bit older and loved it so we both got some enjoyment out of it. Due baby 2 in a few weeks and I've decided not to do anything when baby is small other than mum and baby exercise classes and a breastfeeding support group for the chat. Might nip along to bookbug on occasion since it's free but plan doing things like going for coffees or baby cinema this time.

I didn’t really gel with the expensive baby classes nor meet any mums that I kept in touch with. I had more luck with the baby/toddler classes held in the local village hall for £1 per family. Made some lasting friendships too.

Oh and I never did baby sensory cos it was never in my area and my kids seemed to have developed just fine! Aren’t most babies stimulated enough with everyday life? My ds1’s favourite thing to do when he was old enough to sit upright was to watch the washing machine go round 😂

I absolutely hated all the baby classes and both of mine would in no particular order sleep, whinge and cry, have a poonami or just stare blankly at the other babies.

I just made sure we had lots of pkay time, music and songs, books and sensory play with bubbles in the bath, squishy toys, feathers or other sensory toys for example.

Both kids seem absolutely fine.