to think that its unfair to exclude husbands/partners from local mother & baby play groups?

[Mine]

I understand some of the reasons why they would not be welcome ie some women feel uncomfortable to bf in front of men in these groups, but then they bf in other public places (i've seen women bf'ing in starbucks on many occasions).

The idea is to get mum's and babies to socialise more, but isn;t is unfair to exclude partners from this too.....????

What if the main carer of a baby is male.....?
They would not be encouraged to attend.

The reason i ask is that my dh works shifts and will be taking care of ds on some days when i go back to work 9-5. I'd like ds to carry on playing with is baby friends so thought dh could carry on taking him to the baby group instead of me, but he was turned away when we went to a local baby group today.

He was really ticked off about it. Although he doesn;t want to make mums uncomfortable, he feels that dads are not really taken into account once baby is born ie no support groups, dad and baby groups etc.

Maybe in time this will change.....

Thats naughty. dads are very welcome at ours and a nice change.

That's really odd. When I went to baby groups there were always a few dads there. Who runs the group?

omg I would be furious if my dp was turned away from a baby group!
that's outrageous.

That's awful.Lots of toddler groups Iv'e been to welcome dads.Seems like discrimination to me

that is Wrong

Seems a bit backward, quite a few dads at the toddler group and baby groups round here.

In fact we even used to get the odd new dad at the bf support group - they were there being supportive!

• he was actually turned away? That is awful.

I have a good friend who shares the childcare with her DH and he attends all the same groups she does (inc the BF support group) when he is looking after their DD. He has always been made to feel welcome (and sometimes he wasn't the only male there).

YANBU. The people who run that group sound barking IMO.

I've never heard of that before

My DH takes the boys to Toddler group every Wednesday, he chats with all the mums, holds the wee baies ect ...

I would be fuming if anyone EVER suggested he shouldn't be there! (its my lie in till 11am day!!) lol

Message withdrawn

Dads at ours. Grandads too.

I've never been to a group that excluded dads. How odd. When ds was at the going to groups age there were always a few SAHDs there, and they were always welcome, popular even.

That's outrageous!

Absolutely out of order. You should tell them its not acceptable.

That's dreadful! One of my friends was a SAHD and he found that although he wasn't explicitly excluded, he was made to feel very uncomfortable when he went along to M&T things which made me very cross.

You should contact the group and ask why it's excluding men. As far as I know, that's sexual discrimination and they are legally on a sticky wicket.

Who runs this local group? I would definitely make a complaint, it's gender discrimination and should be nipped in the bud. Can totally understand him (and you!) being very upset.

Who runs it?

I've been to lots and there's always been men - ESPECIALLY welcome at breastfeeding groups to be honest. What did they say exactly? Sounds a bit MAD.

Quite a few Dads/Grandads come to ours and nobody has ever said they feel uncomfortable BFing.
YANBU

How bizzare.

There are men at all of the groups I take dd to. One of my friends is a SAHD. Would be fuming if he were turned away from any of the local activities.

Nope that's mad!!!

We've had Dads and Grandads at ours. We'd welcome any chaps who want to come with their DC's.

Message withdrawn

Dad's such deffo go - mine would love it if daddy could take them for a change.

What? there are always men at the ones I go to!

Our local surestart has a yummy mummy and daddies day and also has a curry and beer night for the dads to get involved! lol