To wish toddler groups didn’t break for the school holiday?

[FettleOfKish]

Not a serious issue by any means, but here I am with a 2 year old and all but one of our regular groups and classes winding up this week until September.

I understand that some (not all!) of the group leaders have kids themselves who will be off school for the holidays, but this includes the weekend groups where presumably they have childcare in place in term-time.

Thankfully my our favourite group runs year round aside from a couple of weeks when the group lead takes her own holidays, but I’ve now got much more time to try and fill, at the same time as soft play and the local splash park are overrun with bigger more rambunctious kids that make them less enjoyable for littles. Plus a little one that’s quite switched on and knows ‘Saturdays are dance group’ and is a bit discombobulated that they’re now not.

Am I being unreasonable to wish more groups for pre-schoolers didn’t subscribe to school terms?

YANBU! I agree totally. My first baby was a late spring baby and by the time she was 6 - 8 weeks and I was feeling able to go to baby classes/mum & baby groups, they ALL shut down until September.

I totally understand you
Summer holidays can be lonely. Routine goes. Not everyone has plans and families to spend time with. Many look forward to September coming.

Our local library runs classes all year round - worth a look to see if yours is similar!

Not unreasonable to want it, but I think it’s because a lot of their customers wouldn’t be able to come because they have older kids. So they’d only be there for people with no school age kids and therefore they’d not be cost effective to run?

Same here! Then there was last year the same problem, and worse this year because he knows his ‘friends’ that we see weekly and I know some of the parents to have a chat to, but most not well enough to be in touch outside of the group. There are a few I have numbers for so I’ll have to put my big girl pants on and ask if anyone fancies play dates!

YANBU. Like you, I attended many local groups such were term-time only when mine were under-5. I was OK during the school hols as DH is a teacher. I did often think though that if he wasn’t, I would have really noticed their absence more and missed them. I felt for parents whose OH wasn’t off during the school hols, I knew others who really missed these groups during those times.

Hartbeeps did start to do some Summer hol weeks as they grew and got more staff to rotate a few (as you thought, all mums wanting school hols off themselves, but happy to do the odd week instead of every week). It may be worth keeping an eye out for any which do still run, even if less frequently/not with the same usual, consistent staff each week.

Good luck! 🙏🏻

Likely the audience will be too small for the groups to be financially viable between people being away on holiday or having older siblings that wouldn’t want to be dragged along.

Totally agree. I've never understood it. Likewise with people asking if we're going away for half term, or are the kids looking forward to summer holidays - er they are preschoolers, they don't have these things! They go on holiday whenever we have booked it, obviously always out of school holidays due to cost.
I found one gymnastics group that does continue bar a couple of weeks and 2 toddler groups likewise so they are out there, but few and far between.

The hartbeeps song still haunts me 🤣

Yeah I get this. Thankfully our favourite welcome big siblings in holidays at no extra cost and adapts a bit to accommodate them (it’s a sign class and lots of the big siblings went when they were little, so just jump back in and ‘help’ the lead, showing off the skills they remember).

Is there a Popcats near you? They only close for a couple of weeks. Not sure if they are just a NW Eng thing though.

Sadly not 😕

Our library does year round toddler groups. I actually avoided them during the school holidays as rather than being under-attended due to parents staying away because they have older kids to look after, the sessions were in fact over run by older siblings who had been brought along and it ruined it. The people who run it either can't or won't turn them away even though the group states it is for pre-school aged children only. My son, along with quite a few other toddlers who went year round, didn't get to see Santa the other Christmas when he came along to the library for their session because the queue was swamped with older kids who had been brought because it was the school holidays. I don't go anymore, and this is one of the reasons why.

This.
A friend runs these classes and a lot of people ask them to run all year.
in the holidays no one (or few) joins in unless they can bring older kids (primary school) which she declined as the classes were baby/toddler classes.

You’ve reminded me, our local authority run Monday-Friday toddler groups almost year round (community centres in winter and parks in summer) but likewise in the holidays they’re over-run with primary age kids dominating the equipment. Winter is worse as everyone’s enclosed; I will try a couple in the summer now though, especially since DS is more able to hold his own on the climbing / bouncing type equipment.