Is it normal that my baby hates baby classes?

[Wildathart]

Hello all,

I'm new here and a FTM, I would love some advice from experienced mummys. I've been trying to take my DD to baby classes since she was about 7 months old (She's now 12 months old) and it seems she just isn't interested. She spends most of the time trying to escape the circle and wonder off around the room. She has zero interest in any of the activities going on or the class leader talking/singing/signing/dancing. If I try to hold her still and take part in the activity, she'll just throw herself backwards or blow raspberries really loud until I let her go. I feel like all the other mums are judging me and my badly behaved baby. I'm a SAHM and I feel like I need to take her to classes to help her development but it doesn't seem to have done any good and she isn't getting anything from it so I feel I should probably quit trying now. Do you think my DD is normal? Are all babies into baby classes?

Thanks for reading this x

Baby classes are designed for parents (mainly mum) to socialise and not for baby's development imo.

Some kids enjoy the songs or whatever but it's absolutely normal that your dd might not want to listen and sign Wheels On The Bus. If she's interested in being physical, can you try and find an activity that is more physical? Or you could play the music of Wind the Bobbin Up at home for fun. Not sitting still now doesn't mean that she won't be able to do it at pre-school later so don't worry about that.

My kids would not have tolerated baby classes. They enjoyed classes once they were 2 or 3 years old.

hi there well yours sounds rather a lot like my very physical and free-spirited 20 month old girl! she just wasn’t interested in sitting still and playing like the other kids did, she was only interested in bombing it around the room and climbing on stuff, was an early walker too! we went to baby sensory, well what a waste of time and money that was! we had more luck at tumble tots though and we tend to go to free-play toddler groups now. I will say though that since about 18 months her attention span has developed much more and she will often now take herself off to the mat and sit down with the other kids for sing and sign and joins in dancing and parachute games, which is just fantastic to finally watch her joining in with stuff. you can forget story time though, that’s far too tame, Pah! so I think we’re getting there with our physical girl and I’m sure yours will too, but I understand the frustration you feel!

No such thing as a badly behaved baby. My nephew is the same. He does love swimming so that might be worth a try?

My 13 mo DD is exactly the same. Was great when she was immobile, but now I just spend the whole time chasing her and bringing her back. We don’t go any more- park, garden, swimming and beach are much more fun (and easier!)

As PP have said they don’t need them for development, it’s for parents to meet other parents etc.

I feel much better after reading these replies. She is a very physical baby and has a really short attention span for most activities with the exception of charging around the room. We're going to quit the classes after this term and maybe give tumbletots a try. It's v difficult to know what to do with her, the days are long without classes, even though classes are usually disastrous. I am concerned about her development, she seems to be miles behind her peers in all forms of communication, it just doesn't seem to interest her to wave bye-bye or have a 'chat' when she could be climbing all over a chair or trying to get inside a washing machine. I hope this is just a personality trait of hers. Has anyone else found that their physical babies are less interested in communication?

Hi wildatheart glad you feel a lot better at things. I feel i could have written your exact post 9 months ago. about the communication thing, yep again completely empathise, it sounds like your little
one is in the spectrum of normal though? why does your health visitor think? i do believe that they are generally walkers or talkers but they get there eventually. we had a very slow start with gestures and talking too but i needn’t have worried, now at 30 months vocabulary is exploding, words are getting joined up into little sentences and I can’t shut her up constantly singing baa baa black sheep

I never bothered with many classes just met up with friends from antenatal and let babies do their thing. My little boy was always far more physical and wouldn't sit still like everyone else. His speech was a bit behind too but he was way ahead walking etc.He's still a very busy active boy as your little girl sounds too.
Don't worry. Try the drop in classes at children's centres or gyms, or soft play. May be more suitable, cheaper and you'll still meet other mums.