Support groups

[Soloandstuck]

I’ve tried finding information on this but not managed to. I’m a single mum to a 5 month old. Support bubble are my parents, but mum is now shielding again. I was going on weekly walks with a small group of other single mums. The thought of not having that adult company is making me feel claustrophobic and anxious. As single mums we really need the support from each other but aren’t an official support group. How do you become an official group?! What makes it ‘formal’?

It has to be a registered group (like NCT), you have to do risk assessments and submit them as also be a group open and advertised to everyone, not a closed group. Or a registered business such as the official classes. A lot aren’t running their support groups at the moment because the risk assessments haven’t ‘passed’ e.g Nct in my area has stopped the support group walks as it’s too risky.

Sorry but you can’t just become an official support group just like that. Otherwise everyone would do the same and these rules would be useless.

You can however walk with one other mum at a time (your babies don’t count so you can walk with your prams). Why don’t you do that?

I’d also suggest changing support bubble if you can’t see yours at the moment. Is there anyone else you can bubble with? Maybe one of your mum friends?

Thanks. Yes we’d looked into nct walk and talk but never went through with it. To be honest I’d assumed they’d still be running but clearly not! We are open to others and have 6 of us now.
I don’t think you can change support bubbles.
We’ll have to meet in 2s as you say.

You can change your support bubble if you need to you just have to leave 10 days before you see your new one.

I’m in a similar situation, what we’ve previously done is meet in pairs on a walk and switch who you meet each time so you get to see everyone at some point in the week.

Some maybe, you could check in your area if they’re still on. I think ours thought it to difficult to maintain social distancing and that made it too risky in lockdown. It should be back up once lockdown ends!