Why are there no weekend baby/toddler classes?

[erikab922]

I'd love to do a class like Rhythm Time etc but both my husband and I work full-time and it seems in our area every single baby/toddler class is held on a weekday during working hours.

I would imagine the classes would be very popular seeing as how so many parents don't have the option of an extended mat leave (or any leave beyond six weeks).

I haven't a musical bone in my body but I'm willing to try to replicate what they do in a class at home but since I can't even get to a blooming class I don't know what they do.

Anyone else in the same boat?

Lots of babies also have older siblings though, which must take at least 1/3 of them out of baby group circulation in the holidays unless everyone is happy to have various ages and personalities of older sibling at the classes. On top of that those with school age siblings or a teacher parent (plus a few others) will go on holiday in school holidays...

Where I live I have found things that happen mainly out of school hours (like baby swimming) impossible to attend with my 2nd and 3rd child because, obviously, you can't bring the older ones along... So I wish they were at 9am on a Tuesday, term time only A lot of kids activities are only viable with your first child... Swings and roundabouts.

MillionPramMiles exactly. It's a tricky age with crawlers and early walkers. DD loves the zoo too, now you mentioned it. She still finds playgrounds and softplay too boisterous. They say she's a bit nervous with the preschoolers at her nursery too.

It will get better and easier!

Loads to catch up on, glad it's not just me then! My LO is 15 months old, she's just started to get really good at walking and is all about the fun stuff now so wanted to take her to a musical class and watch her act a fool around other kids. There are absolutely gobs of kids her age around us (all first children) but they are also all boys and she never gets to hang around with any girls, so thought a weekend class might be fun and she could meet some other little girls her own age.

All of the Saturday activities are for dads/male carers and my husband works on Saturdays so that's put paid to that. I figured the reason why there aren't a lot of classes are because the people who run them would like to have their own life on a weekend (how very dare they)!

The local library near us is about as big as a portakabin but that's a very good idea and I will see if there's anything on further afield!

There are some in our area:

Tumbletots (from crawling to age 7)
Rugbytots (from age 2)
Swimming lessons (from 3 months)
Library Baby Rhyme Time - once a month with dads
Leisure centre soft play session - once a month with dads - bouncy castle, soft blocks, balls, trikes

Of all those, would highly recommend Tumble Tots.

miaow it's the same with soft play too. Maybe it's because I always go during weekends only. Even in softplays with dedicated crawler/young toddler areas, they are always filled with school aged kids. They jump into the play mats, throw things around, snatch toys from the little ones. It's dangerous for babies and toddlers! That's why I never go to them anymore.

How about if soft play areas offered more structured, age restricted activities/classes that parents could buy a separate ticket for at anytime?
All it would need is a separate room (which lots of venues have anyway for birthday parties etc).
I've seen a few of the people who run classes, during the week, doing 30 min slots at parents homes for birthday parties at the weekends so maybe there are people who'd be willing to do that at a soft play venue?
I know of one soft play venue that does this on a small, limited scale (but for pre-school upwards children) and it's always busy.

We want to do water babies with ds2 but it is not available at weekends.