Likelihood of mother and baby activities ever returning?

[Rawrsome13]

Exactly this. Just wondering if anyone involved in organising anything along the lines of baby classes, groups or even breastfeeding cafes etc has a sense of whether and when these will return? A favourite local baby friendly venue has just announced they will not be reopening as can not operate effectively under current restrictions and it's made me think that maybe the new normal for maternity leave will be quite different

I realise this is a lesser problem than many have but I'm struggling with a lack of routine and things to occupy my baby (3 months old - born the day lockdown started) and lack of in person contact with other mums. DH is also working from home and we are very short on space so basically confined to one room when he is taking calls etc.

I've tried online classes but it's not the same...

They will definitely return, but they may not be back to normal in time for your mat leave to end, if you are going back around the 9 ish month mark. Where you would do best is to form a bubble with other mums with babies the same age as yours for informal meet ups - this would be very easy now with the good weather and non-mobile babies. Did you do NCT? Or is there a local NCT group near you were you could reach out and see if there are others looking to meet up? You might also try on your local Facebook groups. I know on ours there are often people who are trying to form a little group with babies the same age (normally, no idea about now, I'm too busy for a coffee with anyone frankly). You are most certainly not the only one who is feeling this way right now and you could end up creating a real lifeline for someone else who is struggling and needs a reason to make a few new friends. If you did any antenatal classes at all (yoga, etc.), you could also try emailing the teacher to ask if they would share your email around to anyone from the class who might be looking for someone to meet up with.

I’m certain they will return. They are a source of employment for lots of women with small children who want jobs during school hours, and the free ones are government provided, so unless funding is withdrawn they will come back.

I’m not sure they’ll be back within the next 6 months though. Personally I hope they will be reopening in September when schools are opening, but I imagine it will depend a lot on circumstance. Will you be full time when you return? If not, there will still be opportunities to join groups.

You won’t be the only person in your area in this situation, this must be an incredibly hard time to be a new mum, it must be so isolating and I’m sorry you’re in this position.

I’m hoping for September but who knows?

@Tobebythesea my guess is that we will be at the start of the second wave by Sept.

Try looking on the friend finding section of a site with same two words as the site name, but reversed.

I found a few of my baby days friends on their.

I'm really hoping they open! DD is 7 months and we were doing groups and activities 3 or 4 times a week to avoid PND. My ML is up in September, we are also due to move 90 miles away in the next couple week and the only way I'd get to know anyone is through baby groups. DD has spent most her life thinking me and her DB are the only other humans

I run a parent and toddler group. We are looking at reopening as an outdoor group because the hall we rent is not big enough for social distancing of all the parents from each other. Shared toys is also impossible under current guidelines and we don't have the resources to clean everything after every single session.

In order for schools to go back in September they will have to abandon social distancing. They can not abandon it in schools and say that everywhere else needs to do it because that looks bad, so everything will have to go back to normal in September to accommodate schools.

Second wave or not, we cannot afford to lockdown again so that’s not going to happen.

So I reckon in about 9 weeks you will be grand.

I help run a toddler group in our village (non profit making group) and we are hoping we will be able to return in September, if not September then January. We run term time only so wouldn't be running over the summer anyway.
Could you arrange a casual outdoor socially distanced meet-up with a couple of local Mums? Post on the local Facebook group asking if anyone wants to meet for a pram push around the park or something like that?
Groups were a really important part of my early years with my little ones (hence me still helping to run the local group despite my children all being of school age now!), it made those years so much easier for me. Sorry you haven't got that support available to you now. Hope you can find another way of connecting with local Mums.

depends what part of the UK you are in but in Scotland we've been told social distancing between adults will remain necessary for the foreseeable future. Maybe that means 1m instead of 2m but it still means that for a normal sized class of parents and toddlers/babies the venue has to be around double what it would be now, or you take half the people and therefore half the fees. The other issue is whether these groups will get their insurance renewed. In schools its 1 adult in a class of kids but for groups where its say 10 adults and 10 kids the risk assessment is totally different.

Of course they can scrap social distancing in schools but not everywhere else.
We will get back to normal but poss not in time for the rest of your maternity leave. Some businesses will close but they will be replaced by others once we get going again.
Can you meet other mums for social distance picnics etc in the park? I know it’s not the same

Of course they can scrap social distancing in schools but not everywhere else.

I’m not sure they can. Because if it’s fine for me to have 5 different lots of 32 teenagers in my classroom in a day, it’s really hard to argue that everyone else isn’t safe to go within a meter of another human outside their household.

Feel the same way op. My second was born just as lockdown started, also close to a local venue that had just announced it won't reopen (I wonder if we are close by?!) and really miss the classes. They were paired he best part of mat leave with my first, really miss the structure. Am not sure they will be back before I head back to work in jan though 😢

Thanks everyone for your ideas and sympathy. I think it's helping me to accept that things will be different in the long run as like many had no idea how long this would all last when it was first announced and kept hoping it would all disappear quite quickly (to be fair, I did have DS' imminent birth on my mind).

I'm also feeling pretty abandoned by local health visitor services as we've really had minimal input and think they are now supporting new mums a little more - I really do feel like I'm winging it a bit!

I am beginning to wonder whether I might actually try and go back to work on reduced hours or part time basis, at least initially, in order to have some time to spend doing the things that probably won't happen during my mat leave, though this will be a whole separate feat to organise/request. I'm under no illusions that all of the groups would be currently far more for my benefit than DS but it still feels important.

I have joined some local mums groups on FB and am sure there must be others who are feeling this too.

If you can arrange part time hours once your mat leave finishes it would be a lovely bonus and actually a lot of groups are more fun with an older baby and toddler, you get to see them interacting so much more and see their language skills develop