Baby classes....15 month old hates them. Am I the only one?

[Hoian2016]

My 15 month old really doesn’t enjoy any baby class we go to. She cries and clings and points to leave. I’m starting to wonder whether it’s worth going. Anyone else in the same boat and did it get better? How did you deal with it?

I don’t think structured classes are enjoyed by many toddlers. We only do a forest school toddler group. I’m really missing traditional toddler groups where they can just sit on your knee until they are used to it and then play with whatever they want.

It’s a song and movement type class. She’s not keen on any of it really. She’s not walking yet so I wonder if that’s got something to do with it. She’s also not keen on our swimming class either. She’s very independent and just wants to do her own thing but is also quite shy and gets overwhelmed easily which I is why I want to take her to things so she gets a bit more used to being around noise and other people.

I took my baby to a music group once and she screamed through the whole thing, clung to me like a spider monkey, and then fell asleep. I said then I wasnt spending money on toddler classes just for her to hate them, so instead I did free kids groups in churches (pre covid obviously), softplays, days out to places like farm parks, free walks around forests where I put her in a puddle suit and let her sit and crawl among leaves and sticks etc, and then just seeing friends with babies. I always feel those classes play on the pressure that's on mums to give kids a rounded experience. You can do that without spending much money, if any, tbh.

I wish we could access more things like soft play and church groups. It’s so difficult at the moment

I know the softplays around my area are open with pre booking. Also my stay and play in my local community centre are running an outdoors stay and play, like a forest school, from january. Again, its pre booking. We live in a tier 2 area. Also, a mum in my local area has made a facebook group for local mums to help us meet in small groups of 3 or 4 at a playground if we want to. I think things are starting to come back.

We’ve been in tier 3 for a while and I don’t think that’s going to change for us. My DH is ECV so we generally avoid indoor places. It’s really hard time to have a little one. It will be easier in spring/summer.

We are tier 3 unfortunately.