Is it important to take my 4 month old to baby classes

[Eleanorlou]

Hi, I am new mum on 1 to a 4 month old baby Boy, I’ve been stressing out becuase I haven’t been taking him to baby classes and I feel really guilty, do you guys think it’s that important to take them to these things at this young age?

Of course it’s not important to take your baby to classes. I never took my daughter to anything like that as a baby, and as others have said, they are aimed far more at mothers who want to meet others with young babies. I couldn’t think of anything worse than sitting in a room surrounded with other women with their babies, who only wanted to talk about baby related topics.

I'm currently at the end of my maternity leave with my third baby. I've only attended two short blocks of classes, because I really enjoy them: baby massage, plus mother and baby yoga.

I do attend a weekly baby and toddler group (with my 3 year old too) because I like the people there, but it's not really a class... and definitely not "for" my baby, it's for me! Aside from that, we bumble about doing whatever I fancy, as long as it fits around school runs and whatever else needs to get done...

Babies don't need classes, they get plenty of stimulation and excitement from doing normal things with you. As others have said, the value in classes is most often getting out of the house and interacting with other adults... so simply do (or don't do) whatever you enjoy and feel happiest doing!

At 4 months it's more about you than baby, mother & baby groups are ideal to drop in, classes def not essential. However it is important for babies/young toddlers to socialise, as the effects on children born during covid & not being able to socialise with others is being seen.

Do you manage to get out and about @Eleanorlou going to "something" weekly might give you structure and company if you fancy it, meeting other mums is nice it doesn't have to be lifelong friends or anything too deep but a chat connects you to others if that's your thing.