Catholic Mums in London?

[bonbon77]

I'm 6 weeks pregnant with my first baby and looking for other Catholic mums in London (I only recently moved here from Oxford). Westminster diocese doesn't list any mums groups on its website and my new parish isn't very strong on this front. Any advise? Or anyone want to help start a group?

Hi Bonbon

Does your parish church have a Union of Catholic Mothers?

You may find that your local Catholic primary school may be more help in pointing you in the right direction for mother's groups if your Church is not particularly active in this area.

Whereabouts in London are you?

Thanks for this - no UCM at my local, though there is a women's group. They are quite a bit older than me and all their kids are grown up. The priest says women are having babies bit they are not organised into a group. Also, the parish is very mixed ethnically and the groups which do form tend to cluster along race lines. (No other white mums, though, so I am hoping to fit in with the others!)
I am in Hoxton (border of Hackney and Islington). We do have an active local primary, so I will start there - good idea. I suppose I assumed there would be a parish version of the antenatal scene, but I guess the strength of the antenatal group is that all the women are having their babies at exactly the same time and can share the learning curve. I'm kind of in culture shock living in a real parish after years at University (and east London is very different from Oxford) and then on top of that none of my husband's friends, who are local, have kids so we don't yet have a network of other parents. I might put up a sign on the Parish notice board and haunt the primary school.

Have you been in the same parish for all of your pregnancies or did you move further out as you had more kids?

We moved to West London when I was expecting my first dd.

To be honest, my close support network still comes from my NCT group - we meet up regularly even though our first-borns are now getting on for 6.
One of the girls I met at NCT is also a Christian, not RC but we have been a great support to each other over the years.

It can be really hard joining a Parish where groups feel like they are already established.
Perhaps you could talk to your priest about arranging a 'welcome coffee' after church one Sunday?

Bonbon I know someone in west London who met other Catholic mothers through a Catholic home education network. I know it's not your part of London and that you're a while away from thinking about home education (!) but home education groups might be a route into meeting Catholic mothers?

Thanks for this help, both of you. The home ed group is a good idea. (DH is a big fan of home ed and assumes that because I have a doctorate I would make a good 'primary' teacher ... but I don't even know my times tables!!!) I also recently found the National Association of Catholic Families. Living in University parishes I got used to having everyone else in the parish being at exactly the same stage in their life as me. Spoiled in that respect, really. I have made a few contacts in the last two days of hunting with other young Catholic mums in the Westminster diocese (not that I am really that young at 32), so we might start a little cross-parish group, if there's any other takers out there.

I am really looking forward to the NCT group, though. Thanks for your thoughts!

There's a Yahoo group for Catholic home educating families, here, and one of the posters on it circulates a newsletter called Faith in the Home. The couple who run the newsletter, or indeed people in the group, can probably put you in touch with other families in your area.

We lived in Oxford when we were first married, and we still miss Blackfriars! One of the Blackfriars priests officiated at our wedding.

Oh, I love the friars! What a great Mass, especially in the early autumn when all that lovely golden light came through the back windows during the 6.15 mass. We were married at Campion Hall in the Lutyens Chapel. Did you use the Oratory? It is hard getting used to the real world of London after the very Catholic Oxford. I had thought I would welcome the relief from high-intensity theological debate, but I miss that too (though DH is always up for a dispute!)

Where did you live in Oxford and where did you settle when you came to London?

and thanks for the link!

I can't help with any groups, sorry, but am in a similar situation (we moved north from Oxford). If you do find/set up any London group, I'd love to come along when we're visiting parents!

We were married by a priest from Blackfriars too. If you're willing to trek across London (probably not every day, but it's worth it once in a while), the Dominican parish in London is great too and relatively accessible by tube: www.op-london.org/index.html
I don't know about mother & baby stuff, but it is good for young adults and a fabulous liturgy, as might be expected.

We lived in student accommodation in Summertown. DH was studying there when we got married, and I commuted into London. We moved to South London, then Central London (where we started our family) and moved to the north-west a few years ago.

Yes - really we are spoiled for great parishes in London. I want to get across to the Dominican house and the Farm street church is gorgeous. We are making an effort to be regular local parish goers since this is the first time we have been settled anywhere with our own property. I have found a few ex-Oxbridge Catholics who are interested in a group, one pair aren't parents yet but are married. I will let you know if anything comes of it. Not that it would be strictly ex-Oxbridge, of course!

Summertown, Rolf? St. Andrew's or New college accommodation? I spent one term in Summertown but found I was too lazy in winter to go back into town after dinner and was never seeing my friends! I expect we too will move out of London in a few years when we can no longer afford to stay here with what will hopefully be a growing family.

That was meant to read St Anthony's