A Parenting & kids forum. ParentingBanter.com

If this is your first visit, be sure to check out the FAQ by clicking the link above. You may have to register before you can post: click the register link above to proceed. To start viewing messages, select the forum that you want to visit from the selection below.

Go Back   Home » ParentingBanter.com forum » misc.kids » General
Site Map Home Authors List Search Today's Posts Mark Forums Read Web Partners

Parent club/group ?



 
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
  #1  
Old April 13th 04, 12:49 PM
Jarkat2002
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default Parent club/group ?

I'm considering starting a parent group. I was involved w/ one recently and it
just wasn't my cup of tea ... there were more 'politics' there than any place
that I have worked. It was a very negative place to be.
Anyway ... a friend from the group and I are considering starting our own
parent group. The things we would like to do are local events and play dates
(in home or in parks) and maybe a parent's night out now and then.
I'm wondering what other parents would be interested in w/ a parent's group.
What do you think the best and worst aspects of a parent's group? I want to
make this open to SAHP and to working parents.
Thanks for any ideas you can help me with.
~Kat


"The early bird gets the worm, the second mouse gets the cheese."
  #2  
Old April 13th 04, 01:29 PM
Ericka Kammerer
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default Parent club/group ?

Jarkat2002 wrote:

I'm considering starting a parent group. I was involved w/ one recently and it
just wasn't my cup of tea ... there were more 'politics' there than any place
that I have worked. It was a very negative place to be.
Anyway ... a friend from the group and I are considering starting our own
parent group. The things we would like to do are local events and play dates
(in home or in parks) and maybe a parent's night out now and then.
I'm wondering what other parents would be interested in w/ a parent's group.
What do you think the best and worst aspects of a parent's group? I want to
make this open to SAHP and to working parents.
Thanks for any ideas you can help me with.


We did something similar. We worked things very
informally. We didn't have a rule about it, but ours
was largely geographically based. We started with a
few of us in the neighborhood, then added people as
we ran into interested folks. We did start meeting in
people's homes, which I think was most successful, but
that only worked well when we had ten families or less
and the kids were preschool aged. As the playgroup got
bigger and the kids got bigger, it became tough to have
it in people's homes because it just got to be too much.
Then we went to meeting outside, but weather makes that
problematic on occasion. I think meeting in people's
homes tends to bond the group together better, but it
isn't always practical and not everyone is willing to
do that.
Incorporating WOHPs who are doing the usual
9-5 kind of thing is tough, because people are often
loathe to give up their weekends and evenings often
don't work well for meeting times. We have several
parents who work, but all of ours work either part
time or telecommute or both, so that we've always
had meetings during the day. I don't know how we'd
swing evening or weekend meetings. We try to do
something in the evening or weekend occasionally to
bring in the entire family (older school-aged kids,
both parents, etc.), but people tend not to be willing
to do that regularly.
We also have a monthly mom's night out, which
works very well. Even when weather and schedules
interferes with the playgroup, the moms still get out ;-)
We've tried a dad's night out, and they always seem to
have fun when they do it, but they've never been able
to get it off the ground and keep it going (they seem
logistically challenged ;-)
After we'd had the playgroup going for a year
or so, we also spun off a babysitting co-op. That's
also been very helpful.
I do notice an ebb and flow with the playgroup.
It seems to work best when kids are preschool aged.
People who really enjoy the other members will keep
going even as their kids get older, but it seems to be
when the kids are preschool aged that the families are
most interested and most committed to a playgroup, so
I'd focus recruiting efforts there. It helps to have
some of those really gregarious people who go everywhere,
meet everyone, know everything. They're great recruiters.
It also helps to have someone who's organizationally
inclined to keep up a list or put out a little newsletter
or whatever. We found that having it be a neighborhood
playgroup *really* helped because we were running into
each other all the time and had a lot to tie us together.
It also made it easy on everyone, because we could usually
walk to playgroup events. That might not always be
practical, though. It made the playgroup a *great*
source of information about local school issues,
preschools, activities, etc., though.
One thing that really helped with our playgroup
was that people in it were genuinely friends, or at
least everyone in it was genuinely friends with someone
else. We had little politicking or infighting going
on. There were occasional squabbles (e.g., someone
getting upset at how a parent handled an issue between
kids or some such thing), but in general everyone really
liked each other.
Our playgroup has been a very positive experience
for us, and I think for most of the members. I think we've
got a bit of a challenge now, though. Some people have
moved away and the original members' kids have gotten much
older. We need some parents of younger kids who are
intereested in sort of taking the reins and keeping things
more active. I think there are some likely candidates,
but we'll see how it goes.

Best wishes,
Ericka

 




Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

vB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off
Forum Jump

Similar Threads
Thread Thread Starter Forum Replies Last Post
Parent Stress Index another idiotic indicator list Greg Hanson General 11 March 22nd 04 01:40 AM
| | Kids should work... Kane General 13 December 10th 03 03:30 AM
Kids should work. LaVonne Carlson General 22 December 7th 03 05:27 AM
'Horrible' Home Kane General 1 July 16th 03 02:29 AM


All times are GMT +1. The time now is 07:28 PM.


Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.6.4
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.
Copyright ©2004-2024 ParentingBanter.com.
The comments are property of their posters.