I vividly remember Mondays with my son for the first year or so, all of my NCT friends were busy on ondays or had gone back to work and I was always completely alone on Mondays. Most of the time getting through the entire day without speaking to another adult until my husband was back from work. By that time in the evening, I think had also lost the ability to speak coherently. This is a memory and feeling that will stay with me forever.
After a few months of feeling adrift on Mondays, I decided to take action. I found a local class that was about a mile away. We would walk there, attend the class and finally it was delightful to feel the buzz and have a conversation with adults on that day again. My baby was stimulated (so much so, sometimes he would often fall asleep during the class) but that was ok, he had been given some action and I had the opportunity to talk to other parents! Some of the friends I made are still my close friends, almost 10 years later. It was such a special time.
Something that has struck us about attending baby and toddler classes, is that you’ll always be referred to as “Harry’s mum” or “Penelope’s dad”, you lose your adult identity in these scenarios. It’s no fault of the class leader or person in charge of the activity, it is simply that they have so many names and th
ings to remember. But something that we felt was super important in our classes is to acknowledge that you are also a person, with a name! So you’ll notice at a Zip Zap class that we’ll always try to learn your name as well as your little one’s name. We also love a chat, we love to hear about your week and what you have been up to and any new milestones your little one has reached.
For us, we want to make friends with parents and make our classes extremely welcoming, a safe space, non-judgemental, where you can feel a sense of solidarity, that you aren’t alone in the rollercoaster that is having a baby and redefining yourself within this new chapter of
your life.
We still keep in contact with lots of parents who have attended Zip Zap with their little ones over the years and these relationships are so precious to us