MOPS xposted from my home board

[penguin129]

I am thinking about joining a MOPS group in my area. The two ladies that own our children's consignment store in town are part of it so I already know them which I think is a plus. I am nervous about leaving DD in a room with someone else and me not being there. I know they said she will be right across the hallway, but I have no idea how she will react if DH, her grandparents, or I am not there. I kind of just want to watch her interact with the other kids for the first meeting and see how it goes. So talk to me about MOPS or any similar experiences please. Thanks! I am kind of excited about having a chance to interact with other moms without watching DD.

[Deleted]

I love MOPS. I was also nervous about leaving DS in the child care when I finally did (I started going to MOPS before he was a year, and left him in child care the first time when he was almost one). It was a little ironic that I was nervous only because I have worked in child care for 10+ years and had been the one to reassure parents their child would be okay. The caregivers for the child care at my MOPS group are wonderful and they did bring my son to me once or twice and now almost a year later I'm lucky if I get a bye from him. I think that one of the best things that has helped me out as I was adjusting to leaving him in child care is being around other moms that get it. They understand what you are going through, are supportive and also completely understand if your child is brought back to you during the meeting time. One of my other favorite things about MOPS is being able to talk with other moms and in my experience it has been completely non judgmental.

[penguin129]

Thank you for sharing this. I also was employed in childcare, not as long as you. I worked in childcare for at least 6 years. I really think I am going to try it out.

[redfraggle]

I haven't done MOPs specifically, but I have some friends who do and love it. IME, kids are often more flexible than we give them credit for. DD is super-clingy, but as she's gotten older, she's become more accepting of other people watching her. I think it is worth a try. If they won't let you try a session for free, it isn't an exorbitant cost to find out your kid isn't quite ready and then try again in a month or 2. Good luck!

[penguin129]

The first one is free. Thanks for your input.

[icequeen]

This was interesting to me, thanks for sharing! I've never even heard of MOPS. I don't think they offer it in our area. I think DD would be too young at 16 months because she really has terrible stranger anxiety. What do y'all meet about, and what do the children do? How long is it? My apologies for being so naïve. Perhaps I should just use google...

[Deleted]

icequeen, If you go to mops.org you can search to see if they have a group or groups in your area. At my MOPS group we sometimes have speakers (all of ours are also mom's). They talk about different things, but it usually relates to the theme of the year (this year's theme is Be You Bravely). When we have speakers we also have discussion questions related to what the speaker spoke about, but also a way for the other moms to talk with each other. This often ends up being a time that even in discussing the questions we are able to bring up any problems we may be having with our children or issues we are having just as moms and get support, advice, a hug, reassurance that everything will be okay. We also have other times that we do craft's, watch a movie, other activities such as baking with time to hang out and talk with other moms. I don't know if this is how all MOPS groups function, but it's how mine does and how it seems to be to some extent how many probably work. The meetings for my group are 2 hours long. For me it's great to be able to hang out with other moms in a supportive non judgmental atmosphere where I can be me with all my flaws and mom failures and know that many have been there and it will still all be okay no matter how bad it seems at the time. From what I can tell the kids play and do some sort of art activity.
When you join MOPS you get their magazine (4 issues a year) which has some good articles, they also have a blog on their website about various topics and occasionally they put out a call for writers for both the magazine and their blog.

[icequeen]

Oh my gosh! Thank you so much for this info. This is great. I really appreciate it

[noodles84]

I just emailed my local group for info on joining. Thanks for all the info in this thread!

[wildflower810]

MOPS has been amazing for me. I've just been going since the first of the year but I've really clicked with my group. Go for it!