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Magic Moments – meeting Monkey’s buddies and watching them grow up

Like lots of expectant parents we joined NCT ante-natal classes.  I joined more to meet local soon to be Mum’s really, I worked away from where we lived and had no friends here at the time.

After the classes we all swapped email addresses and mobile numbers and agreed to meet up with our babies when they had all arrived.

Our babies arrived between end October (rather early) and the end of December 2009, so we met up towards the end of January 2010.  I can remember feeling rather anxious, I didn’t really know these ladies, how would it all go, would I want to come home in the first five minutes etc etc.

We decided to meet at one of the group who had had twins, over lunch.  So we arrived, I think we were all probably still shell-shocked, sleep deprived and rather bewildered by our new Mum status.  As we all appeared it became obvious that Maxi-Cosi Cabriofix had done a great marketing job, as pretty much one baby after another turned up in the same seat.

There were 6 Mums from our original classes and 1 new Mum who NCT had asked us to contact.  Between us we had 6 boys and 2 girls.  I have no idea what I worried about, we hit it off instantly.  We had the same concerns, fears and a lot of the same funny moments.  The children were either sleeping or feeding through the whole of that first gathering.

Since that first meet up, we have met up almost every single Monday afternoon.  We’ve done lots of things together, music groups, play groups, hundreds of picnics, family trips to Blenheim Palace – the list goes on.

One Mum has moved away and wasn’t local from the start, but I keep in touch via Facebook.  The other Mum who joined us at the first meet up, didn’t keep in touch and I’ve never bumped in to her so not sure what they are doing now.  But, the rest of us have become really good friends and a vital support network through good and sadly, through some tough times.  They mean the world to me.

The nicest thing about meeting them is being able to watch all of our children grow up together.  We’ve seen each other so often that we know them inside out, it’s wonderful.  Now we have 3 ‘second generation’ boys in the fold, so plenty of baby cuddles for me! Sadly, we all live in different parts of the same town, so the children will all go to different Junior Schools.  I think we all hope they will grow up still wanting to be friends, our time together will be different and probably more family orientated next year, but I have made friends for life and I hope my son has too.

Our NCT children are my Magic Moment for this week 🙂

 

15 thoughts on “Magic Moments – meeting Monkey’s buddies and watching them grow up

  1. My best friends up here in Manchester are the ones I met at baby massage when our children were around 6-8 weeks old. If I hadn’t had babies when I came up here I don’t know who I’d talk to! 😀

  2. Aww this is so lovely, i didnt have any antenatal classes so met no one in my area who was expecting. Its so lovely that you all share this bond.

    Thanks for linking up with #magicmoments x

  3. That’s lovely. I didn’t have the same experience as you, for some reason our NCT group just didn’t gel like I had hoped. How fantastic to have this x

    1. I think we were really lucky, also one of my friends had twins and asked us if we could meet every week, right from the start (originally we had thought once a month) and I think that was the key. We are all very different people, but somehow it works and we’ve shared the load when someone is struggling etc. Sorry that you dodn’t have the same experience.

  4. i never join one before as i move away when Mr K is 6 weeks old. it is so hard to make friends. lovely u did it

  5. My mother gave us an NCT class as a gift before Little Chap’s arrival. We were pushed into a short course of just two weekends as the long course (6/8 weeks), was oversubscribed. Some of the info was useful ahead of labour but like you, we wanted a support network after birth. Sadly, not being able to bond much over two Saturdays, with one of the five couples giving birth instead of attending, we never really stood a chance. I did keep bumping in to one mum at my son’s day nursery and another from time to time in town, but everyone but us and one other couple moved at least once and the group fell apart after just one meet. Luckily, I later joined a baby signing class and was adopted by an NCT group six months younger than my own, more local and more of a godsend than they will ever know. We met every Friday afternoon, give or take a few until little ones started attending nursery regularly. We still try to meet up as mums though and when we can in the school holidays. Life does change as your kids move on but as you say, you keep in touch with the lifelong friends you make in the early days and hopefully have the opportunity to make a few more long the way. Lovely post. Sorry about the essay!

    1. We’ve made a point of meeting at mine once a month for a takeaway and a drink so we have Mummy time too. We still talk about the kids but, now that they are all at pre-school, there and second generation kids and a couple of the group work, it means we get a few hours to really chat.
      We were offered the intensive courses and I’m really glad we didn’t go down that route for the same reason you encountered.

  6. Great to hear that you had such a good experience. Our NCT group meets fairly regularly, but isn’t as close as your sounds. I think it’s pot luck as to whether you all gel or not – I know people whose group don’t see each other at all now.

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