Aussie MUMS. What has your experience been with your mothers group?

[rxqueen]

I've had a great experience and I would strongly suggest every mum at least gives it a shot before writing it off completely.

Honestly I wasn't expecting much going into it. I knew that most mothers in my area were older than me (even though I'm 27). But it turned out in my group there is one mother who is my age and even though the rest are between 5 and 15 years older than me, I am still able to connect with and build a friendship with all of them to varying degrees.

We went to mothers group at the M&CH centre for 6 weeks then started up our own playgroup where we meet at a purpose built play centre once a week. I also catch up with at least one mother for a play date each week and some of us take swimming classes together too. And most of us talk on facebook or email every other day. We recently had a big joint b'day party for all the babies ... they all turned 1 within 6 weeks of each other. It was very cute. We've also caught up for drinks a couple of times and left the babies with babysitters/dads.

When I gave birth I didn't have any friends with children (some have since had babies tho). Words can't describe how much it helped to have people to talk to about my new experiences as a mum. When people said to me that that is why they go to mothers group I expected that they talk in depth about their family and relationship. But it doesn't need to be really personal information that you share in order to benefit from talking to others. Just the basics of "which nappies do you use?" or "which food are you starting your LO on?" are great conversations to have that you can't have with childless family or friends. Or even if your family and friends do have children, just the fact that the other mothers are going through the same issues at the same time is great.

My LO has made great friends too. They are just coming to an age where they are starting to play together and build friendships. The kids he sees more often he definitely favours and will approach as soon as we get to playgroup. It's so nice to watch. I hope that at least some of them will end up going to primary school together.

Unfortunately many mothers wont be continuing next year as our babies have just turned 1 and so some are going back to work but we fully intend on keeping in touch.

In addition to my experience as a mother, before I went on maternity leave, I was running young parents groups as a youth worker. They were for young mothers and fathers aged 14-25. The group was very successful and I would expect that if you asked any of the participants they would say that overall it was a good experience for them.

I do understand though that sometimes mothers can be competitive or judgemental but most of the time it is due to their own insecurities.

Good luck if you're planning on attending/starting a mothers group!