First Time Parents Group (aka "Mothers Group")

For those people who don't know what First Time Parents Group is, let me briefly explain. Prior to the days of political-correctness, it was referred to as Mothers Group. It's a weekly catch-up of approximately 90 minutes, facilitated by a maternal health worker, with other first-time parents (usually 10-15 people) and held at your zoned-local maternal and child health centre. It usually runs for a designated number of weeks (approximately 7 weeks) with set topics for discussion each week. It's an informal group where the facilitator opens-up discussion for the group to chat about their week and the set topic such as sleep, taking care of yourself, etc. Once the formal meetings cease, many parents continue the weekly catch-ups in cafes or parks, to maintain the support-network and friendships developed.

When I had Cooper, everyone said to me "oh wait until you join Mothers Group, you'll love it" but I was kinda sceptical about it for the following reasons:

• I absolutely hate sitting in training sessions, lectures, tutorials, or meetings when they are "dumbed-down" explanations of blindingly-obvious things or when the meeting is constantly being interrupted by people asking stupid questions that have nothing to do with the topic being discussed, etc. I think the saying "doesn't suffer fools gladly" was invented for me!
• I'm not very good at faking friendship with people that I don't 'click' with. If we are completely incompatible personalities then why bother faking a friendship just because we have been lumped-into the same workplace, sports team or parents group? Faked friendships are so unsatisfying and a waste of time.
• I often find groups of women to be bitchy or fake. I have absolutely no interest in this and therefore certain types of women tend to not like me much.

So yes, I had my doubts as to whether I was going to love these meetings.

Luckily for me, I turned out to be wrong. Mothers Group is awesome! It's so good to be able to meet up with a group of people who are in the exact same situation as me. We share horror stories, tips, ideas, experiences... and we feel so much better knowing that everyone else out there is experiencing similar things with their babies. Not everyone in the group is someone that I want to be lifelong friends with, but everyone is nice and friendly and it doesn't matter that we have nothing else in common because we have the one most important thing in common... we're new mummies!

Having moved to Melbourne from the country, and not having many friends with children in Melbourne, it's really nice to meet people who are on the same page as you when you want to talk about baby poo, sleep or how you cannot find the time to cook dinner. As much as I love my workmates and friends without children, they just don't quite understand the same way my mothers group friends do. I'm actually pretty lucky to have my sister-in-law only a 5 minute drive away and she is home with her baby also. She's been an amazing support to me but it's still nice to meet people outside of family as well.

So yes, soon-to-be mothers, when someone suggests Mothers Group and you think "meh, not for me", give it a go. You might surprise yourself. I've even found a walking-buddy in one of the mums, since she lives a few blocks away. Who would have thought I'd actually make friends at this thing?!