MOPS anyone and no, not the floor cleaning device!

[malibuconlee]

MOPS

Mothers of PreSchoolers...anyone participate? The one I've been going to for the last year is losing it's whole steering committee, except the current Finance Coordinator! So I've agreed to join steering even tho I can't guarantee I'll be here for the whole year. I'll be Service Coordinator.

What was your favorite meeting? What kind of speakers did you have?

I'm hoping we make some changes to the format of the group. We also have lots of issues with punctuality and attendance is all over the place.

My suggestion for speaker is to see if we can get a Pediatrician or even a PA from a Peds office in to answer questions. And we did a thing on breast cancer this year that was supposed to include bra fittings but the bra fitting person cancelled, so I would love to get that back on the schedule.

Thanks in advance for any input/advice!

 

[happygirl]

MOPS

Mothers of PreSchoolers...anyone participate? The one I've been going to for the last year is losing it's whole steering committee, except the current Finance Coordinator! So I've agreed to join steering even tho I can't guarantee I'll be here for the whole year. I'll be Service Coordinator.

What was your favorite meeting? What kind of speakers did you have?

I'm hoping we make some changes to the format of the group. We also have lots of issues with punctuality and attendance is all over the place.

My suggestion for speaker is to see if we can get a Pediatrician or even a PA from a Peds office in to answer questions. And we did a thing on breast cancer this year that was supposed to include bra fittings but the bra fitting person cancelled, so I would love to get that back on the schedule.

Thanks in advance for any input/advice!

Hi I have been very active in this group for atleasat 4 years. It's a wonderful group. We do a on time drawing to get people there on time. We have all kinds of speakers, from people who speak on making budgets to cake decoraters. We do lots of crafts people love them. We also had a spa day that was lots of fun. Please let me know if you have any questions.

 

[malibuconlee]

Thanks! Our group does an "Early Bird" drawing, but that doesn't seem to help. I think part of it is the El Paso culture. Everything seems to start late here, even professional events!

They did a spa day this year, which I missed because my daughter was sick.

What is the format of your meeting? I've gone to another group that does things entirely different from this one.

One format:
Come in, drop off your child, grab breakfast, sit where you want, then prayer to open meeting/announcements,drawings. Followed by alternating meetings of speaker/craft. The last 30 minutes (sometimes not that long depends on how long other things last) you separate into classrooms for small group discussion. Really liked this format.

This group does drop off, wait until time to open the meeting, then stand in line for breakfast, announcements, then speaker/craft, sometimes both. Feels a bit disorganized. All while sitting with your "table". I find this way is harder to meet the other women outside of your table. I joined a meet-up group and one of the other moms has been to several of the meetings and I honestly didn't know she attended! (We go to another church that doesn't have MOPS or moms day out programs).

Aparently last year this group had a different format, I only got to attend 2 meetings, one of which was tea and testimony, so didn't get a good feel. I guess they had a speaker every week? Not really sure but then they also separated out into different groups a craft group, a scrapbooking group, a book club , and maybe one other. They opted not to go that route this year. But I guess you would get to know some of the other women in that format.

Thanks for your input!

 

[happygirl]

Drop of kids
Eat breakfast
annoucments/ door prizes
Ice Breakers
Speakers
discussion times popcorn question/ videos
Craft
goodbyes

We are pretty laid back group. If we don't get everything done in one meeting that fine, We are about visting and fellowship;

 

[couponclary]

I've been in MOPS for 2 years and served actively on the steering committee for the past year. We are actually giving up our charter due to budget issues for next year, but we will still be meeting at church doing all of the "usual" activities, just using a new name: Time Out! . Another reason that we decided not to renew was because we had several moms who had children age out of the program or homeschool kids "too old" to participate, but they still wanted to be involved in our group due to close friendships & activities, so we are now using "little ones" to define the age "limit" of the group so K & 1st grade parents can continue to be involved and get support. Did your entire steering committee "age out"??? Yikes!

We've had a pediatric nurse practitioner come and talk about first aid & kids medical issues and then just opened it up for questions...and it was awesome! Having an hour+ to pick the brain of a kids medical professional was amazing, so nice to have all of those questions that aren't "important" enough to call back and ask after you forget them at appointments (but really want the answer to) was VERY informative!

We had a friend with a cosmetology background come last week to discuss skin care & makeup brands, technique, colors, etc. What was really great was that she wasn't selling anything, has worked for many top make-up artists and could just give her opinion. (We often get Mary Kay, Avon, BeautiControl reps who want to come and "talk" , do a treatment or two...and then go for the sell, which we do not do!).

We've done Going Green, Couponing (we actually used this as a fundraiser after such a positive response at the meeting and made $2200 for childcare!), Dave Ramsey, Water Safety...drawing a blank on the others! We try to balance speakers, discussions, crafts & service projects.

 

[SAHDad]

I would love to be in MOPS, but they are really adamant about that whole "Must not have a Y-chromosome" thing.

And, since there are a couple MOPS (or equivalent groups) around here, starting up a new, mixed-gender group (because there are other SAHDs around here) just hasn't worked - there aren't enough SAHDs to really get a group off the ground, and most women are already in a group, and don't want to add another one.

(FWIW, the non-MOPS groups claim that men are welcome, but, let's face it. . . we're about as welcome as ants at a picnic, and boy, do they let us know it! Pity that it is our kids that pay the price for that kind of close-mindedness.)

 

[malibuconlee]

Not sure what's happening with the whole team, but the asst. coordinator is aging out and several are moving away. It's a military town with lots of military moms and wives of government contractors, so I know some on the steering team are relocating and one is the wife of a missionary and his visa running out and will not be renewed.

Dave Ramsey/budgeting are good topics, I have a lady we go to church with that does financial planning she gave a presentation with no pressure to use her services to the guys my husband works with. I think getting her in to give a presentation is a good idea!

 

[NewCrew42]

I did MOPS when my kids were small. They are now 15 and 12. One of the best things ever was the first aid talk. I have used that so many times, even recently. The part I really remember and always think "Thank you MOPs!" is when to go to the ER or drs. office for a cut or if you think your child has a broken bone. I have easily been able to assess cuts, and have even been way away of student docs as to whether or not we need stitches.

I think scrapbooking was really big when I was in MOPS. We had that as our craft several times.

Wish I could remember more. It seems like it was only yesterday.

 

[malibuconlee]

I would love to be in MOPS, but they are really adamant about that whole "Must not have a Y-chromosome" thing.

And, since there are a couple MOPS (or equivalent groups) around here, starting up a new, mixed-gender group (because there are other SAHDs around here) just hasn't worked - there aren't enough SAHDs to really get a group off the ground, and most women are already in a group, and don't want to add another one.

(FWIW, the non-MOPS groups claim that men are welcome, but, let's face it. . . we're about as welcome as ants at a picnic, and boy, do they let us know it! Pity that it is our kids that pay the price for that kind of close-mindedness.)

Sorry to hear that! ARe there any Mom's Day Out programs in the area? I"m sure your child would be welcome at those and get a chance to interact with other kids.

You could try meetup.com and see if you could start a playgroup open to all? I think the cost is $75 every six months and if you could get one started you could recoup your costs by charging $10/year or 6 months to members.

 

[Syrreal]

I would love to be in MOPS, but they are really adamant about that whole "Must not have a Y-chromosome" thing.

And, since there are a couple MOPS (or equivalent groups) around here, starting up a new, mixed-gender group (because there are other SAHDs around here) just hasn't worked - there aren't enough SAHDs to really get a group off the ground, and most women are already in a group, and don't want to add another one.

(FWIW, the non-MOPS groups claim that men are welcome, but, let's face it. . . we're about as welcome as ants at a picnic, and boy, do they let us know it! Pity that it is our kids that pay the price for that kind of close-mindedness.)

Is there a MOMS club in your area? We have a SAHD in ours right now and so does one of the other MOMS club (our city has 3).

 

[binny]

Hi there, I have started 2 MOPS at 2 different churches and loved it.

One of my favourite mettings was when we had a baby shower to honour all of the babies born that year. Instead of gifting the mothers though all presents went to a local charity, whose president attended the meeting. The gals were so generous! They were stocked on diapers, blankets, etc for a long time

We had talks from pediatricians, we did a basic First Aid course one meeting, we had a lot of input from our wonderful church ladies, some amazing talks about relationships, we had a finacial planner come in and talk about how to to establish a savings plan even when youre paying for diapers. There was an awesome cook in our church who came in a did a segment on cooking for the month

We also had demonstrations on how to make your wardrobe go farther. The cool thing about that was the woman who led that meeting actually had a business doing that. Everyone brought at least one item they no longer wanted and we also had a clothing swap! It was a lot of fun! She showed us new ways to pair things together and how to make old outfits look new by adding different things to them.

Oh and we had a personal organizer come in that was one of my favourites! She talked about a lot of things and was very motivating!
We had an amazing craft leader so we usually had some wonderful craft to take home.

We covered a lot of topics in my time as leader but the baby shower was my favourite I think!

A lot of people in the community are willing to come and talk about their business. Its really free advertising for them so its a win-win.
(ETA we promoted them as so and so from XYZ company but there was no selling allowed. I realized after I reread that it sounded weird)

Wow youve made me think about some things that I had totally forgotten about Thanks
I have life long friends because of MOPS and I really needed it at the time!

I really enjoyed my time with MOPS I hope you do too!

 

[SAHDad]

Is there a MOMS club in your area? We have a SAHD in ours right now and so does one of the other MOMS club (our city has 3).

In theory, there is, but I think they are actually defunct (the website is no longer available, and the bad contact info is almost two years old). As I said, even the local groups which do not explicitly exclude men (as MOPS does) aren't exactly welcomming to the SAHD crowd.

I have pretty much given up on trying to find anything. I do not have the time or the inclination to try and start something from scratch, and I am done trying to fit in places where I am clearly not welcome. I just don't understand why so many of these clubs feel the need to exclude men. As I see it, if you don't want any SAHDs/single dads/involved dads in your meeting, then you probably shouldn't be complaining that the men aren't involved in taking care of the kids.

ETA - there is a Newcomers Club, to which we belonged for several years. We never did much with them, in large part due to the fact that we told them, repeatedly, that I am a SAHD, that I do almost all of the childcare/cooking/cleaning/etc. . . . and yet, every month, the newsletter arrived addressed to DW, they would call and ask DW if she needed babysitter recommendations, etc. Being a member was kind of like banging my head against a brick well - it never accomplished anything, and boy did it feel good when I stopped.

 

[binny]

In theory, there is, but I think they are actually defunct (the website is no longer available, and the bad contact info is almost two years old). As I said, even the local groups which do not explicitly exclude men (as MOPS does) aren't exactly welcomming to the SAHD crowd.

I have pretty much given up on trying to find anything. I do not have the time or the inclination to try and start something from scratch, and I am done trying to fit in places where I am clearly not welcome. I just don't understand why so many of these clubs feel the need to exclude men. As I see it, if you don't want any SAHDs/single dads/involved dads in your meeting, then you probably shouldn't be complaining that the men aren't involved in taking care of the kids.

Im sorry that you feel so shunned. We would have welcomed men into it but honestly there never seemed to be any men in our church that were interested in it. There was a local MOPS group that did have men in it though. Its isnt tough to get a group of guys together to hang out at a park for awhile, Ive done that in the absence of a formal group. Once you get a play date going perhaps someone else would be willing to start something more formal.

 

[mykidsand_i]

I was in MOPS up until August. We had a very laid back group. We did ours in the mornings and always included a brunch for people who were there on time. We didn't have much of a problem with people not showing up, or people being late. For most of the years I was in it, we did a 'bring a brunch' where people signed up once every 4-5 months to bring a brunch item...didn't need to be a big deal...rolls, fruits, breakfast bakes...then, they were told that if they used a recipe, to bring their recipe incase people wanted it- it became a recipe exchange and worked out well.

We met at our church and a few ladies from our church always did a small devotional. We'd talk about christian parenting...Then, we'd have kind of an open disscussion about what struggles we were going through as women. most people participated, but we kept it on track and didn't allow it to become a big complaint session.

Eventually, we decided to throw a coupon exchange into the mix and that ended up being quite fun and comical. There were some of us that all went to McDonalds with all of our kids after because we stayed a bit longer than planned.

 

[Syrreal]

In theory, there is, but I think they are actually defunct (the website is no longer available, and the bad contact info is almost two years old). As I said, even the local groups which do not explicitly exclude men (as MOPS does) aren't exactly welcomming to the SAHD crowd.

I have pretty much given up on trying to find anything. I do not have the time or the inclination to try and start something from scratch, and I am done trying to fit in places where I am clearly not welcome. I just don't understand why so many of these clubs feel the need to exclude men. As I see it, if you don't want any SAHDs/single dads/involved dads in your meeting, then you probably shouldn't be complaining that the men aren't involved in taking care of the kids.

ETA - there is a Newcomers Club, to which we belonged for several years. We never did much with them, in large part due to the fact that we told them, repeatedly, that I am a SAHD, that I do almost all of the childcare/cooking/cleaning/etc. . . . and yet, every month, the newsletter arrived addressed to DW, they would call and ask DW if she needed babysitter recommendations, etc. Being a member was kind of like banging my head against a brick well - it never accomplished anything, and boy did it feel good when I stopped.

That's no good. I think a lot of times there are groups that forget that SAHDs need as much support as SAHMs. All of us are just trying to get some socialization in and trying not to feel so alone/overwhelmed/stir crazy/etc.

The only other place I can think of for you to check in meetup.

I know you mentioned that there weren't enough SAHDs to create a formal group but even 2 or 3 can make for a good playgroup/regular hangout.