Drop-in groups; Speed-dating for moms.

Drop-Ins are general playgroups in your community that have a variety of activies and have a leader to help guide the kids but you are responsible to watch your kids.  These are great for kids between 18 months and 5 years.  Especially if you have more than one kid its a great option for them.  You don't have to go every week and it isn't always the same people.

I am pretty outgoing but I find this much harder to make new friends because its like speed-dating for moms. You meet a mom, size up her kids, her and whether or not you could stand spending 2-3 hours with her and her children. Then if you like ask for her number and then hope you remember to phone her soon enough that she doesn't think you ditched her.

Some groups to look for:

• The Family Place
• Strong Start
• Community Centres
  

Baby Groups to support system.

I love these.  I was the first of my friends and my family to have children and living in a new city.  I made amazing new friends with children the same age from joining this new moms group through my health department.  We started with 16 moms and 17 babies all born between October 2004 and February 2005.  The group officially ran for I think 9 weeks but 12 moms kept it going by having what we called 'Coffee Club' every Thursday at 1pm.  Each person would hold it at their house and supply coffee and tea and some snacks.  We would be there for an hour or 2 and just chat. Sometimes during the summer people would hold a parks but because people were on vacations and husbands were home it slowed down but started again in September.   Through that we found people that we had more in common with and broke down into smaller groups and some people went back to work and left us with about 6 moms but then about a year later people started having their second babies and returned for another year.  The kids were about 3 and a half before it completely stopped.  During those 3 1/2 years I slowly built myself a community of moms that have become my support system but when I had none these people became my support system. 

I am still friend with a few of them but I personally found one of my bestest mommy friends in this group and even though we don't spend alot of time together anymore I still feel like I am so lucky to have found her.