Yesterday was a MOPS day.  I wasn’t sweeping and washing floors (actually if you know me you wouldn’t believe that anyway!) I was spending quality mummy time with other mummies.

I hadn’t heard about MOPS before I came to the States.  Playgroups, NCT, etc all fantastic opportunities for mummy time at home in England, but this is something different.

MOPS stands for Mothers of Preschoolers and is an international organisation (www.mops.org) and when I looked it up there are a few groups in the UK.  None of the UK groups are very local to our home town, but it has made it across the pond.

So what is it all about?  Well I get to spend two and a half hours in the company of some lovely women while our children are being looked after in the church preschool.  Not just in a separate room, but in a separate building…ok it’s across the car park, but you get my drift – I’m not juggling a cup of tea and a biscuit whilst talking to mums and keeping half an eye on my child and then doing the mad dash across the room to intervene in some antics – that are not ‘kind’.

I get to drop him off and go and have coffee and brunch – seriously no breakfast on a MOPS day (only made that mistake once!) – Brunch here means the works!!  There are hot dishes of breakfast casserole (stuff I’ve never seen before generally but yummy), cakes, fruit, yoghurt – anything goes for breakfast out here.

Tiny babies that are still with their mummies get lots of cuddles from the other mums in the room and the small ones that are too little for the preschool are in a nursery in the same building so are close by if a mum is needed.  Childcare TOTALLY sorted.

So there is food, conversation, discussion, fellowship and support.

There is a theme, a curriculum that is provided, so there are videos to watch and plenary bits, there is reference to scripture and there are prayers but the main action takes place in smaller groups.

What I liked about it when I first went along – knowing none of the other women there – was that I was allocated to a table.  In fact I had spoken to my table leader on the phone beforehand so already felt that I had been welcomed and that I knew where I was heading.  I had checked out the preschool the week or so before, so I knew where my son was going to be and he had had a chance to look around and get excited about the place and what he would be doing.

So instead of walking into a room full of people and feeling like I had to get to know everyone – I was immediately part of a small group and could get to know them first.

And now I feel like a have a wider network to share and do things.  There are opportunities for Moms Night Out that are organised by MOPS and then there are all the incidentals that come when women get to know one another, the play dates and socials and being at the end of a text message.