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PEPS group
i've only recently heard of PEPS and was wondering if anyone here has joined one of the PEPS groups. how often do they meet, what are the fees, what is a typical meeting like? thanks for your input!
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Re: PEPS group
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I've heard people rave about it and say that they've made long-term friends/playgroups from their group. You meet for 12 weeks. Everyone takes turns hosting the group in their home. It costs $150. Apparently, you're supposed to sign up asap because some areas in Seattle have waiting lists. I am personally on the fence about it. 1. because $150 seems like a lot (after shelling out for birth class, baby furniture, etc.) but more because even though I KNOW it'll be good to get out of the house and meet other people it seems like a big commitment!
Their website has a lot of good info. it's www.pepsgroup.org
I think it's a great way to meet other moms who live near you... My group turned out to be a bit of a dud, mostly because tehre was one crazy girl... and I mean NUTS.
Anyway, I did meet a couple of girls I've stayed in touch with, but I have several other friends who have stayed with their PEPS groups for over 5 or 6 years now...
Anyway, they have a website - google it - to find the prices. I think it was something $125? And it's either for 12 or 16 weeks "officially"... I forget which it is. There's a leader for those weeks, but after that most groups just keep on going.
You meet at members' houses for 2 hours once a week. You sing some songs with the babies - not as dorky as it seems.. .it was sort of good to learn some new songs - go around and talk about what's going on with you and ask questions about stuff... then there's a topic for the week that the leader helps facilitate. Tehy will sometimes bring in someone to talk about something too... like we had someone from Child Safety Specialists come in to talk about babyproofing. We were supposed to have someone come in for Baby Sign Language but it fell through.
It's good and the moms will all have kids within the same 3-4 month age group, and should live relatively locally.
If you live anywhere near Evergreen and go to the Parent Baby classes though, you can essentially get the same thing out of them, but with much better instructors who are not just nice volunteer moms, but are trained in parent education stuff... and while the Evergreen classes are bigger, you're still bound to find people that live near you and you can make a play group from that.
I did both. And would have been happy to have ended up with 2 play groups from it. But as it was, like I said, our PEPS group had a personality conflict.
My current play group is from my Evergreen class... we've been together about 2 years now.
I have a PEPS group. I think it is was a very cool experience. We started meeting in September and met for 12 weeks. You rotate houses. Our group officially ended awhile back but we still meet every week, we just don't have the leaders. I highly recommend it. It is a bit of $$, but I think it was worth it for the socialization for DS and the other moms. I signed up in the end of my 2nd trimester and we didn't get into a group until DS was FOUR MONTHS OLD. So, if you are interested, definitely sign up NOW! Part of the reason for the long, long, lonnnng wait was because there is apparently less of a demand on the eastside. For instance, the girls in my group live in Kirkland, Redmond, and Bothell. The age range of babies in my group is 3 months (meaning the youngest and oldest babies are 3 months apart). I know girls in Seattle who's babies are all born within a couple weeks of each other and live so close that they walk to the meetings at each other's houses. I guess there's more moms in Seattle so the groups cover a smaller area?? Anyhow, I really like it. If you divide the $125 up amongst the actual amount of times I've met up with these ladies, its pretty cheap.
And just because we don't have our PEPS leaders anymore, doesn't mean we don't do educational things. We actually have a guest speaker coming in 2 weeks!
FWIW, I also LOVE LOVE LOVE my Evergreen Parent - Baby classes.
But both of these programs are very different to me and serve different and worthwhile purposes.
Huge huge fan! I was/am in a PEPS group and it has been a wonderful experience. Other's have pretty much nailed the format. Our group is an amazing group of women and most of the group still meets in some capacity on a regular basis. I was one of a few who returned to work at 4 months and don't see them quite as often. However, I do keep in touch through our google group online and we still have mom's night out events, and other events on the weekends. It's been so neat to see all of the babies grow up together and also to have a network of friends who are going through the same developmental stages at the same time. One of our favorite traditions was going around the room each meeting and discussing "highs and lows" for the week. We actually maintained the tradition on email for several weeks after the babies started taking up more attention during the actual meetings.
Also, Jill is right, the singing is not nearly as cheesy as it sounds. I was one to *never* sing in public and I now stillnsing (belt!) PEPs songs to my baby. The singing is more about including the babies and also demonstrating the power it can have on babies moods and emotion. We often started singing only when there was a fussy baby in the room.
I HIGHLY encourage you to sign up. In my case, I would have paid many times the enrollment fee and have found it to be far more valuable to my daily life than many of the other classes I took or things that I have bought for baby.
I did it and thought it was great. Am not BFF's with the gals still, but we do keep in touch and get together from time to time.
More than anything, it was just nice to have people experiencing the same thing as you to get through a new/crazy time. You share stories, you support each other. And honestly, sometimes it was just the excuse you needed to get out of the house. I looked forward to each meeting.
I have another friend, their group got really close and the mom's have even gone on vacation together. I'm not sure it's the norm, but I think it's wonderful!