Hi Everybody,

We have a pretty big meeting and are lucky enough to have many core
mothers. I really like having lots of experienced mothers at a meeting
because they not only provide an example of successful parenting and words
of wisdom and expereince but it means that we leaders don't have to be the
"ones with all the answers." I like it best when good information comes
from other mothers.

That said, our problem is that we have very noisy group meetings and the
new mothers and the pregmant moms-to-be get rather overwhelmed and don't
tend to participate or ask questions. When I found that I had to shout over
the noise of the children to end a meeting I figured it was time to change
things. We meet in a local church in their nursery (great because it comes
with toys).  There is also a room upstairs where they have church coffee
where we can meet but it is open so it is inappropriate for toddlers. We
tried splitting the group with the food and socializing time downstairs
with the children before the meeting and after.  We had one leader lead a
toddler meeting downstairs and the other two upstairs with 3 pregnant moms
and 5 moms with babies, the oldest was about 5 months.  The moms downstairs
were happy and I thought that the meeting upstairs went really well.  They
asked lots of questions and we covered a lot of different things and nobody
had to shout.  But we don't have the advantage of having the experienced
mothers with us. The socializing before and after doesn't seem too
effective as mothers arrive late and some leave right away. In particular,
at last week's meeting a new mother brought up pumping while she was in a
wedding and my co-leader deftly said that some mothers hire someone to
watch the baby at or near the weeding so that the mother can nurse. But
then the new mom mentioned that she was going to be going away for three
days in October. I answered the question about how frequently she would
need to pump and both my co-leader and I tried to gently say that the baby
might not deal well with her absence. I really didn't want to make this
mother feel like she was wrong and really wished that there was an
experienced mom there to jump in and say how she decided to postpone the
romantic weekend with her dh or took the baby along and had a great time,
or something!

Does anybody else have a large noisey meeting and have any ideas or solutions?

Alexandra Williams, LLLL
Katonah, NY
Mother to Oliver (11/15/94) and Amelia (5/27/97)
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