I continued in my role for the next 4 years and have recently stepped down; it felt like it was time for someone else to take the role in a new direction. Although I don’t have a specific role in the branch anymore, I still try to help and support events where I can such as the Nearly New Sales, which are an amazing place to find baby essentials, toys, nursery equipment, clothes etc. at a fraction of the cost.
I found the experience to be very rewarding and felt like I was giving back to my local community. Again through this avenue I got to know such a fantastic and supportive group of people and Emelia developed great friendships through playing with friends at the weekly Friday coffee mornings.
One of our favourite NCT groups to attend was Bumps and Babies, which was just for babies up to non mobile age. This gave new mums a great opportunity to have chance to catch up with other moms going through the same things as them and enjoy a hot cup of tea, knowing that their babies weren’t going to be accidentally stood on by bigger children. It was at Bumps and Babies that I met my friend Jo, we got talking at our first meeting, when Emelia was 3 weeks old and her daughter Frankie was 8 weeks old. Jo was fairly new to the area, having recently moved from Cardiff and didn’t know many other moms in the area. We have stayed good friends and Emelia and Frankie have grown up together and love to cause mayhem together nearly 5 years on from their first meeting.
I would encourage all parents and families to look into what groups, events and support services are on offer from their local NCT branch and to keep an open mind and I am sure you will be pleasantly surprised by what you find.
Lucy blogs under the name of "Momma Mack". You can read more of her ideas & adventures here
Our NCT Journey
By Lucy