I arranged a neighbourhood meeting for new parents. Suggestions?

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

When it comes to babies and infants, I suppose a good neighbour IS better then a friend living far away. Think of the opportunities for exchanging babysitting, exchanging used baby and kids’ stuff, help with bringing and fetching, playdates, and generally neighbourhoodly mutual support.

So, instead of holding a babyshower, I printed 200 leaflets more or less what I stated above, inviting parents for a get-together. I delivered the leaflets door to door, in a circle of two streets from my own home.

The past week, I got four responses from families with kids about the age of the soon-to-be-expected MaastrichtSon. I’m going to meet them over tea and cake next Sunday afternoon. I hope some useful or otherwise pleasant aquaintances can be made that way!

Does anyone have any suggestions or experiences with this sort of thing?

2

No particular suggestions or experiences here, but I’d just like to say I think that was a brilliant idea, and I hope it ends up with a good neighborly support group. Good for you!

3

I don’t have any experience, but my sister was part of a babysitting co-op when her kids were little. She said they got credits when they watched other people’s kids and then could use those to “pay” people to babysit their kids. There were some limits on how many debits you could rack up without earning credits.

It seemed like a good way to keep everything in live and prevent some people from feeling used, if parents are trading babysitting. I’d bet some system like that would work for trading toys or equipment or those things.

I wonder if diapers and such would be cheaper in volume. Maybe there’s a way to pool your resources.