Big Cup baby and toddler groups reopening soon
At last spring is on the way, and there is a glimmer of light as we head towards April. The Government roadmap has identified key dates for the opening up of facilities, subject to conditions being met along the way.
This has been a really challenging time for us all, not only parents / carers and children, but also for community centres and people who are running church halls, as it is not always their decision to close, but a directive from higher up. Everyone is working hard to get everything back up and running in a safe and Covid-secure environment.
The announcement that from April 12th things can start to re-open, is very exciting. We are working closely with the community centres and church halls to ensure that Big Cup can relaunch week commencing April 19th.
We had a really challenging time when they announced the first lockdown as we had to shut straight away without warning. This was something the nation had to go through together. The hardest part was getting places to open again. As much as the venues wanted to open, they needed more clarification as to when they could open and what procedures they needed to put in place. Once we got into the swing of everything again, we then had to shut suddenly once more. This decision was almost more difficult because it was not us that wanted to shut again, but because we hire the venues, the decision is completely taken out of our hands. We have continued to post wellbeing posts and activities on our Facebook page.
When we opened after the first lockdown, we had quite a few parents attending Big Cup Parent and Toddler Group. They had children to look after throughout lockdown and it was really interesting to get their perspective on how they found coping alone, struggles on co-parenting, not being able to see friends and family, and also their families and friends not being to hold their babies, even not being able to help feed the babies or leave them with a friend to do something as simple as get in the shower. In their minds they envisage such a different way of parenting and some feel this was taken away from them. Other parents feel they managed to have that one-on-one time with the baby you don’t normally get, as everyone rushes round and people and family members take over and you feel like you have to be everywhere.
However, there is a light at the end of the tunnel. I have been in contact with the venues and they are just as excited as we are to get back into the swing of things in a safe and secure manner. Dates will be confirmed on the Facebook page and we are so excited to be welcoming existing families and new families to our wonderful group. We have lots of fun and exciting activities planned and I am really looking forward to planning lots of events, which will hopefully bring us closer as a group.
If you would like more details about our Big Cup groups, please contact Danielle on 01782 627017 or danielle.southall@alicecharity.org
