BY CLARA A RODRIGUES | NT NETWORK

“When you become a mother, you lose on your ‘me’ and ‘our’ time,” says Smitha Diaz.

Many identify with this experience.

To help you get back your ‘me’ time and to be yourself while bonding with your child Smitha has picked a leaf out of the prevailing international scenario and started a new club called the Mommy and Baby Club.

Smitha, the director of 1der Kids, a preschool, says that she could best understand the situation mother’s face after she became a mother herself; after she had to make a switch from being a corporate trainer to a stay-at-home mom to look after her now three-year-old son.

Generally, many clubs and institutions refuse to admit toddlers or involve themselves in any toddler-related activities, and baby and mother have to spend the entire day at home doing nothing constructive to increase the bond between them, explains Smitha. She elucidates further saying that a mother has abundant love for her child but she does not know how to channel that love.  Motherhood is a transition period for a woman. Factors like post-natal depression, peer and social pressures, issues of relocation, transfers all pose problems at times.

“I have seen how difficult it becomes for a single child to make friends. What we will do as part of the club activities is organise activities that the mother and child can do together like treasure hunts, aerobics, theme weeks, presentations. This strengthens the bond between the mother and child further. Also when moms talk to someone, it’s serves an outlet for their creativity, which they have missed for so the many years,” says Smitha.

Parents are often over-protective about their kids and in the bargain lose out on so much. Sometimes they have reason to be overprotective but many times fears can be irrational and it is when you have a proper social support like a club like this to explain these things to you that you realise how petty some fears are after all.

The club is like an open house and is especially ideal for first time mothers, stay at home moms and career moms. It is almost similar to a small community that comes together to do things. The club members meet once a week for three hours. The club is equipped with caregivers, paediatricians, child psychologist and even a dietician.

So from baking cookies to gardening, a kind of small community evolves, which strives to make optimum use of time to cement the fragile and impressionable relationship.  

Smitha also has lined up plans for a grandparents club. She says, “Parents are often neglected when they become grandparents, they either take on the role of the official baby sitter and grandchildren mostly do not spend much time with their grandparents as families become increasingly nuclear. We want grandparents to come here and share their experiences or read a story.  We believe they have a lot to give and tell. If grandparents have grandchildren living abroad and miss them then they can come and spend time here.”

At a time when people are becoming increasingly distant despite technology making the world a smaller place to live in, efforts that help bring communities together are worth a mention and clubs like these are definitely worth mentioning. 

(All mothers with young children (1month to 4yrs) can join the club. Call on 9373089191/9326741317 for information)