PEPS is a fabulous seattle organization which connects new parents to others in their neighborhood. Infant groups meet once a week for four months with a trained facilitator to discuss highs and lows and a different topic each week. the format is very conversational and full of sharing and listening. Evening groups tend to be comprised of couples (around 6 families) while daytime groups typically are a stay at home parent and infant (around 10 parent/child pairs). Meetings are in the homes of group members.
I was in a newborn group with my husband and greatly appreciated hearing how other new families were (or weren't) settling in. since neither of us had much experience it was very normalizing to hear about other parents struggling with the same issues we had. Also, i thought it was great for my husband to have a place to observe other parents since he wasn't going to any of the daytime mommy groups i had.
Recently i facilitated a newborn group. The training given to me by PEPS strongly promoted our roles as facilitator, moderator, mediator- not expert, teacher or promoter.
I highly recommend this program. I still see parents and children from my newborn group and our kids are 2 years old.
One last note, i have heard that some people have signed up online and then never heard back. i encourage everyone to be proactive and call the office to confirm their registration and subsequent assignment to a group.
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