From an awesome resource, lent to me when I first became a leader, called "100 Best Meetings Ever," the leaders of the Murray LLL group have now decided on a set of 4 meetings based around "Visual Aids." We'd like to pick one theme/series for at least a year. This really helps with inspiration for meeting planning and allows us some extra creativity and ideas for covering and bringing new discussion points to "the same old topics."
Timbra lead our first meeting on this theme, though we began the series with Meeting 2. We'll be sure to cover all four Series topics under this theme (through January 2012). This month's meeting focused on "Baby Arrives" and the Visual Aids were photos of common baby items that we all think we NEED before we ever become mothers. Each mother was asked to draw 2 or 3 items from a bag and then talk about why they thought they needed that item before becoming a mother, but also lead into why some of these items have become "must-haves" for their families, or possibly "never been used" items in their homes.
It was fun to hear how one family thought an item was indespensible, while another had no use for the very same item, or had never discovered a use. One item, in particular, the "carseat tent" to me, it seems like another way to say "children should be neither seen nor heard" while another mom said that her daughter stayed asleep in the carseat as an infant and it was an easy way to keep nosey strangers from poking around and waking her up, if she just wasn't in view. Another mentioned that it's a good thing for cold & flu season (when a baby is sleeping). This wasn't to say that as a group we thought leaving a baby in a "bucket" was an acceptable practice, but to say, on the occasions when a newborn is sleeping "NEVER WAKE A SLEEPING CHILD :)."
Other items that were discussed were, of course, bottles and pacifiers. Sometimes we get the feeling that these items are disdainful, but they can have their place as well. One mother talked about how her son would get so fussy in public, that he refused to nurse, but would take a bottle from her husband, so she'd pump for such occasions. Other mothers in the group work full time. We discussed thoughts on holding off for these items until 4-6 weeks or until breastfeeding is well established. Often times one will find that a baby won't willingly accept a pacifier after this period of time, others desparately wish their babies WOULD. But we want to be sure the information is out there, that often times a mother is experiencing pain because of a poor latch, therefore using the pacifier or bottle more, which is actually the cause of the vicious cycle of the continued poor latch when baby IS at breast. As far as the items in question, these need to be left to each family to decide on uses.
There were no wrong or right answers. Where one family loved their mei tai, another couldn't live without their ring sling. Most moms agreed that their beautiful, expensive, nursery centerpieces (aka cribs) made really great laundry baskets for YEARS, not all, but most. It was a really great exchange of ideas on common items that the general public seems to believe we need in order to raise a child (or have a baby).
What about you. . . . look at the items below, is there anything you bought and have absolutely no use for? Or find indispensible for your family now? Maybe there are items missing that you just LOVE and couldn't live without. Or items that worked amazingly with one baby and were never used with another. This topic took a little bit to get started, but it turned out to be such a great discussion.
