Connection.
A Mum’s Story
I’ve got social anxiety, so my health visitor told me about Better Start because I was just, like, staying in with the kids all the time. One of them’s got additional needs, you see, but we started going to the group at Talbot and Brunswick Family Hub every Monday and it really helped her.
We go to the playgroups mostly, like ShowTots, and the ones at the libraries.
We enjoy them. All of them! And all my friends do too. They’ve started coming as well and so we all go down as a group. We’ve got a nice circle now.
I don’t always know who’s going to come. Sometimes I just get up and think, right, I’m going to take my son to ShowTots on my own. I still have to build myself up to it, you see.
But then I see one of my friends and I’m like, “Are you going to ShowTot’s?”
And she’s like, “Yeah.”
And I’m like, “OK, well let’s walk down together.”
So, it’s good for me, socially, and the children, because they get to learn while they’re there.
I’ve got a really nice relationship with the staff, too. Yeah, the staff are lovely.
My son’s got behavioural difficulties. Last year he kept having meltdowns. But the staff kept me calm, even when he was slapping me in the face. They kept me calm and they gave me a drink. And it was just nice to be able to be with them when it was all going on.
He’s really matured since then, but it was hard at the time.
I don’t know how to explain it. I don’t know how to put it into words, but it’s more than a playgroup.
A Dad’s Story
I moved to Blackpool when I was 15. I’ve bounced around the country a lot, but I always seem to land back here. Now my parents are situated here too.
There’s nowhere like Blackpool, there really isn’t.
We had a baby during lockdown and we really suffered. We didn’t have access to any of the classes - none of the pre-natal, or post-natal stuff, None of it. And at that point, I think we’d only had three midwife visits. So, it was a bit of a ropey time.
I heard about Better Start through the Park Rangers just down the road from us at Gorton. There’s a little sort of gardeny bit and they were doing some outdoor activities like messy play and things.
I really like it, cos its different. One week they made a fire and roasted marshmallows. Another one they were catching bugs and stuff. Yeah, it’s a bit of me – I like naturey outdoorsy things.
My wife takes her to ShowTots at the new ShowTown Museum and I’ve been a few times too.
It’s like an interactive playgroup that’s linked to the Vaudeville side of Blackpool, so you find out a bit about Blackpool’s entertainment history as well. It’s good to have somewhere new to go with the kids.
The Five Cs