Why do dads get priority on weekend baby classes?

A few days ago, an old school friend on Facebook put the following post up:

“Just logged onto the Hoop app to see what is on this weekend for my son and these were the first things to come up. Yes it is great for Dads to spend time with their kids and give the Mums a break, but what about the full time working Mums who also miss out on the weekday kids activities? No special groups for us! “

It immediately hit a nerve with me, being a full time working mum.

Then, two days later I saw another post by the leader of a baby class.

“Hello Parents..! We are looking at the possibility of opening up Daddy & Me sessions on a Saturday morning. This would only be for daddies and babies to enjoy and would run once a month. Is this something you would be interested in?”

Now I was really annoyed.

It’s always annoyed me a wee bit that there are no classes like this for full time working mums to enjoy.

Now, I know that the majority of dads are the ones that spend the least amount of time with their children. I always feel like full time working mums are a bit of a rarity. But as one myself, I would love the chance to take Zach to a class like this on a weekend. If the other half came too, then it would just be an added bonus.

We do take him to a rugby tots class on a Saturday morning, but unless it’s a sporting one, there doesn’t seem to be any others out there and when there are, they are specifically for dad. The other half and I pretty much spend the same amount of time away from Zach during the week so why does he get preferential treatment over me?

The friend who wrote the initial post has a partner who is a police officer and so works shifts. I am sure there are many other men out there who are also shift workers meaning that quite often, mums who work are also home alone with the kids on a weekend.

The friend in question sent an email to a local baby class, enquiring about the monthly saturday sessions that seemed to be available, only to be told that they are suspended for the foreseeable future but that hopefully they’ll see her at a weekday class instead! She works full time…it’s impossible! 

She did reply explaining as much and surprise surprise heard nothing more! We are both sure that if it was a dad emailing asking the same question, it wouldn’t have been suggested to them that they go to the weekday class instead!

So my question is, why can’t there be a ‘working mum and children’ weekend session?

Why can’t there be a Saturday morning parents baby sensory?

Or a Saturday morning parents music class?

Or a weekend playgroup?

Why do any that do exist on a weekend, have to be focussed primarily on dads?

Because us working mums want to spend time with our children as well, doing things that we would have loved to have been doing during the week if we weren’t working full time.

Honestly, if I had the time and money, I’d ruddy well set one up myself!

I’ve been nominated for ‘working parent blogger of the year’ at the mumandworking awards. If you’d like to vote for me just click on the image below to take you to the voting form!