When building a moms group, it is important to know the needs of your parish. Each parish is unique and therefore every moms group will also be unique. Here are some questions to help you get started in figuring out what your parish's unique needs are.
Is your group a Mom's Group, a Women's group, a Parents Group?
A Moms group or a Women's Group?
Is your parish relatively small? If so, you might want to consider having the group be a Women's group in which some events are tailored to moms, while others, such as a bible study, could be open to everyone. Our group functions as a mom's group since our parish is large and has a separate women's group. However, we once had older women come to one of our bible studies. Although we welcomed them with open arms, we did notice that it did change the dynamic of our group. Thus, if your parish is large enough to support both a women's group and a mom's group, I would suggest trying to keep your group tailored to moms who have children ages 0-18. I think it is beneficial to focus the group on the age of the children rather than the age of the mom because in this day and age, some moms are grandmothers who are raising their grandchildren. Although they are much older, they can definitely relate to what many young moms are going through.
A Moms group or a Parents group?
Our parish is large enough to support a Moms group, a parents group, and a dad's group. When the moms group was formed, the women began to realize that they wanted to have a group to support their husbands. Soon, the parents of young children group was formed. As the dads started to meet with each other, they began to have a desire to have a group of their own. Now, we have a moms group for the women, a dads group for the men, and a parents group. While there is definitely overlap in the groups, each group has a unique focus.
Moms group: Focus is on living out our vocation as women, wives, and mothers.
Dads group: Focus is on living out the vocation as men, husbands, and fathers.
Parents group: Focus is on living out the vocation of parenthood and building strong
marriages.
Age of the children
What are the ages of the children in your church? Perhaps you have a lot of moms of preschoolers or school agers? Or maybe most of your moms are parents of teenagers? This will impact how you want to design your group. Most of the moms in our group have young children. As such, most of our children's events are tailored to the preschool and school age groups. I suspect that as our group grows or as our children age, we will incorporate more events that are more focused on the teenagers.
Are your moms stay at home moms (SAHM) or working moms?
Our moms group has a mix of both SAHM and working moms. Therefore, we hold two separate bible studies at a time. One is held during the day when kids are in school, and the other is held at night when working moms are off of work.
At the end of the day, only you can know what will work best for your parish. You may find that your group has to adapt and evolve. Maybe you'll be like our group...start as a moms group and blossom into a moms, dads, and parents group. Whatever the case, know that we are praying for your group! Don't be afraid to jump in...you've got this and all groups start somewhere!
Yours in Christ,
Jenna
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