Last month I ran a relaxation session for mums and their children together as I thought this would be a lovely way for younger children to experience a relaxation session.
I wanted to find out what mums would like the most if I were to market these sessions to the public – do they want a special time with one of their pre-school children, or would they like to be able to bring their baby along too? I have noticed that most groups are for either mums and babies (no older siblings) or mums and older children (no babies). Many mums would love to be able to go to sessions with one of their children, but they don’t have the childcare options to do that, so they need to take both children with them. For this reason, I tried out a relaxation session with a range of children – babies from 3 weeks old (who luckily slept through the session) to children who are almost five and have started school.
The results were just as I suspected!
I found out that children of 3 and over could join in and feel the benefits of relaxing with their mums most easily, and some of the babies enjoyed the snuggly part of the session when they got to lie down and have a cuddle. The toddlers (who could crawl or walk and talk a little) were the hardest to engage. They had a blast all the same because they were enjoying running around and shouting happily, but this made it difficult for the other children and mums to hear and to relax! The feedback from most mums was to have separate sessions. It was a valuable insight and I learnt a lot about the sort of space I would need to hire in order to make the best sessions possible.
Again, I would like to extend a huge thank you to all of my friends who came along to the session and helped me with my research.