PEPS (Program for Early Parent Support) is a non-profit organization, and I hadn’t heard about it until I was pregnant with Petit Macaron. I was chit-chatting with a co-worker about my coming baby and how I was nervous since he was my first. She has a toddler and told me that PEPS was a great support system for her family when they had her son. Even a couple years later, she said she was still meeting up with the families from her group.

Have you ever noticed when you hear of something new, you start to hear about it everywhere? Well, this was the case for me with PEPS. I suddenly started to hear more people rave about it and share how they are still friends with their groups years later. With all this positive feedback, I really wanted to join a group.

The program helps connect new moms and dads as they start their lives as first-time parents. When you sign up, you share the baby’s due date, where you live, and what type of group you’d like to join. The program matches up families with babies around the same age and living in nearby neighborhoods. They are usually about six to eight families in a group.

It took some persuasion on my end to get Mr. Macaron onboard, but he agreed. We signed up for a newborn group that meets on Tuesday evenings with both moms and dads (and our babies, of course!).

Our first group meeting was when Petit Macaron was seven weeks old. We met at the leader’s house and for twelve weeks, we all met at each other’s houses and discussed our achievements and challenges as first-time parents. The first few weeks the topics were assigned by the program, but the rest were topics we got to choose as a group. We discussed the usual suspects like feeding and sleep, but also topics such as the change in our relationship as husband and wife.

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 Mr. Macaron with Petit Macaron when we hosted at our home

The structure of each meeting was to start with going around to each person in the group and sharing a high and low from the week. After that, we would sing some songs to our babies together. Here’s one that Petite Macaron especially loved:

Where is (Name)? Where is (Name)?

There he is! There he is!

We’re so glad to see you, 

We’re so glad to see you,

Peek-a-boo, Peek-a-boo!

[Tune: Frere Jacques]

Then we would have a break and some social time, and then we’d dive into the topic for the day for the rest of the meeting. The leader would offer up some questions and then each person would have a chance to share their thoughts. The structure was great as it gave us all the chance to know more about each other. Also, we got to have a ladies’ night and a guys’ night during the program, which gave us all a chance to further connect and build our relationships.

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Now that the program is over, we all have decided to keep in touch and meet monthly. We’ve also met up for coffee or hung out together outside of the program. I look forward to seeing all our little ones grow up with each other.

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Mr. Macaron and I talked about the program now that it’s been a couple of months, and we both agree we are glad we signed up and joined the program. It’s an excellent way to find support and build relationships with others going through exactly the same thing as you. I often find the best friendships are built from shared experiences and being in similar phases of your lives. I do hope we all stay connected over the years.

I know the PEPS program isn’t everywhere right now. Hopefully, it continues to be successful and makes its way to your neighborhood. If you’re interested, I saw on the PEPS site that you can email an inquiry about their expansion to other cities (like yours!) at peps@peps.org.

Did you have any programs that you joined that helped you meet other new parents and find support?

Please note: These are all my own thoughts and experiences. I have not been paid or asked to write this post by the PEPS program.