The more the merrier
Garnet Meldrum thinks more people should
make use of the playgroup. She explains how it works
Basically, it's a group of mothers who initially got together years ago at the end of1993. We were nearly all living here in Tennant Creek because our husbands had got jobs in town. The wives and kids got dragged along to this new place where they didn't know anyone and where they'd never been before, all because their husbands had good paying jobs here.
Being a transient place, I didn't know anyone when I first arrived and had no social contacts other than family. There was nothing other than the pre school that had anything for smaller children in the way of entertainment or social gatherings.
So a couple of us mums decided to get together and form this group, the playgroup, so that we could have our kids socialise together.
Also, to establish friendships and contacts, a bit of a social life basically. There are always a lot of mums around who are stuck at home with the kids and are not working.
The husbands are out at work and so they have to stay at home minding the children and unless they have family here or already know someone here, which is not very often, they are on their own. They get very isolated, especially in this little town in the middle of nowhere.
When I first came here I wasn't a mother, I came here for a work and then left and came back with a baby. All the people that I used to know before that had moved on so I had to start from scratch pretty much and I think if it hadn't been for the playgroup, I would have been pretty lonely. A lot of people that I socialise with now, I met there and that's where I've made most of my friendships.
Basically we are offering a social life for the mothers because the playgroup started out as a playground for the kids.
We try to have an activity every session, we've got two sessions a week at the moment. Each mother whose turn it is, thinks of something for the kids to do. We've got lots of craft books there - sticking, gluing, colouring, cutting and painting - something simple that they can take home and play with.
We also have little singalongs and towards the end of the session we all sit down together and have morning tea. Each mother brings a bit of fruit and there's tea and coffee there for the mums and the kids will sit down and have a feed together.
We also have outings, such as going to see the ambulances. We all go down there at 9:30 and the ambulance guy shows us around and the kids have a go at having a bandage put on and lying on the stretcher.
We've been to the fire brigade, we've been out to Kraut Downs, Juno Horse Centre and all sorts of different things. Sometimes we'll go out to the Dam and have a picnic there.
Whatever is available, we just try and make it varied and get as many mums involved as possible and to come out and so the kids can have a new experience and enjoy themselves together.
It's $3.00 per session to cover the rent costs at the Training Centre. We also have to pay for things like paper and paint and we try and buy some new equipment now and again.
We don't get any govenrnment grants or anything, we have to finance ourselves - sometimes we have fundraisers and so that's why we have to ask for the $3.00.
The costs includes tea and coffee and things like that and the kids are covered for insurance as well.
We have had the occasional father venture in. But I think they just feel really out of place, because it's mostly just a lot of mothers together and quite a few have got small babies. They'll talk about the typical things to do with babies, breastfeeding and so on and the blokes tend to bolt pretty quickly. But they are very welcome, although I can't imagine many of them coming regularly to the place!
Play Group is on every Monday and Wednesday from 9:30 am till 11:30 am at the rear of the Training Centre in Staunton Street. For more information contact Garnet on 8962 2338 or Paula on 8962 1103.