02/09/2025
Absolutely love this response from Tots Play.. so true 👌🏼💕
Our franchisee Kaye from Tots Play Newport and Cwmbran has shared with the perfect response to this article, which I've copied below.
Baby classes are a lifeline for so many parents and we're proud to be able to offer that support whenever it's needed, and it's needed now more than ever before.
Thank you Kaye and all our amazing franchisees across the UK for everything you do ###
"I saw this article earlier and it made me sad…
I see you, Vogue magazine, is that how you see us? Those of us who run baby classes? Is that what you think we’re about? Just a money making scheme? Because if you’re in the business of making money then the baby class industry definitely isn’t for you.
So why do we do it? We do it for all the mums and parents out there who genuinely love and need us. We do it because we were there once, sent home from hospital with that new, precious little bundle without a clue about what we were doing.
Yes we may have read every book, every article, listened to every podcast, followed every influencer who had just had a baby (and still had a pristine house)… but you know what? Once that new, tiny person is in your arms and your partner has gone back to work and you’re stuck at home under a pile of washing and stinky nappies and a sore bottom, everything you thought you knew, everything you planned, all that goes completely out of the window. And so, that’s where we come in.
We’re told it takes a “village to raise a child” and yet that “village” is no longer on your doorstep, you have to go out and get it.
And you have to rely on people like us who have given up our careers, have given up our time, who’ve booked and paid for venues, who’ve paid the insurance and the franchise fees, who’ve bought and cleaned and prepped the equipment, who’ve advertised and spent our weekends at baby shows and at baby fayres just so you can find us…
… who’ve studied the research, who’ve prepped the lesson plans (and then modified bits for each class because you know about that child on a Wednesday who doesn’t like the parachute or that little boy on a Thursday who asks “where’s the tub of rice?” every lesson so you daren’t not bring it) and answered the emails and the phone calls and assured the new parents with this bewildering, precious bundle in their arms that it will all be ok, and hugged the crying mum whose baby screamed all the way through baby massage and thinks she’s a failure…
We do it because we want you to enjoy your time with your child, so you can escape the four walls and the mountains of washing. So you can meet other new parents in the same position as you. So you can laugh about your struggles and celebrate your triumphs together and share this most amazing, wonderful, exhausting, challenging and life altering experience and yes, sing some silly songs and do some funny dances and dress your baby up in daft hats.
So yeah, I see you Vogue, a magazine whose very business model is based on flogging overpriced, unnecessary clothing and accessories and promoting unachievable levels of beauty, yes, I’m sure it is the lady down the road who has put her heart and soul into running a baby class who is committing “highway robbery”. Give me a break
Kaye xx"
"I may think that paying a woman in a pair of Lucy & Yak trousers £7.50 to spend half an hour rubbing a foil blanket between your fingers is akin to highway robbery."
🔗 - - > https://britishvogue.visitlink.me/3SL407