A question for those of you who belong to MOPS chapters!

I'm looking into playgroups to join once we move this fall, and there is a chapter of MOPS nearby. But - it seems pretty church-oriented, and I'm, well, Jewish! :lol: Is it something I would still enjoy, or would I feel out of place?

I think there was a thread about this on UB a while ago. The basic response being, it all depends on the particular group. I know that the general routine is closing (and opening?) with a prayer, and that if you have any aspirations to rise in the ranks at all, you'd better be particularly religious, but the shades of gray between those vary on the group.

Well, I'm certainly not averse to an opening or closing prayer and I'm not exactly a rise-in-the-ranks kinda person :lol: so no worries there. I guess once we've moved, I'll go to a meeting of our local chapter and see how it is!

Thanks for the info!!

I must ask: What is MOPS?

Mother's of Preschoolers. It's basically a group for sahm's to go to during the day. The one near us we every other thursday (with service projects on the other thursdays), and they had a speaker at all the meetings and all the meetings were a pot luck of snacky and dessert type foods as well. They hire people to watch the babies in other places of the church. I only went once...it wasn't to religious really, but they would not allow me to nurse in the main room where we were having our meeting cause that was the sanctiuary (and nursing infront of God is wrong...or something) and they wouldn't let me nurse in the nursery cause some of the mom's were uncomfortable with the idea of their children seeing a woman's breasts (there children all being under 6 months in this particular room), Janelle didn't take bottles and there was no way I could guaruntee she wouldn't need to eat during the whole 3 hour thing, so we never went back...A lot of my friends in other areas go and really love it though and have never had problems like that, so I figure it was the my particular mops and I should try one of the many others in this area.

Each MOPS group is different. Some do pray, some don't. As for the one Jillian went to, that's just weird :) The one at our church has a prayer chain and prayer list, but they do not force it on anyone who doesn't want to take part so that they can leave it open to so many more people. They ask that children who are older than 6 months not be brought into the meeting just as not to distract other people. If they need to be nursed, the nursery workers page the mother to come nurse.

I say check it out, and if you aren't comfortable with that one, there usually is another one nearby. There's probably 10 MOPS groups in my area really close to me.

Have you looked into whether or not there's a MOMS Club (Moms Offering Moms Support) in the area? It sounds similar to MOPS, but there aren't any religious affiliations as far as I know...DD and I are also Jewish, and we just joined our local chapter. They have monthly meetings, Mom's Night Out, weekly playgroups, service projects, and different activities (scrapbooking, cooking, book clubs, etc.). If you send email to momsclub@aol.com with the name of your town and your zip code, they'll check to see if there is a local chapter and, if so, send you the contact information.