Support and Community For New Parents

What kind of early parenting support system do you have in place? In this episode of the Learn With Less podcast, Ayelet chats about the origins of Learn With Less, the need for support in early parenthood, the art of community building for new parents, and the joys of connecting with other parents and caregivers. Learn With Less was started to fill a much-needed gap for parents and caregivers who know they want more and who feel they “should” be able to create more out of this special, precious time with their babies and toddlers, and who want to understand more about how their babies learn so they can support them with simple activities. What started as a way to enrich both young children and their parents and caregivers became an entire platform for parent education and parent support, framed through the Learn With Less® curriculum. These podcast episodes, our blog, social media presence, the bestselling books Understanding Your Baby and Understanding Your Toddler, our email newsletter, and our live, local workshops, are the ways in which we disseminate useful information about infants and toddlers for the grownups who love them. QUICK ACCESS TO LINKS FROM THIS EPISODE: The Learn With Less® Curriculum Understanding Your Baby: A Week-By-Week Development and Activity Guide For Playing With Your Baby From Birth to 12 Months, by Ayelet Marinovich Understanding Your Toddler: A Month-By-Month Development and Activity Guide For Playing With Your Toddler From One to Three Years, by Ayelet Marinovich TEXT TRANSCRIPT OF THIS EPISODE I like being around other people. I’ve always considered myself an extrovert, and I thrive on conversation. Connection to other people has always been a major value of mine. When I had my first child, I was living abroad, and knew that if I wanted to connect with other people, I’d have to make a concerted effort. The thing is, when you’re sleep-deprived and your body and brain and entire system are recovering from the experience of bringing a human into the world, it’s kinda hard to make an effort. But I had a few things going for me. First of all, I’d had the foresight to participate in a birth prep program and a prenatal yoga class during pregnancy. I’d already started to forge some relationships through those activities, and hope that the other women who were having babies around me were also feeling like they could use some connection. Secondly, I had some tools in my back pocket from having worked professionally with parents and caregivers with young children. I knew a thing or two about play, and I knew a lot about child development. So, I decided to dangle a proverbial carrot. I invited my new friends to get out of the house, and join me to play with their babies and hang out. Each week when we met, we sang a few songs, talked about what our babies were doing,