Twins' clubs

I've gotten mixed reviews about how useful/helpful twins' clubs can be. Seems that either people have loved them, or they've felt like it was a waste of money because they simply didn't have time or energy to attend playgroups, functions, etc. Since there's an annual fee involved, I'm wondering if it would be worth it. We don't have a support network here really, so that would be my number one reason for joining.

So what has been your experience, if any?

 

I love the bi-annual sales. Saved so much money getting the girls clothes there for the first few years. My club also loaned twin nursing pillows & bumbo chairs so saved some money there. I didn't really get into the playgroup until the girls had dropped to 1 nap around 18 months. Prior to that it was too difficult. Now I co-coordinate the playgroup. I was also able to go to the moms retreat this year which was a lovely break. So I would say definitely worth it for me.

 

I never joined up because the TWO that were closest to me were about 45 minutes away and sleep was my top priority! I think the comaradarie would have been awesome!

 

I love my twins' club and I'm still an active member today and my twins are 6. :good: I joined before they were born, but really didn't go to anything until they turned one, it was just too hard to get out of the house before them. But we have a great one and it offers a lot of support. :good: Each month our club has a monthly meeting, Mom's night out (LOVE this), a new Mom's coffee or get together, and playgroups for the kids (some age specific, some all ages). We also have 2 consignment sales per year, one in the spring and one in the fall that are great to shop and sell at. :good:

If you have one in your area I would definitely recommend checking it out, what do you have to lose? I would definitely give a it a bit too, I know the first time I went I didn't feel very comfortable with not knowing anyone, but after I kept going back I did. I think it would be a great support, I know our's is. :good: I would recommend them to anyone. In fact I did just last night. I found out a teacher at my girls' dance studio is 17 weeks with twins (she had both my girls 2 years ago for class and said she thought of me when she found out), so I told her about our twins' club in the area and offered to go with her. :good: She gave me her email, so I am hoping she will make it to our next meeting. Definitely check it out.

 

I loved my group in Tampa, but we moved away a couple of years ago and I haven't joined a new one. The one in Tampa also had monthly meetings with various topics of parenting/different speakers like pediatricians and sex therapists, a monthly tea for new members, playgroups, outings, a monthly MNO, a monthly Bunco game, bi-annual sales to the public, but monthly member to member sales, a newsletter, and the first three months were free. And if you signed up during pregnancy, and paid for your first year then, we brought you 10 meals once you had your twins. It is an awesome group, I'm still friends with a few of them on facebook.

Oh plus we had a quarterly large thing, like an easter egg hunt/visit to the petting zoo in the spring, a 4th of july picnic, and a Halloween and xmas/hanukkah party for all of the kids to get together.

Dang I miss that group.

 

I joined one, the closest one was an hour away from me. As others said, my twins were about 8-9 months old before I was able to attend the meetings regularily. Playdates were hard because I also had a 3 yr old, and it was difficult driving over an hour for the playdates with 3 kids by myself. I dropped out of it this year though....it's a whole long story but suffice it to say the "group" were not playing fair anymore. I didn't want to be around that environment, around the drama, plus gas was killing me driving for meetings and mom's night out's and playdates. I joined a local mom's group and it's been wonderful.

So I say if it's close by it's definitely a worthy investment of your money and your time. Especially if they do consignment sales too! For me, I'm saving gas by joining a local moms group, and have found a new consignment sale that's cheaper, $8 bucks a sale, twice a year, instead of a $35 membership fee for the twins club.

 

I've been a member since my boys were babies. I'm on the board now. It might depend on the club, but "dues" are only $25/yr and it's so worth the investment for me. The friendships are great, networking is great, getting out of the house is great, twin-friendly outings are great, moms-nights-out are great A lot of it is certainly going to depend on your particular group. There may be personalities you don't mesh with but more likely people are going to be friendly and helpful.

 

I joined ours almost entirely for the biannual sale. It was well worth the annual fee -- I'd come home with the car loaded with $5 jumperoo, $10 exersaucer, $15 toddler bike, etc. If you already have a lot of baby stuff, that might not be so helpful.

I did attend a couple of events when the twins were little, but since I WOH, it wasn't a good match. Even when they had events on weekends, most of the attendees were SAHMs who also hung out together during the week. They were perfectly nice but I always felt a little out of it. (And DH and I had our own friends, who mostly had kids the same age, though not twins.) It would have been great if I'd been a SAHM and/or needed to meet more new moms, though.

The Big Sister program was helpful to me when I was pg -- not so much after the twins were born (she was a huge BF advocate, which is great, but I gave up BF at 5 weeks). I've also had two different Little Sisters, one of whom I run into a couple of times a year (Boulder being what it is). So I guess I got some sense of community out of it -- but it was mostly the sales. I still look forward to them even though there isn't nearly as much for kids 5+.