Vienna Babies Club
Vienna Circle: May 2012
May 18, 2012
Becoming a parent is a big undertaking no matter where you live, but close to home, most people enjoy the support and advice of families and friends in raising and looking after their children.
The Vienna Babies Club (VBC) is an Ersatz community for pregnant women or expat parents with small children (mostly mothers, but fathers too) who speak English. The club currently has 1,200 members from 100 countries and is still growing.
New members pay a lifetime membership fee of €30 per pregnancy (so if you have twins you pay 30, not 60). Parents groups are divided by paired birth months. If your baby was born in March 2011, you’ll be in the March/April 2011 group.
"Vienna Babies Club can be whatever you want it to be," explained co-president Kimberley MacKinnon at an April meeting. She is a mother of two lively girls, who bounced around the room as their mother gave the newbies the low-down. "Some people join and only go to the flea-market and coordinate for baby-sitting swaps," two perks that seem particularly successful.
Through their newsletter, VBC also helps parents meet for squash, book clubs, yoga, choir, hiking, movies, or organizing language-specific groups and free German courses. "It’s a grassroots organization," MacKinnon explained. "If members see a need for a new event or want to initiate something, we support them through the newsletter, but the members really have the control when it comes to setting it up."
So for parents who find life easier in English, a membership in the Vienna Babies Club may be just the ticket. The groups meet often, everyone understands that life with children is not always easy to plan…
But with friends like these, help is close at hand.
Vienna Babies Club
President: Shawna Silver
0676 644 0487
info@viennababiesclub.com