Parent and baby fundraiser

Things are in such a mess politically at the moment: I keep thinking "well, it can't get any worse, surely..." and then next time I turn on the radio/TV or check the internet it totally has, whether it's a racist incident, terrorist bombing (ok, admittedly, so far I have no heard anything to link the Istanbul airport bombings with the UK's referendum so I think that's something that I *can't* blame on David Cameron), the Labour party falling apart, Nigel Farage being rude and nasty and getting loads of press attention for it, the economy suffering or speculation on how the rights and status of EU nationals in the UK (such as my husband) might change.

Plus it keeps raining. Plus I have a baby who has decided 5am is a great time to wake up and start the day.

But in the midst of all this negativity, yesterday something really positive and lovely happened, which was my parent and baby fundraiser for Sense.

As I stated in my first blog post, my friend Vic and I picked the race we want to do first (the Royal Parks half marathon) and it was already full, so we then looked for ways we could get a place and found Sense were looking for runners. To get the place you have to pledge to raise at least £300 in sponsorship, and PR person from Sense rings you up to check you're sincere and are actually going to do the race and not just signing up on a whim. That person asked me if I had any ideas for other ways to fund raise, in addition to the basic collecting of sponsorship money, and on the spur of the moment I said that being on maternity leave I know and meet a lot of mums and babies, and that I could do some kind of baby event. Chatting at my regular Friday baby group that week I came up with a potential venue - the communal garden of my block of flats! It's summer, everyone likes to be outside in green space, the garden is very little used on weekdays when most residents are at work...why not?

Admittedly, it was touch and go at several points as my initial enthusiasm waned and I considered potential pitfalls. What if other residents were not happy about me having lots of guests in the garden? Should I ask permission from the housing association? I nearly did (and got as far as dialling the housing officer's number on day) but I was concerned permission might be refused for reasons of health and safety or bureaucracy if I made a formal request, whereas the garden is for residents to use and if I was just having a few friends round, it would never occur to me to seek permission. So we went ahead, guerilla-style.

I picked a date I didn't have any other appointments and chose a morning time slot. My lovely NCT friends and my talented mother volunteered cakes/refreshments. Debbie who runs my Friday baby group offered to lend out the stash of toys and playmats which made things much easier and simpler. I printed some invitations and started inviting people through all my maternity-leave social networks - my NCT group, Friday baby group, baby yoga class, the post-natal group I go to on a Thursday, the Facebook group for "East Dulwich winter 2015-16 babies" that I am a member of (despite living in the less genteel environs of New Cross rather than East Dulwich), the "New Cross Bumps and Babies" group. I even popped into a mum and baby exercise class that I was walking past one morning to invite them.

It was such a gamble given the VERY unpredictable English weather this June, so beforehand I had many worries: what if no one turned up? what if it rained? should I just cancel? what if it rained just beforehand so the ground was super wet? what if it was blazing hot and we all got sunburnt? what if there was an accident? what if someone's baby got kidnapped and I was held responsible? what if the neighbours all complained and I got us evicted from our flat?

However, none of these things came to pass - not even the rain. It was a really lovely morning with a great turn out of over 30 mothers (plus a very few dads; I tried to keep the invitations gender-neutral so as not to be sexist, but the reality is that it does tend to be women who spend the first months looking after a baby instead of working, so the majority of parents I meet at my maternity leave activities are mums) with their babies. My parents helped me a huge amount with the setting up, clearing away and hosting, the selection of toys from the Waldron Health Centre kept the babies entertained, my mum and my NCT friends provided delicious cake, and I managed to meet a few more neighbours who came out to see what was going on.

I collected cash donations, but I didn't expect to make a huge amount of money, especially considering the outlay on things like a folding table, picnic rugs, and drinks, but people were incredibly generous and the final tally was £159.65...a really impressive amount! Thanks to everyone who came and donated.

A lot of people were asking about my training and I had to admit I'm currently on a break from running, but "the race is ages away [October] so it'll be fine..." hmm: I might need to get a bit more serious about training soon.