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BY BRANDY TUZON BOYD
THE NATOMAS BUZZ | @natomasbuzz
The MOMS Club Sacramento-Greater Natomas chapter has been doing its best to maintain a sense of community and keep club members connected during the statewide shelter-in-place order.
“Being a stay-at-home parent can feel very isolating and our weekly meetups were an amazing source of support, but with all of our in-person meetups having to be canceled, we knew we had to find a way to maintain this source of support alive,” chapter president Eloina Rogers said.
MOMS Club of Sacramento-Greater Natomas is open to all mothers who live in zip codes 95833, 95834, 95835 and 95838. It is a chapter of the International MOMS Club which offers social support and hosts activities for stay-at-home mothers and working moms alike. The chapter, started in 2002, has 58 members.
Prior to the coronavirus pandemic, MOMS Club activities were held in person, during the day, when stay-at-home moms need social-emotional support the most. The group would often meet at Natomas-area parks and held a monthly social at the North Natomas Library branch. Monthly “moms night out” activities could be dinner at a local eatery or coffee at an area café.
But that all changed two months ago when stay-at-home orders restricted use of play equipment at parks, closed libraries and restaurants.
“We created a new schedule of all online meetups with different daily themes,” Rogers said. “Virtual story time, virtual show-and-tell and virtual mom’s night in are among them.”
The group continues to use the Meetup platform to schedule its activities, but connects online using Zoom and, occasionally, via Facebook Messenger. But, said Rogers, virtual get togethers are not as well attended as in-person meetups had been.
“It’s hard to Zoom with toddlers, so the moms can’t join, “ she said. “Which means we don’t get to connect with them.”
Despite these challenges, chapter members worked collectively to create a photo collage about sheltering in place. It reads: “Staying at home since before it was cool. If we can do it, so can you. Stay home, flatten the curve. #MomLife 2020 ♥”
“We got the idea to create a quarantine collage after one of our sister chapters shared the collage they had created,” Rogers said. “We decided to add a little humor to ours to bring some much needed smiles to our members and mamas everywhere who understand what it’s like to be under self isolation with babies, toddlers and young kids.”
The chapter’s members who wanted to participate added their own interpretation of “mom life” in their individual photo, Rogers said. Some photographs depict cuddles with their kids while others capture chaos of toys scattered everywhere or children jumping on furniture.
“Most importantly we wanted to share a message that though staying at home may not be easy, we all should do our part during this difficult time to flatten the curve,” she added. “We’ve been promoting positive encouragement in the group and the moms are happy that we at least get to connect virtually and though it may be difficult, we feel fortunate we get to stay home safe with the kids.”
Rogers said chapter memberships are being extended until moms can start meeting again in person. The MOMS Club Sacramento-Greater Natomas chapter is also allowing new members to join the group for its virtual meetups, she said.
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