Which one should we cancel? The dads' one seems a good choice

Well, further to my rant the other day about the lack of dads groups in the area, Lucie received a mailing yesterday with a timetable of events for parents. Out of all the groups (there's about five or six on a day), dads get one. On a Friday. In the afternoon.

That should have a stunning turn out, after which I'm sure that they'll quietly drop it due to "lack of interest". However, even if two men turn up and form their own mini-support network I suppose that that's a little result.

I needed a new bookmark yesterday so grabbed a scrap of paper I found. I do this often, I don't own any real bookmarks so will just grab anything that comes to hand. An envelope. A till receipt. You get the idea.

Today I actually read the piece of paper that I stole. It was an amendment to the timetable. It states that "due to staffing issues, the 'Lunch Munch' (groups for fathers and male carers) will now not start until the 5th February".

Maybe I'm getting paranoid. But out of ALL the groups they hold, this is the one they have issues with and they can't find ONE staff member to attend this group? They're not sending anyone such as a health visitor anyway, it says so on the timetable. So all they need is a random member of staff to go along and sit there.

Furthermore, none of the other groups are affected, so they only seemingly have issues for this hour and a half.

Lucie thinks I am being over-paranoid. But this reeks of convenience to me. To me this should have been treated as a priority if they were having staff issues, no matter how well attended it is compared to other groups.

Why?

Because it's the only group that is identified solely as a support group for men. It's the only group where males can meet up together and KNOW that they will meet other males in the same situation. As I said in my earlier post, when I have attended other groups you are almost guaranteed to be the only male there and pretty much ignored. Hell, I remember at one group as soon as Lucie walked away for a moment the lady talking to her turned my back on me as if I didn't exist.

Secondly, when Lucie's groups haven't happened, the women know each other well enough to break out and go to a different venue on an ad hoc basis.

If the aim of the council's childrens' support service is to provide a support network to different types of parents, this is one of the groups that they should have identified as a priority. Instead, I feel that they cancelled it because it is the easy option.

And I think that stinks.

Addendum: on top of what I've written above, there is actually another group on at the same time as this cancelled session, and they even get a health visitor in attendance.