Mothers form a network of support

Local stay-at-home moms are leaving their houses, making new friends and finding playmates for their children.

Top: Mothers and their children play together during a meeting of the Upper Freehold/Allentown MOMS Club in Allentown on Feb. 3. Bottom left: Charlotte Reid, 16 months, indulges in a sweet snack during the meeting. Bottom right: Victoria Domen, 5 months, gets tuckered out during the gathering. The Upper Freehold and Allentown community now has its own chapter of the International Moms Offering Moms Support (MOMS) Club. The club meets once per month but hosts additional activities for members and their children all year long.

The Upper Freehold/Allentown MOMS Club started in May when at-home mothers Barbara Nissinger and Jen Domen discovered there were no local organizations that met during the day that they could attend with their children. Over the first year, the club has grown to 20 members.

Domen, whose children are ages 5, 4 and 5 months, said her small children enjoy having the various planned activities and play dates that the club offers.

“By the time the kids get to preschool, they know half of their classmates because this is a pre-preschool,” Domen said.

Nissinger said, “The club lets stay-at-home moms meet other moms with kids their own children’s age, giving them a network of support.”

Nissinger, whose children are now 5 years old and 19 years old, said moms don’t have to have young kids to be a part of the club and enjoy the camaraderie.

Debbie Soborski, who has a 6-year-old and an 8-year-old, said the MOMS Club helps form and maintain friendships.

“The club has helped me with getting to know

lot of other mothers in the area,” she said.

The club also provides networking opportunities, according to Kim DeRisi, who joined last month with her 2- year-old daughter.

PHOTOS BY ERIC SUCAR staff MOMS Club in Allentown “One member has already signed up their child for my art school,” DeRisi, an art school owner, said.

During the club’s monthly meeting, children play while moms discuss upcoming events for children in various age groups. Meetings also feature a family craft and a guest speaker. In the past, guests have shared information about yoga, karate, college planning, water safety and public preschool opportunities.

MOMS Club members also take pride in organizing community service projects, such as helping their children plant trees on public property for Arbor Day and adopting a local family in need at Christmastime.

Cindy Bardwil, whose youngest child is 6 years old, said the community service projects help moms give their children a sense of doing something good in the community.

At least once per month, the moms get together without their children for a “Moms Night Out” during which they participate in entertaining and relaxing pastimes, such as scrapbooking, spa treatments and themed parties.

Nissinger wanted to remind local mothers that they can join the local chapter of the MOMS Club even if they have grown children.

“I am going to be organizing an emptynester group as part of the MOMS Club,” Nissinger said. “This will be for the stay-at-home mom who has the kids in full-time school. I will be starting a walking club, workout club, lunch club, etc.”

Nissinger serves as the club’s president. Domen serves as treasurer. Soborski is the secretary and Bernadette Nolan is vice president.

For Upper Freehold/Allentown MOMS Club meeting locations and information, email ufasmomsclub@ yahoo.com.