There are a dozen women from the Tuesday Morning Covenant Discipleship Group at First United Methodist Church, Bloomington, IN. Among them they have 22 children, ages 2 1/2 months to 10 1/2 years (and assorted husbands)—which adds up to a total of 84.5 experience years with children! They have met for two years in their weekly CD group and have been supporting and supported in their faith and motherhood journey.

With the wealth of experience and the desire to help other new mothers and fathers in their parenting role, they considered how they might fulfill their covenant, particularly in the areas of compassion and justice. One delightful result was the birthing of A New Parent’s Helpful Handbook. They describe the beginnings in the Foreword:

As a covenant group we share many personal issues with each other. The one we found that binds our group together is motherhood: the joys, the adjustments, the stresses and even the struggles to be involved, caring parents. Consequently, our cove-nant with each other became the idea for this booklet. We hope it serves as a source for you to refer to for support and information that we have found helpful as parents.

The sections that follow include:

Biographies of each mother, complete with phone numbers and the identification of specific areas of expertise, e.g., C-section deliveries, Lamaze, colic, adoption, active and sleepless babies, juggling jobs and kids, sibling jealousy, etc.

Words of Wisdom and Encouragement: “Remember, you’re helping create a new person and creation is messy.” Both delightful and difficult stages of infancy and childhood pass by quickly; try to appreciate each of them, and learn from them.”

Practical Advice, e.g., “Use a backpack carrier when you’re trying to fix dinner instead of having a screaming little one at your feet.” “Buy generic diapers! Most of us bought the expensive ones for the first child and then realized the store brand diapers are every bit as good.” “If you leave your child in the nursery, take a pager and you will be paged if needed.”

Church Resources:

Family Worship Pacs are handmade denim school bags with handles which hold materials for children to use during Family Worship. They include new things each week: Bible puzzles, pictures of the story of the week to color, small books to read, and clean paper for them to illustrate what they’re hearing in the sermon or what was read in the Scriptures, etc. These pictures are posted on a bulletin board (if the child wants them up) during the week. One picture is used the next week as the drawing on the front of the worship bulletin (with the child’s name and age included). I’ve heard folk say (and thought myself), “I wish I had these for my kids when I was bringing them to worship as young children!”

Parent’s Day Out: a program designed to give parents a safe, structured environment in which to leave their children while they work, run errands, or just rest!

Family Night: second Saturday of every month.

Covenant Discipleship Groups. Take a whole hour once a week for spiritual growth. It could be the highlight of your week! Childcare available.

Parish Nurses.