[Marissa]

Hi everyone,

Marissa from OPFS here. It is Single Parents Day on Thursday 21 March.

We have some plans for raising awareness of single parent issues and celebrating single parent families for a week – https://opfs.org.uk/get-involved/news-and-events/blogs/single-parents-week-2024-recognition/

Some of our local services will be having small celebrations. We were wondering if those of you that are in other areas would like to meet up remotely to celebrate single parents day? Any thoughts on what you would like to this to involve, just a chat, a quiz, any other suggestions? Would a day time or evening suit best?

I am hoping this is a way that we can help connect single parents that have expressed an interest in meeting up. I look forward to hearing from you with any ideas.

[jp]

Who deals with the Stirling area

[Marissa]

Hi JP we only have local services for OPFS in Glasgow, Edinburgh, Dundee, North Lanarkshire and Falkirk. Unfortunately, we do not have any local services in Stirling. Our Helpline which is available to call, web chat, or post a question covers the whole of Scotland for advice and information for single parents. But unfortunately we do not provide any face to face services in Stirling area. https://opfs.org.uk/talk-to-us/lone-parent-helpline/

If there’s any other single parents on this forum in Stirling area maybe you could arrange to meet up. Theme for Single Parents Day (SPD) this year is ‘Celebrate with a cuppa’ to keep it simple and something that we hope most people would be able to do. One of my best friends lives too far away for us to catch-up in person so we schedule times to catch up by phone so that we are reserving time with each other when we are not busy making dinner, doing things for our kids etc Sometimes we watch a TV show together and chat through it as if we are sitting in the same room watching it together. SPD can also be a day to arrange a catch up with friends or family locally or hopefully we can gather enough single parents in different areas to meet up locally.

[H]

Hi Marissa,

I think it’s a great idea but would be massively out of my comfort zone as I am anxious about zoom calls BUT am willing to give it a try as it seems an ‘in person’ meet up is not an option. I’d have to install zoom on my laptop which I’m sure would be easy enough on an apple macbook air…..? If in person was an option, this would be better for me depending on where it was. In terms of when I am available, during the day when my daughter is at school works for me.

I look forward to hearing what’s coming up.

I have a few ideas for what could be good to do but will post that another time when I’m not helping my daughter learn crochet….. 🙂

[Marissa]

Hi H,

Which area of Scotland do you live in? Unfortunately we can only arrange meet-ups in the areas we have local services. But I’m hopeful that groups of parents will be able to connect via the forum and arrange local meet ups somewhere public that feels safe for everyone.

Installing Zoom is easy enough and if this is something you would be interested in, I would be happy to have a test call with you before an online meet up.

Hope the crochet is going well? We had such grand plans with it during lockdown but my daughter and I have been stuck at the very early stages of it which feels like a shame after buying all the materials and lovely coloured wools.

I look forward to hearing yours and other single parents suggestions for how we can make this work and interesting. It could be rather awkward if we just arranged a Zoom chat and we didn’t have a focus. Depending on how many people are interested in joining we could also have breakout chat rooms as it’s easier to chat in smaller groups, especially for those that feel anxious. We could split into smaller groups by location, interest or any other way that people would like.

[H]

Hi Marissa,

Apologies I didn’t check back into the forum. I hope the Zoom chat went well if it went ahead. Ha! Yes I know what you mean about kids losing interest…. My daughter’s the same. She started a project which is still there awaiting completion. 🙂

I’m making a rainbow scarf so it’ll be well ready for next year.

[Author]

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