Düsseldorf Toddler Play Group!

I wrote before about how I stalked a couple I heard speaking English, and was eventually hooked up with an ex-pat group of parents. It was just an email list, that our friend Keith organized. And it kept growing. And it was just an email list. It originally started as a very small group of a few expat parents who found each other and had kids the same age. But it kept growing. And I couldn't get over how archaic an email list seemd. With so many social networking sites and online resources it just seemed wrong. As the group grew, members were receiving tons of emails each day, many of which didn't apply to them. It was getting obnoxious.

I had been bugging Keith since I first met everyone to put the group on Facebook. It was so much more practical, and I thought accessible to people. But Keith mentioned that some people weren't on FB and were adamantly opposed. Now, I get that. FB is not for everyone, and Keith didn't want to be exclusive. Fair enough.

But I saw another side to it. You could only join our little group if you met someone in it, or if someone saw you post something on Toytown (the German expat website) and then responded to you and told you about it. That seemed exclusive in its own right. And as the group was getting so big (about 75 people), there was no real good way to network with such a huge email list.

So I staged a coup. Keith was leaving and giving up his duties as LEADER, and there was no time like the present. I created a FB page - Düsseldorf Toddle Play Group - and I floated it out there. Requests to join started pouring in - and as of today we are 124 members!

A few of us who live, or used to live, in Ddorf. (From US, UK, Germany, Sweden, and the Netherlands)

This is resource that I wish I had had when I moved here. We share information about living in Düsseldorf, applying to Kitas, where to get your kids hair cut - you name it. And the beauty of FB is that you only have to read or follow what you are interested in, so you aren't bombarded with a million emails each day. It's so comforting to have all of these virtual friends who are, in so many ways, in the same place that you are.

So if you are new to Düsseldorf and you have kiddos - please join our group! I can't wait to meet you!