Everyone needs a break, but one group of women who deserve the longest breaks are mothers who cook Sunday dinners, drive their children to school, clean the house and work at their other jobs outside their home.
One group of mothers in Hammonton called Mothers of Preschoolers (MOPs) meet at Victory Bible Church.
The Christian based group brings moms together who have children under the school age or elementary school children for a hot breakfast, and they talk about subjects that are helpful and faithful.
Chelsea Wolcott, a mentor mom of the Hammonton MOPs group explained what the group is all about.
“We gather as a group of moms with most of the kids being 5 and under, and we have childcare that watches our kids so us as moms can hangout; get a break knowing their kids are being watched safely and also discuss all things motherhood and try to help each other through different challenges or everything we have going on. We’re all kind of in the same stage of life,” Wolcott said.
While the international group has been around for over 50 years, the Hammonton MOPs group has been gathering for at least eight years, according to Wolcott.
“MOPs itself is an international thing. A church member heard about it and decided to start a group, and I’ve been running it for probably the last five years now,” Wolcott said.
One of the benefits of MOPs is having a safe space mothers can leave their children for a few hours.
“A lot of the moms have little kids, so they’re stuck home with their kids all the time and I really like that they feel comfortable bringing them and letting people watch them and knowing that their kids are safe and have a safe place they can leave their children,” Wolcott said.
She has four kids who are 16, 12, 8 and 3 years old.
Wolcott said being a mom to four kids involved in different activities while also working at her job is chaos, but she loves it.
“I would never change it,” she said.
There’s about 20 moms that are currently part of the Hammonton MOPs group who actively attend meetings, and there are over 200 members on the Facebook group.
“We do different moms’ nights out and things where we hopefully leave our kids home. We did a Christmas party. We do a Target scavenger hunt twice a year. Sometimes it’s literally just going to sit at Applebee’s. We go around and plan different events. Some of them our seasonal. We did a corn maze. Just whatever we’re in to,” Wolcott said.
MOPs usually meets twice a month on Mondays from 9:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. at Victory Bible Church.
For more information about MOPs, join the Hammonton MOPs Facebook group or visit their website mops.org.