Welcome to the San Bruno Parents Club, a supportive community for all local families who want to make authentic connections, share resources, and have fun. Here, you will find yourself among fellow parents who truly get it; we are here to validate and encourage you during the challenging seasons of parenting, and celebrate joy during the good times. We look forward to meeting you!
The San Bruno Parents Club—formerly the San Bruno Mothers Club—was founded in 1991, and has blossomed to include more than 120 families. We are a hyper-local, 100% volunteer-run community committed to mutual support, connection, and warmth. As our 2019 Posy Parade float declared, “Parents are superheros!” And, when we work together magic happens:
“By setting common goals and helping each other achieve them, we create an entity that wasn’t there before; a possession that everybody owns a little piece of. It belongs to us and we belong to the whole. With our children in common, we share a sense of belonging.” – Katie Williams Hoepke
Benefits
The San Bruno Parents Club is an active group, and the diversity of our offerings means something for everyone. Here are some of the ways you can connect:
- Family-friendly events: Join us for our weekly playgroups, monthly Children’s outing to somewhere special, Pizza in the Park, family hikes, new member socials, seasonal parties (Spring Fling, Summer Picnic, Halloween, and Winter Holiday), and annual camping trip.
- Parents-only events: Sneak out after bedtime for a parents night out, speaker event, book club meeting, mothers navigating careers group, or monthly SBPC board meeting. You can see what’s coming up on our calendar page.
- Online community: Seek advice, see honest preschool reviews, or share resources on our bustling online discussion forum or private Facebook group.
- Free stuff: Keep an eye on our private marketplace! Many generous parents post baby items (and other things) for free when they’re done with them.
- Babysitting Co-op: Date night, anyone? Take advantage of our Babysitting Co-op to trade babysitting hours with other parents rather than spending money.
- Monthly newsletter: Receive a vibrant newsletter packed with local event listings and activity guides, articles to help you survive and thrive as a parent, family profiles featuring your future parent friends, and more. Visit our blog to see excerpts from past newsletters.
- Support requests: New baby? Let us crowdsource a new parent care package featuring items you will actually use. Upon request, we also offer meal trains for parents going through a particularly rough time.
- Tinyhood access: We currently manage SBPC’s membership on Tinyhood. Once your membership is approved, you will gain access to our Tinyhood group, which is a portal to all of the benefits above.
- More! The club’s offerings are a reflection of the current members willing to volunteer their time, so there are constantly new things happening. What would you like to start?
View our upcoming events here.
History
Most of the Bay Area parents clubs were originally started by a wonderful and dynamic woman named Katie Williams Hoepke. Katie was first introduced to the concept of a Mothers Club when she read a notice about joining a playgroup which was part of the Huntington Beach Mothers Club. At the time, her daughter was 18 months old, she was pregnant with her second and she was living in a new city 3000 miles from home, missing family and friends. She was feeling alone and miserable and she counts finding the Mothers Club as one of her blessings in life.
In the Mothers Club, Katie found support, as well as choices and opportunities. Per Katie, “It provided alternatives to her solitude, challenges for her energy, and avenues for her talent and opened doors for her parenting education.” Two years later, Katie was moving again, this time to New Jersey. Egad, there was no Mothers Club here! She and a woman she met in the playground decided to start their own club and a month later 25 women had their first club meeting.
As our luck would have it, Katie once again ended up moving, this time to Northern California. Her children were now of school age but she still felt that the Mothers Club was important concept and should be expanded and shared. She wrote a book, ‘Mothers Club, Nurturing the Nurturers’, and started forming Mothers Clubs by offering a class through local Park and Recreation Departments. The moms who took these classes became the ‘founding members’ of the individual Mothers Clubs which are now operating in many of the Bay Area cities. Our hats are off to Katie for spreading the wonderfully supportive concept of the Mothers Club.
In the years leading up to 2019 the San Bruno Mothers Club’s bylaws were amended to be inclusive of all parents and families. And, in 2019 the club voted to officially change its name to the San Bruno Parents Club to more accurately reflect its stated mission.