'Seoul City Young Children Parents' Self-Help Groups' Contribute to Reducing Parenting Burden and Stress Relief... Participation of 300 Groups

'Parent Support Group for Infants and Toddlers' Started in March This Year... 3,949 Participants Including Parents and Infants

[Asia Economy Reporter Lim Cheol-young] The Seoul Metropolitan Government’s first support this year for self-help groups of parents with infants and toddlers is contributing to relieving parenting stress and easing parenting burdens through the formation of parenting networks among members. The ‘Seoul City Parents’ Self-Help Group for Infants and Toddlers’ consists of mothers and fathers with children aged six and under, who autonomously engage in various parenting-related topics they set themselves.

According to Seoul City on the 22nd, as of early September, 300 self-help groups (3,949 participants) are participating, each receiving 400,000 KRW in activity funds (Clean Card) to actively engage in various parenting-related topics such as cooperative childcare, sharing parenting information, and play activities.

Seoul City provides parent education, parenting counseling (group counseling), and group leader training for participants of the self-help groups. For parent education, a customized program was offered allowing group members to choose from six parenting-related lectures selected through a preliminary demand survey of the participants.

The city plans to hold a contest for activity journals from parent self-help group participants in October and will actively promote the winning entries by sharing them on the Seoul Childcare Comprehensive Support Center website to encourage caregivers interested in infant and toddler self-help groups to participate. By sharing cases of well-run self-help groups, the city aims to encourage more caregivers to take interest and participate in next year’s recruitment.

Kim Seon-soon, Director of the Seoul Metropolitan Government’s Women and Family Policy Office, said, “Through the ongoing Mom and Dad Happiness Project, we will carefully address the realistic difficulties of caregivers to create a ‘Seoul that is good for raising children.’”

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