By Lucy Marshall

Copyright dailyrecord

The summer holidays are well and truly over and parents are now fully immersed in the new school year . If your child has just started school, you may find yourself added to a new group for the entire class or even the whole year group. However, one mum thinks parents should be wary before accepting an invitation to a WhatsApp group; expect a constant flow of messages about non-uniform days, sports day, the latest letter from the head teacher, all accompanied by a hefty dose of competitive parenting. A mother-of-six, who became a mum at 18 and has a decade-long gap between her third and fourth children, has been left bewildered by the contemporary methods parents use to communicate outside of school . She confessed that she’s not too fond of the “new breeds” of mums she meets nowadays – and it’s divided opinions. With her youngest child recently starting reception, she noticed a significant shift. She found herself out of step with the modern tactics. Carla took to her TikTok page and shared in a recent video : “I had my first child at 18 and between my third and my fourth there’s a 10-year difference.” “Now, Rome has just done reception and the bloody class WhatsApp group.” One thing that Carla couldn’t wrap her head around is the current method of sending out party invitations. She expressed: “Do you know that basically no one sends out party invites?”. “I declined the WhatsApp group for months and months and months and someone said ‘oh, did you get so-and-so’s party invite’.” She revealed that she hadn’t received any invitations – leaving her utterly perplexed. “Anyway, turns out he missed loads of parties,” the mum confessed. She added: “I just thought they were being rude, but no actually it’s because they only go on the class WhatsApp. Why does no one print s*** out any more or tell you?”. She has been taken aback by how much some parents reveal in the groups, confessing that she could never imagine behaving the same way. Carla remarked: “These women are next level. The new breed of mums is crazy, like no my kind of people, crazy. Vanilla…like let’s do it all by WhatsApp. They have WhatApps after WhatsApps after WhatsApps.” Carla revealed she has silenced the group, and will browse it roughly once a week to check for party invitations or crucial details. “Other than that, no thank you,” she added. Whilst participating in the groups can offer swift updates and a feeling of solidarity amongst parents, you can obtain most vital information via the school’s official communications. You can decide to withdraw if you find the groups too much; they are not compulsory. Other mothers quickly rallied behind the parent. “I hate all the WhatsApp groups, it’s awful,” declared one mum. Supporting this view, another stated: “I reluctantly joined one, it’s muted and archived 24/7.” One mother shared: “I got invited to the reception WhatsApp group for September, in April. I said no thanks, I get my info direct from the school. If you want to talk and get to know me and my family, chat with me at the gate and exchange numbers. The end. I’m not in any of them, and won’t be. “As a teacher, they fill me with dread,” another expressed. Reflecting on how times have changed, another mum stated: “So glad there was no WhatsApp groups when my son was in school, I’d have been kicked out of them all.” However, not everyone agreed with the first mum’s sentiment. “Don’t think it’s new breed of mums, just think it’s how it’s done nowadays,” another parent pointed out. One other found the groups beneficial, writing: “I need the group so I can get the key info. Otherwise, I’d have to give up my job so I could read all the emails the school sends.” Another who approved of the chats, said: “Paper invites get lost, we had that in school, everyone has a phone so more chance to get to the mum. School communication can be shocking so the WhatsApp chat is helpful for anything that gets missed.” One other noted: “It [the invite] goes in a group and I private message because we aren’t allowed to know names now, so if I can’t be there to hand them out personally, the teacher does it in front of the class so the ones who aren’t invited probably sit and wait for their names to be called out and I can’t deal with that.”