This post is a part of a four part series where we’ll hear directly from the parents in the community. In this post, our guest blogger Erin Jeffery discusses being new in New West. Erin is a recent Quayside resident and the Special Events Manager at River Market.  She has two surly cats, one tall husband and an aspiring superhero son.

Last year, my husband and I made the big leap into home ownership.  After a few months of exploring neighbourhoods, looking at many strange condos and figuring out the best route to our much loved daycare, we ended up in Quayside in New Westminster.

With a new home comes the need to build a new community.  A new group of friends to rely on when times get tough…and when sugar runs out.  The older we get (and by older, I mean over twenty) the harder it is to make new relationships.  We don’t trust, we are afraid of getting hurt and we are hesitant to try new things. Kids are different though.  Kids make friends instantly. Take them to a park and they’re sure to find a new best friend within minutes. So what do you do when you aren’t a pint sized socialite in a new city?

You use your child.

As parents, we are both pretty active so we want that for our son…so once we had unpacked, we hit the New Westminster streets and got busy.  We go to the many incredible playgrounds in New Westminster (Westminster Pier Park is an all weather favourite of ours and Queen’s Park is the ultimate summer time destination) , we’ve motored through Motoring Munchkins and we cannot get enough of storytime at the Library.

We also signed him up classes like swimming, soccer and performing arts.  These classes were great for not only establishing a routine in our lives in our new city, but introducing us to parents with kids the same age as ours.  They are also great things for grandparents to give as gifts and it’s a gift that really keeps on giving.  In particular, the music/movement class at The Stage New Westminster and soccer with the Royal City Youth Soccer Club have formed the basis of not only his, but our social circle.  He is hanging out with kids with similar interests, and we are hanging out with parents who are similarly invested in their children. The kids and parents that we now spend our Saturdays with really make our weekends fantastic and we’re not really sure who looks forward to these events more…the kid or us.  And there are a myriad of activities to choose from in New Westminster at places like Music Box Academy, Hawkes Martial Arts, Vancouver Circus School, Salmonbellies Lacrosse and more. We also know that the Kids New West website and Family Place are a great source for finding free or low cost things to do.

What New Westminster lacks in size it makes up for in things to do.  There is always something happening somewhere and we learned pretty quickly that if we wanted to get involved, it was a good idea to get plugged in. Everyone in New Westminster seems to be on Twitter and Facebook and probably has a blog, and if they don’t, they know the ones to read.  Once we figured out which Twitter handle (#newwest, #madeinnewwest) to follow and who to follow on Facebook (Downtown New West BIA , River Market, Tourism New West, Tenth to the Fraser to name a few) , we were away to the races.  We’ve met some fantastic people through meet ups at Spud Shack,  PopLucks and tweet ups at parades, markets and garage sales. You can access the internet for free at the library if you don’t have one at home.

We’ve only been here for a year, but in that short time, New Westminster has quickly become our ‘home’…our community.  A place to raise our son and be a part of for a long, long time.