Baby Loves Disco: Dance, Dance Baby

I can’t remember the last time I went dancing with my friends, but I went dancing with my babies recently at Baby Loves Disco!  This fantastic afternoon dance party for the wee set has swept across the nation and several countries. Tots and their parents can get their groove on with classic 70’s and 80’s music (spun by a DJ). They’ve got lights, a disco ball and a bubble machine, as well as a cool MC running dance contests and giving birthday shout-outs. If your child is tired of dancing, or just needs a quieter time, there is a room with couches and books and toys to relax with.

Heather Murphy Monteith and Andy Hurwitz are the forces behind Baby Loves Disco. Local moms and dads host Baby Loves Disco in dozens of U.S. cities, and it has gone international with parties just launched in England, Japan, Poland, Israel and Sweden.

Madonna and Edie Falco have been spotted at the New York City location and Angelina Jolie has been seen at one of the Los Angeles parties.

We recently attended the Baby Loves Disco (nicknamed “BLD”) event at Club Element in New York City. We checked our stroller outside with the bouncers — how cool is that? On the main floor, there was a huge bar, laden with healthy snacks (more about that later), and a dance floor with a small stage. Kids and parents were having a ball dancing with plenty of silk scarves, egg shakers and animal toys to sit on. There were a lot of parents and kids, but it wasn’t too crowded. Loads of babies were crawling and cruising around. Nursing was encouraged; I pulled out my Bebe Au Lait Cover and nursed while walking around. I saw moms and dads slinging babies (we even saw a mom and dad juggling newborn twins!), and yes, the floors and the club were spotless.

We stored our stuff upstairs, where it was also a little mellower — but we could still look out over the dance floor. Also, upstairs, there was a bar, loads of cushioned seating against the wall and two pop-up tents. My son loved the tents and had a ball playing in them. He even found a toy dump truck and was in heaven, pushing it around.

Besides the fun dancing, there were so many extras that made the price of a ticket ($15 in NYC for walking humans, non-walkers are free) a bargain. Children up to age 7 are welcome, but the population was really the 0-3 set. The day we were there,  there was a temporary tattoo artist from Diesel Kids who was surrounded by some very excited children. Babesta was there, handing out free packages of Baby Legs (I love this product and at $12 a pair, what a perk!). I even saw gift bags being given out. Stride Rite had a little table upstairs, giving out coupons and measuring feet, and I really wish we’d gotten our son’s feet measured. There was an infants area downstairs infant area, where the babies could crawl around, but we didn’t get to check that out. In the mens’ and ladies’ rooms, there were comfy changing pads, containers of wipes and Cleanwell hand sanitizer and soaps that smelled amazing. There was also a huge bottle of Cleanwell hand sanitizer by the food area.

Besides bar service for parents, there were stacks upon stacks of healthy snacks and juice boxes. Choose from apples, tortilla chips with salsa and guacamole, swiss and muenster cheese cubes, crackers, apples, carrots, Goldfish crackers (my son’s favorite), and grapes. I was thrilled to see healthy snacks. My picky son was even munching on a carrot — thank you BLD!!. Founder Heather Murphy Monteith, herself mom to a 5-year-old and a 1 ½-year-old, told me that she would never serve anything that she wouldn’t feed her own kids. She also told me that every time her oldest child comes, he finds something else to do — he’ll make friends, he’ll dance, he’ll cuddle up and read — it’s always a new experience.

Like most parents, Heather’s lifestyle was changed when she gave birth to her oldest son Max. She started throwing dance parties for parents and babies in her native Philly area. The monthly event, at club Fluid, caught the ear of Brooklyn-based music guy, now partner, Andy Hurwitz who brought the party up to New York City in the fall of 2005. You can bring Baby Loves Disco to your town too. Find out how here.

Buy tickets for your local Baby Loves Disco event here. They sell out very quickly — so I recommend you get your tickets as soon as possible! We can’t wait to go again – we just may go to June 7th’s party in Brooklyn or June 14th’s party in Manhattan!