A day at the beach, particularly if you love to surf, is a lot tougher to do when you are a parent with little children.
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But a national, not-for-profit movement that has found its way to Port Stephens is aiming to change that.
Surfing Mums, which is also open to dads, is a weekly meet up where parents take turns in hitting the water and minding the children.
"Surfing Mums is about getting mums back into the water when they have kids. It's important for us to do this for our mental and physical well-being," Port Stephens Surfing Mums member Amy Stallard said.
"When you're at home with the kids all day it can start to feel isolating. Surfing Mums is about being able to connect to a community, avoiding isolation and getting the kids out and having fun.
"It's like a mother's group but with surfing. If you're a surfer, it's almost torture to sit on the beach watching the waves when you can't go in. So something like this is really great for getting you back out in the water."
The group has been running since 2014 but dwindling membership brought it to a stall until this year.
After moving from Sydney to Port Stephens earlier this year, Ms Stallard reached out to the group and with help from one of its founders, Kat Peskis, began to spread the word to parents to join the weekly meet ups.
Ms Peskis said Surfing Mums appealed to her as it was different from the traditional mother's groups.
"I didn't fit into that type of thing and found some other mothers didn't either, so we started a Surfing Mums," she said.
The group meets at either Birubi Beach or One Mile Beach, depending on the weather and surf conditions, on Wednesday's from 9.30am.
Parents will buddy up for the morning and while one is in the water, the other will mind the children. They will then swap. "This system provides that extra bit of safety," Ms Stallard said.
The cost to join any Surfing Mums group is $52 per year, which covers the cost of public liability insurance. Surfing Mums also fees a portion of the fees back into the groups by providing sun shade and other beach items.
Anyone interest in joining can get in touch via the Port Stephens Surfing Mums group on Facebook.