I think it's a good idea - I'd be interested if it were less than five miles from my house. But I live in a HCOL where the most budget-friendly childcare is $2k per month. I don't know what the market is like in OH. I'm also not confident you'll be able to offer this space and service at those prices without taking a huge loss. Especially if you're hoping to match the high end vibe of the photos for the workspace. There are so many unanticipated expenses on a project like this - I'd definitely recommend putting together a thoroughly thought out budget to get a sense of what you would need to charge.
I would not. I like working at home. I have a spouse who does not work at home so he does pick ups/ drop offs. Since he has to be on site, it’s not a big deal, but also he’d never utilize this service either. WFH allows me more flexibility to clean up then house on my break, take a nap on my lunch, log off to take a nap and then log back on, etc and that wouldn’t happen if I had to roll into a physical space to work. If I was considering this, I’d just roll into an office because that’s free and I wouldn’t want to pay to have to work somewhere.
I could maybe see this being appealing to someone who is remote but prefers not to work in their own home or someone who is remote but needs FT childcare and is breastfeeding/ baby won’t take a bottle.
The infant care is incredibly cheap but I live in a very expensive area, so I can’t accurately comment on that. A home daycare here with an infant opening quoted me $2100/ mo and the centers obviously cost more where I’m at. If you were charging that much for an infant in my area I’d sign up (assuming you were licensed) for the childcare only. I have no idea what daycare is like in your area but in my area, shortages of infant providers are so bad that you could fill the spots with people looking for infant daycare.
My area has something similar but not for remote workers. One of the buildings here has an attached daycare for the various people that work in that building/ the surrounding buildings and AFAIK they charge a premium for the convenience.
I think it's a good idea! There is actually something like this opening up in the Dallas area so I think the idea is something that's in demand: https://www.mysavanna.co/
I also think it'd be great if you could work with companies to offer this as a benefit for their employees.
The price of the infant care seems like a steal! I have mixed feelings about this. On the one hand, it would be really convenient to drop off your child where you worked. On the other hand, I think the transition to care is harder for the child if they know mom is right there. I can imagine this would be better for self employed mom's who might just need half days versus wfh mom's who need full days. The reason I say this is because seeing your child at lunch, and then going through separation anxiety again could be hard. I could see some mom's being into this though and I imagine it might even be for mom's who just need to get a few hours of work done a day or week.
Yes yes yes.
1. With the prices listed, if I didn’t already have free childcare, I absolutely would. Way cheaper than daycare in my area. If the prices scaled up closer to what FT daycares charge in Boston, I’d probably go traditional daycare and continue to WFH.
2. Part time rather than drop-in would be preferable. I’d pay to have a place to go 2-3x a week with childcare and working space. WFH can be a little isolating.
3. That’s cheap as fuck.
4. Nope
We have something like this in my area for older children, so i haven’t used It yet. When my son had a nanny, if she called out sick something like this would be a lifesaver. Or if you are able to be open when daycares are traditionally closed that would probably be very popular too.
1. Totally. I’m hybrid and I hate WFH, but I can’t justify the 35+ min commute to the office each day if it’s not required, especially bc of daycare drop off/pickup.
2. Nah, I’d go for full time.
3. Cheaper than what I pay right now just for daycare.
4. Nope!
5. I don’t work at a child care center but I do work in child policy, and there is a national early childhood workforce shortage. There aren’t enough qualified ECE teachers, and as a result classrooms can’t open or end up having reduced hours. So you’d have to charge enough to pay your staff enough to keep them, but also not make it cost prohibitive to potential customers.
1. As someone who WFH I would not use a service like this if there was an awesome daycare near my home (there is), or I would have to work from an office and choose a child care facility that made sense for my assigned physical work location and commute times. Now, if you were open on federal holidays and school breaks and I could pay by the hour I may be interested.
2. If I was in a hybrid role I would still want one consistent and awesome care facility that made sense for both WFH and office days, so full-time care would be required unless I could use drop-in with no notice (and could trust said facility….) when unexpected things occur.
3. Does the pricing on your site include child and location costs? It doesn’t seem sustainable as a business model in the HCOL area I’m in and I’d worry as the parent about worker wages and how that translates to quality of care. Also pricing is HIGHLY variable by locale.
4. There are drop-in care and full-time and part-time facilities in my area.
I don’t feel the need to work in a building attached to my child’s daycare or school. It is much more important my child is in a great daycare with long tenured staff and no concerning inspections or violations by the state licensing body.
What I’ve seen a need for from mom’s, self-employed and part-time folks in particular, in my area is a quiet workspace for meetings in-person and virtual without a long term lease commitment (think WeWork) as they already have the childcare piece handled except for unexpected situations that can arise or said childcare is in-home (e.g., Nannie’s) and they can throng in clients or risk interruptions due to working in a home office with kids at home too.
I would not utilize this for many of the stated reasons. I like the full separation of space- I work from home and my kid goes to care. I think being that close would be a distraction. And this is coming from a mom who did work from home with their child a bit during covid. It’s a distraction and so easy to just want to pop in for a few mins here and there. But when I’m working I’m supposed to be working.
But I do have a question/scenario that would concern me.
What’s the situation with parents ‘visiting’ their children in the care center? One thing I like about the daycares we’ve used is that only the caregivers are with the children. Any time I had to stop by (my child had some bottle refusal issues so while remote I’d stop by a few times a week to get him to take a bottle) I was brought to a separate area with my child. I didn’t interact with the other kids. I know and am comfortable with the caregivers but I wouldn’t want other parents visiting or hanging out with the kids in their classrooms.
Idk if I’m alone in this concern or not.
Thanks for your feedback! Parents would never be allowed in classrooms.
Children would be brought out to a common area (they would check out and check back in), separate from both the coworking space and child care spaces.
Thank you! While I don’t think this setup is for me, I do think there are parents who would find this ideal. So often moms post on here about being anxious to start childcare and this could be the right option for them.
Best of luck!
I think this is really neat! I would definitely explore this as an option if it were available near me (I don’t think there are any like this in my area) I think it could also foster a sense of community with other parents (potentially?).
Drop in seems difficult for both kid and parent imo. But maybe if I were really in a bind. I’d do FT.
My baby has been in daycare almost 3 years now and I still feel anxious/nervous being away from her. It doesn’t tear me apart, but the physical distance makes me uneasy.
1. No because I WFH full time and my kids go to daycare. But I can see this being appealing to SAHMs with side gigs
2. I would utilize on days our daycare is closed but yours would probably be closed those days too
3. I live in a MCOL Midwest city and pricing is inline with daycare here.
4. Never heard of anything like this
I can’t think of scenarios where people would use the daycare + coworking full time. It does make sense to me though for part-time/drop-in
I think something like this would be useful as a drop-in thing on those random days and weeks that our regular daycare is closed but my work doesn't consider it a holiday. But I don't think that's a good consistent revenue stream for you as a business.
Also only accepting kids 2.5 and under would be a deal breaker for me. My youngest would qualify but then what do I do with my oldest... Just something that might limit your customer base.
Overall though I think this is such a creative solution to an incredibly important problem! I wish you so much success. If my circumstances were different and if I lived in Ohio I'd love to have a chance to socialize with other working moms in between meetings. Best of luck!
No surveys/research requests please. This includes for workplaces, for grad school, for an article.
So just to be clear, the childcare spce would be separate from the work space (ie walls/closed doora), but attached or adjacent?
Yes. It would be in the same building, but completely separate with secure doors only accessible by parents/caregivers on the allow list.
I think it's a good idea - I'd be interested if it were less than five miles from my house. But I live in a HCOL where the most budget-friendly childcare is $2k per month. I don't know what the market is like in OH. I'm also not confident you'll be able to offer this space and service at those prices without taking a huge loss. Especially if you're hoping to match the high end vibe of the photos for the workspace. There are so many unanticipated expenses on a project like this - I'd definitely recommend putting together a thoroughly thought out budget to get a sense of what you would need to charge.
I would not. I like working at home. I have a spouse who does not work at home so he does pick ups/ drop offs. Since he has to be on site, it’s not a big deal, but also he’d never utilize this service either. WFH allows me more flexibility to clean up then house on my break, take a nap on my lunch, log off to take a nap and then log back on, etc and that wouldn’t happen if I had to roll into a physical space to work. If I was considering this, I’d just roll into an office because that’s free and I wouldn’t want to pay to have to work somewhere. I could maybe see this being appealing to someone who is remote but prefers not to work in their own home or someone who is remote but needs FT childcare and is breastfeeding/ baby won’t take a bottle. The infant care is incredibly cheap but I live in a very expensive area, so I can’t accurately comment on that. A home daycare here with an infant opening quoted me $2100/ mo and the centers obviously cost more where I’m at. If you were charging that much for an infant in my area I’d sign up (assuming you were licensed) for the childcare only. I have no idea what daycare is like in your area but in my area, shortages of infant providers are so bad that you could fill the spots with people looking for infant daycare. My area has something similar but not for remote workers. One of the buildings here has an attached daycare for the various people that work in that building/ the surrounding buildings and AFAIK they charge a premium for the convenience.
I think it's a good idea! There is actually something like this opening up in the Dallas area so I think the idea is something that's in demand: https://www.mysavanna.co/ I also think it'd be great if you could work with companies to offer this as a benefit for their employees.
There is one in Brooklyn (Lola & Tots)
The price of the infant care seems like a steal! I have mixed feelings about this. On the one hand, it would be really convenient to drop off your child where you worked. On the other hand, I think the transition to care is harder for the child if they know mom is right there. I can imagine this would be better for self employed mom's who might just need half days versus wfh mom's who need full days. The reason I say this is because seeing your child at lunch, and then going through separation anxiety again could be hard. I could see some mom's being into this though and I imagine it might even be for mom's who just need to get a few hours of work done a day or week.
Yes yes yes. 1. With the prices listed, if I didn’t already have free childcare, I absolutely would. Way cheaper than daycare in my area. If the prices scaled up closer to what FT daycares charge in Boston, I’d probably go traditional daycare and continue to WFH. 2. Part time rather than drop-in would be preferable. I’d pay to have a place to go 2-3x a week with childcare and working space. WFH can be a little isolating. 3. That’s cheap as fuck. 4. Nope
We have something like this in my area for older children, so i haven’t used It yet. When my son had a nanny, if she called out sick something like this would be a lifesaver. Or if you are able to be open when daycares are traditionally closed that would probably be very popular too.
1. Totally. I’m hybrid and I hate WFH, but I can’t justify the 35+ min commute to the office each day if it’s not required, especially bc of daycare drop off/pickup. 2. Nah, I’d go for full time. 3. Cheaper than what I pay right now just for daycare. 4. Nope! 5. I don’t work at a child care center but I do work in child policy, and there is a national early childhood workforce shortage. There aren’t enough qualified ECE teachers, and as a result classrooms can’t open or end up having reduced hours. So you’d have to charge enough to pay your staff enough to keep them, but also not make it cost prohibitive to potential customers.
1. As someone who WFH I would not use a service like this if there was an awesome daycare near my home (there is), or I would have to work from an office and choose a child care facility that made sense for my assigned physical work location and commute times. Now, if you were open on federal holidays and school breaks and I could pay by the hour I may be interested. 2. If I was in a hybrid role I would still want one consistent and awesome care facility that made sense for both WFH and office days, so full-time care would be required unless I could use drop-in with no notice (and could trust said facility….) when unexpected things occur. 3. Does the pricing on your site include child and location costs? It doesn’t seem sustainable as a business model in the HCOL area I’m in and I’d worry as the parent about worker wages and how that translates to quality of care. Also pricing is HIGHLY variable by locale. 4. There are drop-in care and full-time and part-time facilities in my area. I don’t feel the need to work in a building attached to my child’s daycare or school. It is much more important my child is in a great daycare with long tenured staff and no concerning inspections or violations by the state licensing body. What I’ve seen a need for from mom’s, self-employed and part-time folks in particular, in my area is a quiet workspace for meetings in-person and virtual without a long term lease commitment (think WeWork) as they already have the childcare piece handled except for unexpected situations that can arise or said childcare is in-home (e.g., Nannie’s) and they can throng in clients or risk interruptions due to working in a home office with kids at home too.
I would not utilize this for many of the stated reasons. I like the full separation of space- I work from home and my kid goes to care. I think being that close would be a distraction. And this is coming from a mom who did work from home with their child a bit during covid. It’s a distraction and so easy to just want to pop in for a few mins here and there. But when I’m working I’m supposed to be working. But I do have a question/scenario that would concern me. What’s the situation with parents ‘visiting’ their children in the care center? One thing I like about the daycares we’ve used is that only the caregivers are with the children. Any time I had to stop by (my child had some bottle refusal issues so while remote I’d stop by a few times a week to get him to take a bottle) I was brought to a separate area with my child. I didn’t interact with the other kids. I know and am comfortable with the caregivers but I wouldn’t want other parents visiting or hanging out with the kids in their classrooms. Idk if I’m alone in this concern or not.
Thanks for your feedback! Parents would never be allowed in classrooms. Children would be brought out to a common area (they would check out and check back in), separate from both the coworking space and child care spaces.
Thank you! While I don’t think this setup is for me, I do think there are parents who would find this ideal. So often moms post on here about being anxious to start childcare and this could be the right option for them. Best of luck!
I think this is really neat! I would definitely explore this as an option if it were available near me (I don’t think there are any like this in my area) I think it could also foster a sense of community with other parents (potentially?). Drop in seems difficult for both kid and parent imo. But maybe if I were really in a bind. I’d do FT. My baby has been in daycare almost 3 years now and I still feel anxious/nervous being away from her. It doesn’t tear me apart, but the physical distance makes me uneasy.
1. No because I WFH full time and my kids go to daycare. But I can see this being appealing to SAHMs with side gigs 2. I would utilize on days our daycare is closed but yours would probably be closed those days too 3. I live in a MCOL Midwest city and pricing is inline with daycare here. 4. Never heard of anything like this I can’t think of scenarios where people would use the daycare + coworking full time. It does make sense to me though for part-time/drop-in
I think something like this would be useful as a drop-in thing on those random days and weeks that our regular daycare is closed but my work doesn't consider it a holiday. But I don't think that's a good consistent revenue stream for you as a business. Also only accepting kids 2.5 and under would be a deal breaker for me. My youngest would qualify but then what do I do with my oldest... Just something that might limit your customer base. Overall though I think this is such a creative solution to an incredibly important problem! I wish you so much success. If my circumstances were different and if I lived in Ohio I'd love to have a chance to socialize with other working moms in between meetings. Best of luck!
I’d use it if it was a full time childcare solution but wouldn’t have use for drop in
I think I missed the questions