Features Walthamstow

A working solution

Two Walthamstow mums have launched a pop-up crèche for working parents, writes Keryn Potts We all know it’s a struggle, especially in the early […]By Waltham Forest Echo

Two Walthamstow mums have launched a pop-up crèche for working parents, writes Keryn Potts

Lynn Harris (left) and Keryn Potts (right) want to provide flexible and affordable local childcare options for parents who freelance or work for themselves

We all know it’s a struggle, especially in the early childhood years, to balance spending time with family and making money to support them.

There is a limited support network for this period of time in a new parent’s life where they need to learn to work differently to get anything done. This can be daunting and lonely. We are told so much about how one should get their CV ready for when going back to work as well as how to dress and present ourselves, but there’s very little public conversation about how to navigate these early years when you have your own gig going.

There is much talk in the media about getting more women into leadership roles, yet little conversation about one of the major and contributing reasons why this is not occurring, and there being a lack of more flexible and affordable childcare options.

We’re offering a service that allows parents to be around other like-minded parents to share ideas, collaborate, network, or just have moral support while having regular play-dates for their children.

I am collaborating with my friend Lynn Harris, an entrepreneurial mum of twins who started her own independent baby brand, Otti & Liv. To pilot the idea we are giving parents the opportunity to work in a space on the top floor of a house in Walthamstow, uninterrupted by their children who are being minded by an Ofsted registered childminder on the ground floor.

I very much want Crèche & Co to be a collaborative and supportive environment where parents and children can feel relaxed without too much preparation. It’s very much a project with our ‘parenting hats’ on, allowing parents who don’t need full-time child minding, but more sporadic and focused support, to get some specific work done. The space is suitable for freelancers, entrepreneurs, small business owners, consultants, and the like.

Lynn and I both know how hard it is to actually accomplish anything with small ones around. In fact, as a single mum to a four-year-old daughter, I had to completely change my own career path once my daughter was born. I studied with training organisation Digital Mums to become a social media manager, which allows me to have more flexible working hours.

So far, there has been great interest, with many parents saying they had been talking about the need for a flexible crèche for ages. We hope to expand numbers quickly as interest increases, and are open to collaboration.

For more information on Crèche & Co:

Email [email protected]

Facebook crecheandco

Twitter @crecheandco


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