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Coworking with childcare: the next big thing?

Above: Me and my boys, circa 2012

Back in 2012 when I first had the idea for a coworking space with on-site childcare, I couldn’t find anything of its kind in Australia. Internet searches yielded a couple of overseas results (NextKids in San Francisco and Third Door in London) but zero for Melbourne... zilch in Sydney... nada Down Under.

Today, with Happy Hubbub due to open in just a few short months in Preston (hurrah!), there are signs the industry is about to take off and, pretty soon, a plethora of options will be available to help working parents better manage their work and childcare needs.

What’s so good about coworking?

A coworking space, or work hub, is a shared office space where individuals and small teams can come to work in a professional but relaxed environment. Not a buttoned-up office, not a cafe and not someone's home, it takes the best elements from all three to create a new, collaborative working environment.

Below: Inspire9, Richmond, Vic

There are three primary benefits to coworking: productivity, collaboration and community.

Coworking increases productivity by simple virtue of being a professional work environment. I know from personal experience that I check Facebook far less when I’m at HUB Melbourne than when I’m working from home. At home there’s any number of procrastinating chores and distractions; when I go to the HUB I physically go to work, so work is what I do.

Collaboration and effective networking are well-known outcomes of coworking: a conversation by the coffee machine that leads to a client referral; scraps of ideas, encouragement and advice from fellow coworkers; actual collaborations on new projects. The exposure to a variety of people working across many different fields can lead to exciting and sometimes surprising opportunities.

The community of a coworking space is its greatest asset. Individual coworkers remain independent, running their own businesses and setting their own tasks/working hours/goals, but they become part of a wider community. Even members not actively seeking networking opportunities value the companionship, camaraderie, support network and friendships that form through coworking. Indeed, many work hubs actively foster this sense of community by holding networking events, business workshops and social activities for their members.

Kids complicate things

So coworking combats the triple threat of negativity many at-home workers wrestle with: procrastination, stagnation and isolation.

Work-from-home parents are just as susceptible to these, but with a few more ‘tions’ thrown in for good measure: sleep deprivation, fractured communication (work phone call? hello crying baby), guilt-ridden frustration (‘Oh, for the love of...! Please, I just need to finish this email, then I’ll push you on the swing. Promise.’).

It’s a sad irony that the segment of the workforce who could arguably get the most out of coworking is the least likely to make use of a work hub.

Above: Yes, I have been known to take my kids (and laptop) to a play centre to get some work done

Parents of preschoolers can’t simply join a work hub without also figuring out the childcare. When breastfeeding’s hard enough, let alone building up stores of EBM (expressed breast milk)? When a coworking space is not conveniently located near home or day care? When coworking fees combined with childcare fees effectively place it out of reach? Parents end up back at square one, at home, nursing their child and their grab-bag of ‘tions’...

Coworking with childcare, combining the two services at the one location, makes it a cost-effective, convenient and guilt-free option for work-from-home parents. Hello productivity. Hello collaboration. Hello community. Hello sanity!

Rise of the hubbub

In the last year or so, child-friendly coworking spaces have begun popping up in Australia. It’s slim pickings, and the childcare on offer varies greatly from one to the next, but it’s a start. ‘Micro hubbubs’ are on the rise too – where groups of women (it is predominantly women) gather at one house to work together, splitting the cost of a nanny, plus wifi and printing costs.

As women are now starting more small businesses than men, often part-time at first while raising a young family, the need for ‘hubbubs’ across Australia is growing. Below are the child-friendly work hubs I have unearthed so far. Let me know of any others and I’ll add them to the list. With any luck, it will be a long list in no time.

Adelaide

Sass Place (Parkside) www.sassplace.com.au

Brisbane

Bubs and Boardrooms (location tbc) www.bubsandboardrooms.com.au

Melbourne

Happy Hubbub (Preston) www.happyhubbub.com.au

MummyDesk (Kensington) www.mummydesk.com.au

Sydney

Bubs and Boardrooms (Five Dock) www.bubsandboardrooms.com.au

The Ventura (CBD) www.theventura.com.au

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