Sydney’s first in-childcare parent workspace
Perth start-up BubDesk provides an office and crèche service partners with childcare operators to create small parent workspaces inside of fully licensed childcare centres ands spreads its wings to Sydney.
BubDesk at work
Photo: Lion Fox & Co
It has launched its first Sydney based parent workspace inside of participating childcare centre, Ganeinu Long Child Care and Preschool, located in St Ives.
The centre is one of the community services supplied the Chabad House of the North Shore.
Offering a modern private workspace, parents enrol their children as usual and pay a modest daily fee to make use of the office. The service provides them with WiFi, printing, coffee, parking and the opportunity to continue on with feeding, baby visits and regular interaction throughout the day, as needed while they settle their baby into the daycare routine.
“The idea for BubDesk came about out of sheer desperation. Not wanting to give up my career and not wanting to be separated from my baby – there simply had to be an easier way.” says BubDesk Founder, Meg Burrage.
Open to men and women, freelancers, corporate professionals and students, users find that the BubDesk service is more than a desk. Parents using the service become part of a wider parent community – professional parents supporting each other, networking, providing business referrals and collaborating on new business ventures.
The corporate sector is expressing considerable interest in the concept with employees from numerous national companies having utilised the service in Perth as a return-to-work option following parental leave. BubDesk expects to see 10 Sydney childcare centres offering the parent workspace within their facilities by the end of the year and will next month open in Brisbane, followed by Melbourne, Adelaide and Hobart.
“Our mission it to create a world where parents truly can “Have it all!”. We would like to see it offered in all suburbs and regional towns to ensure it’s accessible to all”, added Meg Burrage.
