A Quest for Kinder Spaces

I'm playing in the parent productivity + child development space, in search for child care solutions that integrate with the daily lives of ambitious parents who work flexibly.

Space Club in Greenpoint, NYC. I love that it opens at 8AM, wish they had coffee 🙃

I took my son to a play space and it felt so contrasting with the world outside. A place designed for little ones like him, the curious hands and toddling feet.

I immediately wished there would be more spaces like this outside, maybe a coffee shop where a mom could finish her latte before her toddler (almost) hit his head on the closest table (causing much discontent with the table’s occupant who’s seemingly having a bad day).

Or a space where I could sit and work from, while knowing my kids are playing safely in a developmentally conducive environment. That they are well taken care of by an adult (or adults), while also socializing with other kids. Maybe they’re even an ongoing music & art class.

Finally, maybe there were more integrated spaces where parents who work remotely could take a meeting from, get work done, or have unexpected conversations that lead to creative sparks. Call it a membership, club, or Coworking - a space for parents who are flexible (in terms of work schedule and location) to spend more quality time with their kids.

Or simply cafes by playgrounds, where kids can have fun while their parents catch up.

The thing is, these places exist - while not necessarily as is, at the same time, or where I live.

And before I build something, I decided to collect stories because A) market research (aka respect/learn from your elders), but mostly because B) I am genuinely curious about how the world around us experiences parenting in a different, maybe better way.

For instance, I know that in Norway there are trains where cars have "a huge playground, stroller parking, books for kids, and 'Peppa Pig' playing on TV."

And that Singapore has a “Kid-friendly café with Treehouse Playground".

Seemingly, in the Netherlands there are bars near playgrounds (went viral on TikTok).

With that in mind, I am starting a couple of things (early beginnings)

I’m searching for Kinder Spaces: where parents & kids can be their best selves, which can happen in different ways (together, or at the same time, but always in a somewhat shared space). Namely: where parents can be productive, social, or creative, while their kids can do the same (in their own way. My son finds the most creative ways to be productive anyway, all the time.

Here is how you you can help:

1. Drop names of places (public spaces, businesses, countries, or cities) that pass the vibe check. I’ll look into it!

2. Introduce me to people who know deeply about this topic (child dev experts, a Scandinavia-based-parent-friend, or someone who started a play space of sorts).

3. Reach out if you’d like to help me build a community around this.

I am currently parking this idea at kinderspaces.nyc, but please don’t judge by what you see there - it’s a highly experimental prototype I am brave enough to make public while figuring out my own creative/productive life as a mom & self-employed fractional exec.

I also created a GPT trained on my budding NYC-based database of “places to go”, “things to do” with your kids. You probably can ask it about different cities too.

Check it out at Kinder Spaces Guide and please shoot some feedback if you find any.

That being said, this is a journey worth walking, it resembles my own path when founding 8spaces.co (acquired by FlySpaces in 2016). Back then I was searching and listing “work-friendly” cafes around Southeast Asia, and before no time I was booking conference spaces with clients like Google, Swarovski, and Petronas (the staple KL towers oil company). Now, I am searching “stroller-friendly” cafes and who knows where the journey may lead.

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Please drop me a note if you’d like to join this quest, especially if:

1. You’d like to curate and list “Kinder Spaces” around you;

2. You’d like to be interviewed at (or introduce someone for) our podcast featuring experts or experts in the child dev space (play spaces, childcare, homeschoolers, teachers etc.)

You can reach out through the form on kinderspaces.nyc, drop a comment here, or reach out via DM.