The scene could easily be mistaken for a play date, with two moms laying out activities for a few preschool kids in a toy-filled living room.
Yet this is a co-working plus child-care space in Toronto. A small number of self-employed parents, mainly entrepreneurial moms, treat it as a godsend, and they invariably ask, ‘Why didn’t anyone think of this sooner?’
Some have. Although rare, a smattering have popped up in other entrepreneurial hubs, such as Brooklyn, N.Y., London and at least one in San Francisco (which nevertheless closed, reportedly because of high rents). Co-working spaces without child care are common though, catering to those who would otherwise work from home or make do with Starbucks as their Wi-Fi office of convenience.