The Wing is providing its members with quality childcare options because no one else does

The Wing, a women’s co-working space and club with offices in four major US cities, recently announced the forthcoming launch of The Little Wing, a short-term childcare center for members who are moms.

Starting this December, The Little Wing centers will open at The Wing SoHo, followed by The Wing’s upcoming West Hollywood location. Certified childcare providers known as “Wing-sitters” will watch over the children of Wing members for a maximum of two hours at a time while members work at the club. The centers will offer art and music classes, as well as monthly programming on topics ranging from sleep and toilet training to queer parenting.

Co-working spaces, a booming industry launched to accommodate the increasing number of entrepreneurs and corporate employees who work remotely, are increasingly catering (paywall) to women, who represent a growing segment of remote workers in the US. With its centers, The Wing hopes to fill a gap left by the shortage of affordable, quality childcare in the United States.

It’s expensive to be a parent in America. In 2016, according to the nonprofit ChildCare Aware of America (pdf), the cost of infant care in 49 states and the District of Columbia exceeded the standards for affordability, according to a threshold established by the Department of Health and Human Services of no more than 7% of the state median income for a two-parent family. As I’ve previously written, the high cost of childcare is actually driving US adults away from having children, or leading them to have less children than they considered ideal.

But it’s not just cost: In much of the US, demand for licensed childcare outstrips supply. The Center for American Progress analyzed about 7,000 ZIP codes and found that roughly half qualify as “childcare deserts.”

A lack of access to childcare can negatively impact a child, leaving them at risk of missing years of development, which are especially crucial from birth through five years. In the case of working moms, qualified childcare professionals can support a child’s cognitive and behavioral skills, laying the foundation to help them succeed later. The lack of childcare options is the number one barrier preventing women from either entering the workforce or taking on more hours.