making portland a better place for kids

Mom is working on a bunch of projects for young moms and dads—parents of children under 6. Lots of the resources and “things to do” in Portland are geared toward school-aged children. Moms and dads who want to take their kids somewhere to play, after 5 p.m. on weekdays, and have a coffee or a snack don’t have many options.

Indoor Play Park / Café project: the idea is a 2,000 square foot play area, surrounded by bench seating and tables for parents and babies, with facilitators working with the children in the play area and servers helping mom & dad take a load off. The play area has divisions between developmental stages (0-10 months non-mobile, crawler & walkers up to 18 mos, 18-36 months, 3-6 years) and a separate room for play groups. The service would be top-class with food designed for parents (chopped salads, stir-fry, things you can eat with one hand) and for young kids (cut-up pieces of herb-poached chicken, cheerios on a plate, yogurt, tiny grilled cheese sandwiches, bite-sized grilled vegetable medley). Would you come? Would you pay? Let me know what you think.

Real reviews project: I’ve begun a project for critical, edited reviews of pediatricians, day care arrangements and places to go with kids. Give me feedback on anything you’d like to see critically reviewed.

New moms lunches: New York City has a great program of lunches for new moms. I’d like to do something similar. Email me for reservations or to be updated with my plans in the future.

It’s easy to play with kids in Portland, Oregon—especially in the summer, when the sun shines. But there are 155 days of rain each winter in this lovely city!