Day-cares taking the pain out of parenting

When Seena Edvin had to go back to work full-time after having a baby, she didn’t want to drop her child off at a creche that was too far from her workplace. Later in 2006, keeping in mind the needs of other mothers like her, Edvin started Tom and Jerry, a crèche in Brookfield, a burgeoning IT centre. Soon, Edvin was running day-care centres at many corporate campuses.

“Bringing one’s child along to work offers tremendous comfort to young parents, especially mothers and also to children who know their parents are just a few yards away,” says Edvin, who runs on-site crèches at three offices — GE, Tesco HSC and ABB.

With more such in-house crèches, specialised day-cares and after-school care centres opening across the city, parents (particularly new mothers) are now better equipped to deal with the pressures of parenting and high-stress jobs.

With demand for reliable day-care rising, Bharat Kapoor, founder of day-care chain Your Kids ‘R’ Our Kids (YKROK), had no problem getting IBM to provide seed capital. “To address the need for accessible day-cares, we opted to set up centres in collaboration with an employee-sensitive corporate,” says Kapoor. In Bangalore, YKROK caters to employees at IBM, Infosys, Accenture, Oracle and others.

Kapoor and Edvin have both found that companies want them to customise services. “They want the holidays matched with their calendar. If required, they want weekend care. If they have a visiting employee from another city, they want us to accommodate their needs.” Many companies also want a doctor on call or regular health checkups, since babies can easily contract infection.

These centres take in toddlers post the mother’s three-month maternity leave, and have kids up to six years of age. For older kids, they offer education and activity programmes too. Open from 8am to 8pm on most days, such on-site centres allow the parents to swing by a few times a day to check on their children. “For nursing mothers, it’s a boon,” adds Edvin.

While there are plenty of options for toddlers, most working parents need after-school care for older kids too. To cater to them, Riju Rai, who is in her 50s, turned entrepreneur after a long stint in the corporate sector. Rai opened Spectrum, an after-school care centre in HRBR Layout earlier this year.

“While there are places that provide good care for toddlers, I always felt children who are a little older are often neglected or are a little lost in day-care centres for toddlers,” says Rai. Spectrum positions itself as an after-school academic and activity centre for older kids.

“These kids need exposure to focused, age-appropriate activities. Most of them are from families where both parents work and after school, they typically go home and watch TV. I felt there was a need for a place that wouldn’t just take care of them physically, but would also take academic care,” says Rai.

At Spectrum, Rai, a Phd with an MA in Economics and an MS in Software Systems from BITS Pilani under her belt, helps children with their homework, prepares them for tests and exams and provides coaching in various subjects.

“I try to provide an environment where they feel both secure and intellectually stimulated,” says Rai. Activities here range from karate and creative movements lessons to various art and craft activities. Rai aims to save parents the trouble of spending their weekends carting children to and from various extra-curricular activities. Rai also throws in extras such as pick-ups from school bus-stops and nutritious snacks.