“Is that a……..?” Elizabeth asked, pausing with surprise, as she walked in to find me typing away on my laptop, upstairs at Officrèche.

“A measuring jug of tea, yes” I said, completely expecting the quizzical look that flashed across her face.

“I forget to drink,” I began to explain. “I think seeing lots of tea in a measuring jug helps me to remember to drink. I don’t see tea in tea cups and hours will go past and I won’t have drunk the tea.”

Elizabeth didn’t know that it was the first time that I brought my little peculiar drinking buddy with me into Officrèche, but she didn’t ask me to leave, or call the men in white coats, so I think I’m OK.

I’m a writer. I can spend hours and hours tapping away, without looking up – not properly anyway – and will skip eating and drinking just to make sure I don’t lose the words that are trying to tumble out of me onto a screen. So my £4 Pyrex measuring jug, and its room for 2 of my fave herbal teabags and half a litre of water see me through.

That was the first time I had met Elizabeth, and it was also the day that I finished formatting my second book, The 7 Magic Keys to a Wonderful Life, sitting upstairs in Officrèche, typing away in the morning light shining through the big bay windows.

“Genius!!!” I first thought when I realised how Officrèche is set up. I couldn’t work out how no-one else had come up with the idea. My son had been in a nursery before, but trying to find a way of building in flexibility and great childcare I could trust for him, that he liked, that meant lots of other children around seemed a bit tricky.

I know I am not the only one. Brighton is full of us “creative” types; sometimes we are in the creative flow, have lots of work to produce, and other times things are quiet and we spend more time focused on our life at home. Sometimes the money flows more, and sometimes less, so having the flexibility of being able to find childcare that our children are comfortable with but can work with our changing working patterns is wonderful.

I have loved having access to the space upstairs, so that sometimes I could be in the warm and the dry, with a kitchen, but not at home or in the same cafes.

Knowing my son is in a place he loves, with other children he loves, with a team of people who are really lovely, and kind and present with him, means that I can relax when I am not with him – and let the ideas flow through my writing.

I have finished my second book with the help of the unique combination of excellent childcare provision and facilities at Officrèche – but, like Elisabeth’s reaction to me and my measuring jug of my fave herbal tea, there is a flexibility, an openness and a sense of building community that I love at Officrèche, not just with the parent volunteers (another genius idea!), but generally, there is a sense of everyone working together somehow to meet everyone’s unique and individual needs – all of which have been an invaluable part of being a typical Brighton creative trying to finish her book!

Thank you Elizabeth, Michelle and the whole team

The 7 Magic Keys to a Wonderful Life is now available on Amazon

I started freelancing in 2010 – on and off around a full and then a part time job. My daughter had been in fixed nursery since she was 7 1/2 months and since I returned to full time work.

In 2012 I decided to leave work and Fizz remained in her nursery. I had dabbled with using Officreche before and know that it was a fantastic place. I knew that I could use the facilities flexibly but it wasn’t until after Christmas 2012 that I started to rethink our home and work environment.

Fizz’s nursery is what is termed a private nursery, with a fixed space to pay based on a termly rate. Mostly I topped up her sessions to fit in with my work life. Until February this year it has worked well but gradually I was asking her current nursery to have her more flexibly.

There is an element to a freelancer lifestyle that private nursery can’t cater to. My client base had been increasing gradually but without a ‘regular’ wage I had found it quite difficult to keep up with a set amount of top up needed on a term time basis. It was then I contacted Officreche again to see if we could work out something that provides Fizz with her social needs, encourage her creative streak as well as my own. An added bonus was that having spent 18 months working from home I wanted some space which was more office based.

Fizz is 3 and she is entitled to the Early Years 15 hours per week in term time. Officreche will allow her to have a regular routine whilst also allowing for my work needs to. It means I can work upstairs and use the whole 15 hours entitlement rather than travel time taking away 1 hour each day. I am hoping it means that we have a better balance of parenting and knowing that she is just downstairs will be grounding too.

It has been a hard decision thinking about the upheaval but I am encouraged that both myself and Fizz will be better for a proper freelance working routine. Her for her creativity and me for mine.

As a freelance journalist I like to turn up the Sky News when I’m working from home, create that real newsroom atmosphere. Who doesn’t? Having scientific experts explain events to Kay Burley as if she’s an infant is useful to us all.

But it doesn’t always get the work done, particularly when Kay makes her daily descent beneath the bounds of acceptable human behaviour and you have to take time out to tweet with outrage.

So far, so fun when your time is your own, but when your child-free hours are limited, those hilarious quips about her recent novel (it’s part of a trilogy, but not like Star Wars) start to look less like essential warming up of the keyboard and more like something you could save to do while on conference calls.

Many was the afternoon I would fritter away in discussions of whether Kay had meant to claim that Nasa was sending astronauts to Mars, or meant to make Peter Andre cry, or meant to tell villagers searching for April Jones that she was dead. Always safe in the knowledge that I could meet my deadlines by working through.

Now that working through can’t be guaranteed, I have to be kept away from Sky, or any of the other fascinations of home. I don’t want to imply that working at Officrèche is like sensory deprivation – that’s never going to be the case with a games company upstairs – but it keeps me away from Kay in a way that leaving the boy at a regular crèche was never going to do. I can still conjure the newsroom – there’s a coffee machine and my editors can still reach me by phone to scream at me – but this way, I can limit my Kay. One day at a time.

When my daughter Clementine was 9 months old we took her to France to visit my parents. After a long train journey I sat on the sofa for a well-deserved coffee a la francaise whilst Clem amused herself with one of the many educational apps on my iPad. My mother, a maternelle educator with 40 years’ experience, frowned and mumbled something about my sister and I being raised into fine individuals without the benefit of such devices.

I can’t remember when Clem first picked up my iPad or my smartphone. Friends of ours, with a daughter 4 months older than ours, recommended a couple of apps made by the publisher, Penguin, called Peek-a-boo Baby and Happy Babies. Upon downloading them we found that they were not only sweet and fun but Clem loved them. We would sit with her and play them the way we would with a book and she soon started mimicking animal noises and interacting with the app like it was second nature. These games became something else we could do together.

I remember trying to have a meeting in a coffee shop with Clem in tow. As any parent might expect, without my fullest attention she was quickly losing patience. She reached into my bag, took out my phone, managed to switch it on and load an app she was familiar with. I then went on to have a productive, uninterrupted meeting for the next 40 minutes. Since then any time I might need ten minutes here or there to cook or have a shower, the iPad comes out.

While many parents are embracing new technology there will always be parents more wary of its influence. For years the negative effects of games and technology overuse have been speculated and I understand the fear associated with anything potentially damaging. Though it’s probably too early to tell the full effects that these new technologies might have on development I believe, like so much else, that responsible supervision and moderation is the key.

Our daughter goes to Officrèche and I was delighted to find out how much new technology is used in her care plan. There is an interactive screen on site displaying pictures of daily activities, you are encouraged to email or text your child’s key carer with pictures of your child enjoying any new activities you have shared that they might be interested in incorporating. Officrèche’s own Twitter feed offers both information on weekly activities and a chance for parents to share tips and join conversations over social media. It’s important to us that the nursery we chose is in tune with the way we’re raising our daughter and embraces the brave new world she’s inheriting.

“I originally started red tent therapy to care for the mother-to-be on her journey into motherhood. Before training as a massage therapist, and before becoming a mother myself, I had been wanting to somehow care for and nurture babies into this world and support parents in doing so themselves. Aside from possibly becoming a midwife or doula myself, I felt that teaching baby massage would be a beautiful way towards that. Mulling ideas and options over for some time, I have grown more and more convinced that the answer lies in supporting the parents themselves in becoming more grounded and healthy, as a solid foundation for caring for the baby and child. There are of course many other ways, but the one I have found for myself is through massage and the incredible and subtle power of therapeutic touch.

The care for the baby and for the parent starts the moment it is conceived (and possibly even before that!), and goes way beyond the birth and the first few months. A lot more emphasis has been put in recent years on caring for the pregnant woman and helping prepare her and her partner for labour and birth, which is fantastic progress; I feel however that the new mum (and the new family) gets a bit overlooked – she needs to get more attention and support too, especially during the immediate post-natal period (from birth to 6 weeks, and then 6 weeks to 6 months). In our society, we seem to think that everything should get back to ‘normal’ as soon as possible, and the new mother often does not get any real chance for recovery and focussed bonding time; this of course again also extends to the partner, if present. It is from this that the name ‘red tent therapy’ has come about, taking inspiration from traditional eastern views on post-natal rest and care, trying to bring a breath of this into our modern western lifestyles.

A simplistic sequence of care would be to look after the baby, look after the mother to help her look after her child, and look after the partner (again, if there is one) to help them look after the mother and the child. It is well known that life in-utero is an incredibly sensitive time for the developing embryo, foetus and then baby, and that the state of the mother and her environment impacts upon it. Physiologically, emotionally and psychologically the mother goes through so much change and upheaval during pregnancy; and of course the father also experiences many emotions. The stresses of early parenthood are varied and many.

This is how red tent therapy has come to be, with the vision to offer a little haven, a time and space, nurture and relief for the mother-to-be, the new mother, the baby, and the partner. This is the start of my journey towards fulfilling my ambition of providing continuity of care and support for families from pre-conception through to established parenthood.

My treatments focus on integrating the whole person, body, mind  and soul, supporting your body in healing itself and promoting general wellbeing. I use skilled nurturing touch to support women throughout their journey into motherhood; to help you relax and focus inwards during pregnancy, and then restore and reconnect with yourself after birth whilst promoting bonding with your new baby.

I am delighted to be able to run a clinic from Officrèche as aside from being a lovely and bright space, its ethos of quality flexible childcare and workspace to suit modern parenting needs fits so well alongside what I am trying to achieve. This is a bi-weekly clinic, with the next one taking place on Friday 15th February 2013, from 12pm till 5pm, in the meeting room on the 1st floor. Be in touch if you would like to book, or pop by for a chat – I will keep the door open when not in treatment.

The clinic is open to non-members as well, but of course it being more than just some space to hold it at, I would love to be able to support Officrèche members and staff as much as possible too. If you would be interested in receiving some treatment but the time and day just do not work for you, please be in touch with any suggestions.

For appointments or any questions, please email me at caroline@redtenttherapy.com or call me on 07815 531 164. I am still working on my website, but for a preview and some basic further information please visit www.redtenttherapy.com.”

I love my job working with young children. In my opinion, it is one of the most fun and exciting jobs you could have – but, truth be told, it is no walk in the park.

At Officrèche we have a capacity to take 8 children in the baby room, with 3 members of staff. There were some new proposals announced today regarding the quality and affordability of childcare in the Early Years sector. The proposed changes that concern me most are to do with the ratio practitioners work to. The current ratio is:

• Babies under 2 years – 1 adult to 3 children
• Toddlers aged 2 to 3 years –1 adult to 4 children
• Children aged 3 and over – one adult to 8 children

The proposed changes are:

• Babies under 2 years – 1 adult to 4 children
• Toddlers aged 2 to 3 years – 1 adult to 6 children
• Children aged 3 and over – 1 adult to 8 children

My biggest concern is the emotional welfare of the children. Lots of research – including my own for my dissertation – has suggested that babies and young children need to develop strong, positive attachments with a familiar adult that allow them to learn and develop cognitively. This research has been fed into the recently updated Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS), and is what they call a ‘prime area.’ So ask me how these babies are meant to build relationships with the adult if they have 3 other babies to care for?! I honestly think that the quality of care will be dramatically compromised if these ratios come into practice, which is the opposite of what practitioners working in this sector want. I think that the reality of it would result in practitioners’ stress levels rising, which could ultimately impact on the love and care they strive to provide for these children. They would also have less time to spend building relationships with the child’s family, something which we at Officrèche pride ourselves on.

There is also the risk of safety being compromised, for example during a fire evacuation. And how practical is it for one member of staff to closely watch seven babies while the other is changing a nappy or preparing a bottle feed?! No matter how qualified a member of staff may be, accidents happen, and it is supervision and vigilance which allow this to become less of an issue.

If reduced childcare costs are what the government are aiming to achieve by doing this, then perhaps they should take a look at the Officrèche model; flexible childcare with a budget to suit families’ individual needs. This unique way of offering childcare to the modern family has proved to be nothing but successful in the short time we have been operating.

It’s smart and light and on the top floor of our Regency building – 52 Dyke Road, Bn1 3JB. Here’s a picture:

At present it is used by our co-working parent members – and for workshops. But now I’m looking for a monthly income from one company/group of people. It’s 18ft x 17ft, with floor ports and a dado rail studded with power and ethernet points – so totally configurable to the tenants’ desk requirements.

It would be particularly good if some of the tenants were parents since we’ve got the Ofsted Outstanding nursery on the bottom two floors of the building, which would cut down any nursery commute enormously. However, not having nippers under 5 is far from a deal-breaker – this office room is well out of earshot of any children.

Saying that, we do CRB check all our tenants. The other inhabitants of this floor are the lovely www.fatpebble.com – they share the kitchen and toilets next door. Oh, and the full size 1980s arcade game on the landing next to the photocopier – Area 51 – just in case this kind of distraction appeals?! That was my prize for winning at Streetfighter on stage at an SEO conference at the Corn Exchange.

The rent is £1000/month or nearest offer – that  includes wireless, ethernet, all utilities – and VOIP phone deals are available.

Send me an email elizabeth@officreche.com or give Michelle (the nursery manager 01273 434244) a call to arrange to come and have a look.

Pilates is a great way to tone up, especially postnatally (Did you know, the postnatal period can last up to two years?!)

Pilates helps to tone safely from the inside out, strengthening core and postural muscles that support the spine and relieve strain in other muscle groups. Great care is needed when getting yourself back into shape after the birth of your baby, and one of the reasons  Pilates is a good form of postnatal exercise is because you learn to support yourself in the area of the pelvic floor and the emphasis is on toning the deeper layer of core muscles.

It is no good toning up the ‘glamour muscles’ if they haven’t got support from underneath!

Yoga is a great way to tone up postnatally too, but the teacher must be sensitive to the needs of the students and the practise should be mainly strength based (with appropriate attention given to stretching to relieve muscular tension.) Because I am trained in postnatal yoga and I also teach yoga classes specifically for new mums, attending either my yoga or Pilates classes is a perfect choice if you are a new or relatively new mum.

Of course, Pilates is suitable for men too!

It is common for men to have very well toned, strong buttocks and legs, but with neglected cores! This causes problems with posture, a tucked under pelvis and as a result, sloping shoulders as the body attempts to balance itself. Such posture can also result from long hours sitting at a desk.

Pilates addresses such issues by strengthening the core to stop buttocks overworking, and to make it easier to sit up straight. Flexibility of the spine is improved and breathing improves.

Pilates is often more suited than yoga to those with disc problems in their spine as the strengthening of the core muscles without excessive twisting, forward or backwards bending motion, helps to support the spine reduce micromotion imbalances which can cause pain in compromised discs.

Pilates was developed by Joseph Pilates in the early 20th century to help injured soldiers regain their strength.  It began to rise to popularity as dancers and athletes realised that it is a fantastic way to achieve and maintain a long, lean, toned physique without gaining bulk. It is also a great way to rehabilitate injuries safely and effectively.

I was inspired to study Pilates in 2010 having been teaching yoga for over two years and wanting to icrease the options that I could offer to my clients to improve their health and well-being. My manifesto for ‘Yoga2shape’ is to offer something for everyone whatever their needs. Yoga and Pilates have some wonderful similarities and it is even rumoured that Joseph Pilates and Iyengar (the fella that popularised yoga in the West) were friends and colleagues sharing many ideas.  The main similarity is certainly the fact that both unify the mind, body and breath which has a calming effect on the body and mind.

Anyone can come along to Pilates at Officrèche (no need to be an Officrèche member) and people of all fitness levels are welcome. Modifications are always given to make sure you are practising at a level that is suitably challening for you!

If you are a mum-to-be it is best to wait until six weeks after the birth of your baby to attend one of the Pilates classes at Officrèche, but in the meantime, come along to the Yoga2shape Pregnancy Yoga class (Mondays 6.45pm) that I teach at The Holistic Health Clinic just down the road from Officrèche!

Pilates at Officrèche is on Tuesdays, 6.50-7.50pm. I hope to see you in a Pilates class soon!

“When I ran my first business I used to find it frustrating to see all those potential clients out there but not be able to just reach out and grab them. It’s so tempting to think there’s some ingenious way to scoop them all up, show them how brilliant you are and set up the meeting that will inevitably turn into a long and fruitful partnership.

So off we went, hunting far and wide. I fell into the classic trap of doing lots of activity aimed at everyone. Cold-call teams were hired. E-shots were pinged out to hundreds of corporate event managers. £1000s went on glossy magazine advertising. All to appeal to as wide an audience as possible; not one potential market missed out, we dredged the lot.

Being specific felt totally counter-intuitive. I was too worried about missing any golden opportunities that might just be out there, maybe, perhaps, who knows where, somewhere we hadn’t thought of. But of course, by trying to talk to everyone, we ended up saying very little to anyone.

Our bland vanilla messaging meant that the clients we should have been focusing on had no strong sense of why or whether they needed us. It was only when I began focusing on companies for whom I knew we had a great product and natural affinity that new business really started flying in.

At the risk of sounding like Confucius, we won big by aiming small. That’s why I believe fervently that to grow a business, you first have to identify your ideal client and tailor your marketing pitch accordingly.

Start by being specific. Really specific. In the events world, “anyone interested in hiring an event management company” won’t cut it. It’s a huge market. Even those who say they target blue chips or the charity sector or other event companies are being too general. You need to get down to detail.

Let’s take the example of a massage therapist. They could choose to focus on women aged 35-55 in the Surrey area with an income greater than £45,000. Then they could go a step further, selecting only women already interested in alternative therapies. Of these, they could define two more niches: those with/without children.

At this level of knowledge and detail, you’re in a far better position to decide how and where to promote your company.

It’s worth pointing out that defining your target market in this way does not mean excluding potential clients from outside it. But what it does mean is that you can concentrate your sales & marketing efforts and brand messages on the people most likely to buy from you.

Bear in mind too that you’re unlikely to have just one target market, unless your offering is very niche. Nevertheless, when you know exactly what your discrete target markets are, you can use different techniques to reach each one.

Best of all, you’ll feel better about all of this. You’re more in control of your business and it’s far more satisfying to approach people you know will appreciate what you can do for them. And of course, if you ended up working with them, you’ll enjoy it far more in the long term too.”

I admit, it was my fault all the way – way beyond the New Year slap and tickle, I am talking about how I invited so many of our friends – many of whom have more than one child. I did my best: I uninvited my family. And then I began to think laterally about how to manage it all.

It was a resounding success, for the following reasons:

• Beautiful sunny weather
• Three cakes
• Small Belgian beers
• A BYO attitude by the parents
• And a treasure hunt party bag

I’m going to describe the latter because so many parents told me they wanted to poach the idea:

We’ve got a huge garden – but you could set this up in a park. All you need is a quick trip to Poundland – I spent £50 on very attractive plastic tat. Then I went to the supermarket and bought Babybels, cartons of fruit juice and tangerines.

One hour before kick off (2pm, so they should have had lunch, see how cunning I am?) my husband, my father in law and myself were filling the wheelbarrow with party blowouts, stringing tools up from the fruit trees, hooking modelling clay to the washing line with pipe cleaners and positioning ninjas in what was once an asparagus bed. Then there was the babybel pyramid, the jewels (stickers) blue tacked onto a garden wall, the tangerines lining the path, the socks on the trellis…

The kids all loved it – the older ones were really happy to go round again with little ones – or to just get more booty. And they all had food and drink and toys…and as a game – it wasn’t at all time specific, they could do it whenever they fancied.

I gave each (walking) child a shiny paper gift bag as they came in, wrote their name on the attached tag (important to avoid fights later) and handed over the pictorial instructions. I put this together the week before – my husband was crying with laughter over what he described as the suicidal modelling clay (bottom left)…click below to view the PDF:

treasure_hunt