CoHatchery offers co-working space plus child care for parents

PARK SLOPE, Brooklyn (WABC) -- Many companies are now starting to offer in-house child care to help ease the burden for their employees.

But what if you work for yourself or are trying to launch your own business?

A new company in Brooklyn now gives self-employed parents a place to work with trained child care professionals on-site.

"If you can bring your dog to work why can't you bring child to work as well?" said Susann Friedrich, co-owner.

From that idea CoHatchery was born, a co-working space that also offers childcare. Friedrich and Wendy Xiao Schadeck graduated from Columbia Business School in May and opened their first location in Park Slope Wednesday after doing plenty of analysis.

"There's a lot of movement to become more freelance and a lot of people have more freedom, but the office and child care set up don't allow them to take advantage of that," Xiao Schadeck said.

"So the idea of CoHatchery is to have a co-working space like any other with typical amenities, but on top of that we allow you to bring your kid in and we have a co-located day care," Friedrich said.

For now that day care is across the street at Kidville where they're leasing space. But CoHatchery provides its own teachers and care givers, and it is creating a curriculum as well. Parents are free to pop in to visit their kids.

For Tina Diepa, a blogger and architect, CoHatchery may very well fit her needs.

"I do have a workspace at home, but it would be nice to just concentrate and be in an environment where everybody is working," Diepa said.

She's working while her son Ike gets to play in a safe place. Same goes for Elliot's mom who has had to depend on nap time and friends to get work done.

"I come from a 9 to 5 before my son, so I feel a little bit like I'm back in the office, that kind of environment," she said.

The prices are comparable to other co-working spaces for about $300 a month parents can get a six-hour day of co-working plus three hours of child care every week.

Parents can opt for as many as five days a week. CoHatchery plans to open other locations, most likely with the child care component on site.