This Mom Matched 3500 Parents to Give Them Childcare in the Pandemic

There were things that I expected when I became a parent. The lack of sleep, the cost of daycare, and adjusting my routines to accommodate a helpless new human being.?

Call me naive, but I had no idea just how hard childcare was to come by. It wasn’t until I became a parent that I learned that 50% of Americans live in?Childcare Deserts, which are areas that have no licensed childcare options.?Half of Americans.

We have better odds surviving Covid than getting actual childcare coverage in the United States to be able to go to work.

Before the pandemic, parents were signing up for years-long waitlists to get partial coverage, and scrambling to cover on days when schools were closed or holidays popped up.

The pandemic came in like a hurricane on top of this shoddy infrastructure, and decimated the lives of parents everywhere. It threw millions of scotch-taped childcare plans (and back-up plans) out the window. I didn’t expect to be one of millions scrambling to find childcare and keep a career afloat... for years.

Last week, a parent reached out to me to tell me of one childcare solution that’s gaining steam in Chicago, New York, and Los Angeles.

While market solutions are never going to be a complete fix for federal and state governments that leave child care continuously underfunded, I’m still keeping an ear out for people who come up with solutions to the childcare problem.

Helen Mayer, a mother of young twins, was building her first company during the pandemic. The pandemic shut down Helen’s company and took away her childcare, so she became the stay-at-home parent by default. Helen needed childcare, and her background in organizing helped her create local childcare solutions.

What started as one parent trying to sort out local childcare so she could go back to work turned into a functioning model for local childcare solution.

She started organizing childcare swaps between parents, and eventually landed on a model where parents who work outside of the home match with stay-at-home parents who could provide care — generating an income stream for families who might not have one otherwise.

The stay-at-home parent now gets paid to take in extra kids during the day; the folks who work outside the home get childcare coverage. One surprising part of the story? She had to convince the stay-at-home parents to accept payment. (This says a lot about how we consistently under-value caretaking and expect it to be free.)

She matched 50 families right away, and saw an opportunity in the project. This started what’s become Otter, a childcare service that matches people who need care with parents able to provide extra care.

Since its inception in 2020, Otter has seen $20 million put in the hands of stay-at-home parents.

I invited Helen to join Startup Parent to talk about building a childcare company in the pandemic after losing her job and company.

During our conversation, Helen and I talked about how she came up with the idea for Otter, when she realized the way she was running the childcare swaps had to change, and why we need to reframe the way we think about and value caregiving. We need (at least) 10,000 innovate childcare solutions — and Otter is one of them.

— Sarah Peck, CEO & Founder, Startup Parent

If you want to learn more about Otter and the childcare options they offer, here are the?full notes from the conversation?over on our blog.

To learn more about how you can bring Otter to your community?check out our conversation on Instagram.

JOIN STARTUP PARENT

At?Startup Parent,?we believe parenting shouldn’t be at odds with work—and that your parenting journey is why you're a leader that this world needs. We start by disrupting the myths of parenting and instead tell true stories of it's really like.

The Startup Parent Podcast?is an award-winning podcast ranked in the top 1% of podcasts globally. We interview parents about the future of work, life, and leadership. Listen to the Startup Parent Podcast on:

Apple?★?Spotify?★?Google★?Overcast?★?Stitcher?★?Castbox?★ RSS feed

If you enjoyed this?LinkedIn newsletter,?share it with a friend or subscribe. Every month I share current stories, ideas, and strategies to help you find your way in parenting, business, and life. If you haven't subscribed yet, just click the "Subscribe" button in the upper right corner above.