Little Break

“When I said that to a random mom one time, she started crying,” the U-M Stamps grad continues. “She was like, ‘How am I doing? No one’s asked me that!’ And that’s what Mamas Network is about.”

Wan is also a marketing professional and mother whose experience with postpartum depression, as well as the support she received in a therapy group, inspired her to launch the nonprofit last year. The Mamas Network offers everything from weekly support groups to dance parties to yoga sessions.

“Community just solves everything,” Wan sighs. “When you gather people together that are wanting the same thing, everything just happens naturally, and organically, and problems can be solved.”

One year in, the Mamas Network has 800 email subscribers and 1,400 Facebook followers. Sponsorships, donations, and volunteers are enough to keep the events going and growing. But Wan wanted to help more people, and to do that, she needed a stronger revenue stream. And so, in April, she opened Little Break: Cowork & Parents Center in the Mamas Network space on Research Park Dr. It’s a nonprofit combination of coworking, child care, and support for parents.

Wan’s experience with postpartum depression, as well as the support she received in a therapy group, inspired her to launch the nonprofit Mamas Network last year. In April, she added Little Break, a coworking, child care, and support space. | Photo by J. Adrian Wylie

Finding child care is infamously difficult. “People joke like, ‘Oh, as soon as you find out you’re pregnant, get on the waitlist,’” says Kaitlyn Brown, a business consultant and owner of Savorista Coffee who took part in Wan’s Little Break pilot. “There’s so much uncertainty, which creates a lot of additional stress for parents as they’re trying to navigate child care and work.”

And then there’s the price. In Ann Arbor, full-time infant care in a licensed childcare center costs more than $19,000 per year, and upward of $10,000 for children up to age six. Licensing requirements like minimum adult-child ratios and insurance all drive up the cost. But after a yoga session at a gym that offered childwatch, Wan did some Googling and learned that when parents remain on-site, no license is needed. She started thinking about services she might offer for remote-worker stay-at-home parents, who are particularly susceptible to the stress and social isolation of new parenthood.

“There’s so many women … trying to work from home and keep a job and keep a newborn, and it just doesn’t work,” says Lisa Anderson, a clinical social worker specializing in perinatal care and a Mamas Network board member. “Little Break will be that ability for them to take a break, which then takes away that feeling [of being] trapped with no options.”

Wan’s research found only a handful of cowork-childwatch hybrids in the country. All were for-profit, and none offered parental supports. By integrating the offerings of the Mamas Network, she realized, Little Break could be truly unique.

Related: The Volunteer Vanishes

“YAY! YOU MADE IT!” exclaim the big yellow letters on Little Break’s front door. Immediately inside is the cowork lounge, with rounded chairs bellied up to a sand-colored desk and a comfy gray sectional couch surrounding a coffee table. Splashy yellow accents—throw pillows, chairs, doorjambs—brighten and energize the space.

To the right is the childwatch area. Sun streams through the windows as volunteer parents sit cross-legged on the floor playing with a pair of toddlers; there’s enough space (and toys) for sixteen children up to age five. When a kid needs a snack or a bathroom break, their parents are right across the lounge in the coworking area. It has desks and seating for eleven adults, a kitchenette with free tea and coffee, and a teeny table for kids.

“Little Break gives parents greater access to their kids during their work day, so there’s not that complete bifurcation of, ‘I see my kids only at home, and then when I’m working … I don’t see my children,’” says Brown.

Separate rooms with easy access to parents may also aid in child development.

“Children who are raised in an environment in which they are secure and they can come back for reassurance … then are able to branch out and explore and be confident knowing that they can come back to a mom who can handle their big emotions,” says Anderson. Meanwhile, “children who are exposed to other caregivers develop the capacity to understand the differences between caregiving styles, and that actually creates a more adaptive child.”

At the rear of the cowork lounge is the support room. Therapists can rent the space in exchange for providing “office hours” for members; there also are plans in the works for a visiting infant sleep consultant, doula, lactation specialist, and massage therapist. When it’s not being rented, members can use the room for telehealth appointments. Finally, right next door is the Parents Den—a tranquil space with soothing green walls and a cozy sectional couch that Wan describes as “a no-kids zone.”

“You can use this room during the day for open coworking, or you can use it to cry,” she laughs—or “to watch some TV, to read, to knit, crochet.”

Like the Mamas Network, Little Break’s growth has been quick. In its first eight days, it served fifteen parents and earned $1,500 in revenue from memberships and drop-ins. (Memberships range from $99 to $299 per month; drop-ins are $30 per day.) As of press time, it had thirteen members. At this rate, Wan anticipates she’ll be able to cover rent by the end of Little Break’s first month.

“The next goal is to bring in enough revenue to pay [a] teacher, and then bring enough revenue to then pay me, and then subsequent staff,” Wan says. If things keep growing, she may move into a bigger space, or even open a second location. Once it’s clear that this model works, she intends to share it with other nonprofits with a similar mission.

“Right now, this is what I want to focus on,” she says. “Who knows if this is what I want to focus on ten years from now, or twenty years from now? But I want a support community to outlive my life.”