Learning patterns/Child room

Learning Pattern Library

Child room

problemTaking care of children while attending a conference is difficult.

solutionProvide a child room at the conference venue where children can be left in the care of professional child care givers.

creator• Netha Hussain

created on12 October, 2014

What problem does this solve?

Many fathers and mothers need to take care of their children while attending conferences. It may not be possible for them to participate fully in the conference while looking after the child. Children may not find it comfortable among a large group of people; they might want to engage in games or some other fun activity. Parents find it difficult to attend to their children's needs while being engaged at the conference.

What is the solution?

Provide a child room with professional child care-givers. There are mobile event crèche (day care) services who will take care of the children if they are provided a physical space near the conference location. Another room may be earmarked for mothers who want to breastfeed their babies in privacy.

General considerations

• Ask for information regarding attendees' children in the event registration form. Knowing the details about the total number of children and their age groups will help the organizers to plan the requirements in advance.
• One volunteer or staff should act a liaison between the parents and the conference organizers so that the children's requirements can be addressed quickly.
• Ideally, there should be two child care rooms, one for pre-schoolers/toddlers and another for older kids.
• The location of the child room, details regarding baby change facilities and contact details of the baby sitters should be provided to the parent.

When to use

• In all physical conferences and meetups where parents with children under 12 are likely to attend.
• At conferences where members of the organizing team have children.

See also

External links

• Want more women at your conference? Offer child care : Post by Tara Tiger Brown, Forbes. Link
• Sue Gardner: "In Silicon Valley we have on-site hair-cut buses and dry-cleaning and celebrity chefs, but we don't offer daycare", Ada Initiative. Link
• Linux Conference AU 2013: The response to offering conference childcare has been overwhelming. Link

References

• Geek Feminism wiki

Endorsements

• Taking into consideration children is not the aim of our activities, but it definitely shows interest, sensitivity and respect for everyone (and in particular quite frankly for women); respect and civility is what collaboration is about. iopensa (talk) 13:22, 9 January 2015 (UTC)

• I had the same idea! We are worried about the gender gap in Wiklipedia but we discourage many women editors to atend our events because we do not offer childcare! --Jaluj (talk) 21:01, 10 April 2015 (UTC)

• Parents willing to spend time volunteering (or working) for Wikimedia organizations deserve our support and care. When you help children get to know a bit about the work their parents do, it improves understanding between parent and child. And when you bring the children in a community together, the children form personal bonds that bring the parents in the community together too. It is worth making an extra effort to ensure that family people can participate in the Wikimedia movement, because families are the part of society that has a direct personal interest in the education of the young. --Djembayz (talk) 16:06, 25 April 2015 (UTC)
• As a single mother, I'd really be happy if every Wikimania would offer childcare by default, provided by the organizers. I hope this will be the case from next year on. SandraF (WMNL) (talk) 13:36, 4 June 2015 (UTC)
• because it's awesome ! it's hard to focus when you're interrupted by a cute(but whiney) kiddo.

and yes, to the above. as a single mom, i totally agree that there should be childcare provided at wikimania! my son came this year, but it was really difficult to secure care for him! some parents brought theirs to the whole conference. Fishantena (talk) 04:29, 16 December 2018 (UTC)