Working at home during naps sounds so easy–until you actually try it. Yes, I too thought my newborn baby might sleep in a basket under my desk, waking up for storytime and hugs before drifting peacefully back to sleep again when I needed to meet a deadline.
Ha, ha, and also, ha. Nothing is as tough on a work schedule as a small child, who, awake or asleep, has you hopping, and it’s tough to get work done when you’re fetching milk, Play-Doh, and the remote control so an episode of Dragon Tales will give you some sweet, sweet relief.
Down in Menlo Park, however, at least one group of enterprising parents has found a solution: Cubes&Crayons brings together rent-able shared office spaces with onsite childcare. Opened in January of 2008, Cubes&Crayons offers a variety of care packages: You can rent a space by the month or by the year, full-time or a specified number of hours a week, bringing infants or children all or part of the time you’re there. You can buy drop-in day passes or half-day passes, with or without childcare; with childcare and a shared office, rates run about $20 an hour, just $5 more than the Bay Area’s going nanny hourly rate. Working 10 hours a week with childcare will run you about $600 a month.
Cubes&Crayons has proved so popular in the South Bay that they’re headed north. The San Francisco office is in its planning stages right now and seeking investors and early adopters. Got a question? Contact Felicity at felicity@cubesand crayons.com.
The Menlo Park location of Cubes&Crayons is located at 1122 Crane Street (at Santa Cruz Avenue), Menlo Park, 650-323-2551, cubesandcrayons.com. The Menlo Park mothership also has a nice blog, with profiles of members and information on other activities going on at the branch, like yoga classes and date nights.

