Hi! We’re Nick, Shivani, & Narayani Hawkins.
Nick is a historian-turned-software-engineer and Shivani is a meditation teacher & artist: by all accounts, we are pretty different. And yet, somehow, we fell in love almost instantaneously on a beautiful summer day in 2016. We got married a year later and moved to the Bay Area.
Soon after, we found out we were pregnant. Yay!
But: it turned out to be a very challenging and high-risk pregnancy. Our precious angel Narayani showed up far too early, leading to a 6-week NICU stay and lots of specialized medical care for months afterwards. It was the most intense and overwhelming experience.
In the spring of 2020, our daughter was about 5 months old, and the doctors said she was on track to good health and we finally started to breathe a bit. We found a great nanny and Shivani was able to start working again on her career that she had been cultivating for 20+ years. Yay!
But then, just a few weeks later… COVID! LOCKDOWN! GLOBAL PANDEMIC!
Suddenly, everything we had relied on fell apart, again. There was no childcare. No family or friends who could visit or help. No outings, no library, no parks, no community, nowhere to go and nowhere to play. We struggled with the constant fear of infection with an immune-compromised child… what made it worse was knowing that everyone around the world was also struggling, and we felt powerless to do much beyond survive each day.
And, Nick was now a remote worker trying to set up an office in a small apartment while Shivani, like so many other mothers during that time, had to pause her work to take care of our baby because there was no one else who could.
Eventually, the tiny space at home became so untenable we knew we had to accelerate the search for a larger home.
After months of searching, we found a stunningly beautiful 6+ acre creekside spot in historic Freestone, CA, situated between the towns of Sebastopol, Occidental, and Bodega Bay.
It was the land of our dreams, and the extensive repairs and renovations the property required put it within our budget. There were a lot of cool synchronicities and acts of grace along the way that only affirmed that this is where we were meant to end up. Before we knew it, we had packed up our stuff and moved into west Sonoma County. YAY!
It turns out our little corner of the earth came with a medium-sized office building that had been the home of a charitable non-profit for over 40 years, and was zoned for offices as well. Despite being in a rural area, they had put in high-speed Comcast Business internet: a precious resource in a space where many homes don’t even have basic internet.
We spent the first few years cleaning and restoring the property in between our regular work, a process which is still ongoing. At every turn, the biggest challenge we faced to getting ANYTHING done was whether or not we had safe, affordable, and loving childcare.
Back in 2019, we had our baby thinking we were going to be able to parent within a community, with family visiting, and with child-friendly places we could go. The pandemic changed all of that, and also revealed how little infrastructure or support there actually is for modern families.
Just one event like this led to millions of smart, educated, talented women having to leave the workforce entirely. Relationships were strained to the point of no return, causing further damage to everyone. Countless people – especially parents – bravely fought with anxiety, depression, and isolation while trying to navigate the new realities we found ourselves in.
And, even as lockdown protocols eased up, and people were able to get vaccinated, we discovered that there still weren’t any meaningful community spaces and infrastructure for working parents.
Childcare costs are so high that countless people, usually women, are priced out of being able to work or contribute outside the home.
And dropping your young infant off to daycare for 8+ hours a day just to make ends meet can be really emotionally and developmentally difficult for everyone. The early years are so critical for development and establishing strong and secure bonds with your child and as a family.
And yet, economic realities persist and we both needed to work.
There’s a great adage about how you must be the change you wish to see. Instead of renting our offices out to a lucrative commercial tenant, we decided to build the workspace/childcare situation we ourselves longed for. We started an on-site nanny share with a few other families who also worked remotely and needed high-speed internet and affordable childcare.
Over time, the offices became a full-service coworking space and the nanny share became a full on-site childcare program designed and run by experienced professional teachers. Yay!
We officially opened our doors in the summer of 2023 and currently have a small group of parents who quietly co-work here each day to the sounds of happy children. We drink tea and coffee, encourage each other in our work, and laugh together about the funny and exhausting things our kids do. Stay-at-home parents sometimes join us to hang out, or for some peace and quiet – to read a book, make a call, or answer emails.
Throughout the day, parents nurse, play, eat, or nap with the kids, and everyone goes home together, happy and safe.
This is everything we wanted for ourselves as young parents. And what we are committed to offering to all the parents who come after us.
We know you have to work. We know how much you love your children. And we know how hard, scary, and overwhelming it all can be, especially when it’s just one or two of you trying to do everything for your family.
We want you to know that you are not alone, and help is available. We are all here and we no matter what happens, we are going to raise our children well, contribute meaningfully to the world, and do some good, together.
