Playful Pumpkin Café offers safe space for children, parents
The pressures of parenthood can sometimes be overwhelming. There is a lot of pressure to do everything perfectly and raise the next Elon Musk.
Stephanie Graham, owner of Playful Pumpkin Play Cafe in Windsor, N.S., opened to not only give children a safe place to play but as a place for parents to take a break as well.
“I felt like there was a need in the community for somewhere for families and children to go,” said Graham. “In our community, there wasn’t a whole lot.”
Graham opened in December 2019 and had the idea after having post-partum depression.
“I suffered from post-partum depression with my son and I found the best way to deal with post-partum depression was to get out and do things and connect with other parents who were going through similar experiences,” said Graham.
“It was hard for me to find that in Windsor in the middle of wintertime. So, having the experience and education I have, I opened the play café,” Graham continued.
Graham, who is a child and youth worker and level two early childhood educator, designed the Playful Pumpkin
Play Café as a safe place for young children to play inside and socialize while their caregivers or parents have a cup of coffee or baked good and visits with other caregivers or parents.
“If you want to go have a cup of coffee with a friend it's not always easy to take your infant or toddler to Tim Hortons,” Graham continued. “It's not really appropriate for them to be running around but here that’s exactly what it is. Everybody is comfortable with the giggles, laughing, and yelling or screaming. It's all acceptable here.”
The concept of the play café is about helping everyone.
“The daycare portion was an afterthought. It was just something to help parents who were in sticky situations who needed some childcare,” said Graham. “Here the café portion was to be community-based and ‘it takes a village’ concept instead of just dropping them off and leaving. It was about coming and connecting with one another.”
One of Graham’s favourite parts of her job is the new people she has met.
“My favourite part is meeting new people from my community and connecting with them and seeing other parents have the same sense of community built as well,” said Graham.
The play café, which is a breastfeeding safe environment, has grown so much in popularity that Graham now has four employees.
Graham has also designed the space so newborns are welcome. There is no charge for children younger than one and the play space is for children one to six years old.
She also designed the café's menu to be geared towards younger children, so it offers grilled cheese, pepperoni, and cheese pizza for lunch and sell bagels, muffins, cookies, and other baked goods.
Even though 2020 may not have been easy, COVID-19 did not stop Graham.
“Running it has been great – definitely a dream come true. COVID has had its ups and downs. Something that it has brought to light is how to adapt, which we definitely have,” said Graham.
“We have expanded out retail to help compensate from some of the funds ... which is great to be able to offer to Windsor,” said Graham.
To Graham, even through COVID-19, operating never felt like a burden.
“I love waking up in the morning and coming to work,” said Graham. “It's always fun even with the challenges we faced in 2020. It's been a great environment for the children we do have and the families who can still come.”
Since she felt so supported by the community, Graham chose to use her retail space to support local.
“It aligned with everything we stand for supporting: buying local and supporting the community. This was another way we could do that.”
She now sells merchandise from 10 people in Windsor and brings in specifically Canadian merchandise.
“We have expanded that part of our business due to COVID since we had to drop our numbers by 50 per cent,” said Graham. “So now we have expanded our shopping a little bit more, which people are really grasping on to. People want to buy and support local.”
Behind the Business is a regular feature that introduces you to local businesspeople. Want to suggest someone that should be featured? Email your idea to scott.doherty@saltwire.com.