As young girls, we are often told how to walk, talk and behave. As mothers, we are expected to manage everything from children to career and even postpartum depression without complaining. As working women, entrepreneurs, and mumpreneurs, the expectations are high. It certainly is not an easy road to the top. Working mothers find it difficult to balance life between work and parenting, and kids often end up at daycare centres. But now, there are quite a few popup event in the city to help parents spend some quality time with their children. One such is The Activity Room which is the brainchild of three millennial moms, Shweta Mahtani, Aru Nayar Mani, and Kashish Ahuja who were desperate to indulge their kids in something fun, interesting and also includes a whole lot of activity. To bring the picture into reality, the mothers joined hands with Nisha Kapoor, the creative brain behind Anyonya Events. RITZ talks to the four enterprising women entrepreneurs who are keen to create a healthy atmosphere for our little ones.
Text: Ancy Donal Madonna
Photography: Nitin Barath S
Hair & Makeup: Vurve Signature Salon
Location: The Raintree, St. Mary’s Road
Co-Founder of Bigfeed, Chennai and Cafe Toastie Express, Shweta Mahtani is a Master’s graduate in Communications & Marketing with experience in branding and marketing for over 10 years. After having her baby and being a hands-on mommy, Shweta’s biggest challenge has been to find time for her kid amid her arduous work schedule. So she decided to convert play dates into work and thus came up with the concept of ‘The Activity Room’, a popup event especially for new parents to spend quality time with their kids while doing fun and interesting things crafted for the sole purpose of bringing families together.
It’s so special and I just can’t express it in words because the bond between a child and mother is just something precious
What is The Activity Room all about?
The Activity Room is a day’s event for kids and parents to spend some quality time together while doing fun stuff. It is a platform for new activities for kids where we bring in activities with a twist like yoga and dance session, brunch with football, movie evening, cooking with parents and more. So it’s basically bonding and fun for the family which will also improve the child’s gross motor skills. The whole idea is to create a bonding experience between the parents and the child and have the child learn as well.
So The Activity Room is all about different concepts, different locations and different activities every time we do an event. We have planned to do events bi-monthly and host three big events a year with Anyonya Events.
What inspired you to come up with the concept?
I am a mother now and it all revolves around my baby. For the last two years, my life has been all about organizing play dates and taking him to play dates and I love it. I have no complaints doing it and of course, I want to get back to work so I decided to convert my play dates into work.
Who was the creative brain behind The Activity Room and how did you all get along?
I hang out a lot with my friends who have kids the same age. My co-partners are friends from before and our children go to the same school, so from Mom & Me days we’ve been together and we are doing play dates together. We thought to ourselves why not do something which has our kids around us as well as keep ourselves engaged, and that’s how the whole concept came about.
How was your childhood and how creative was your mother when it comes to such activities?
My mom was very encouraging and she sent me to a lot of classes like art and craft, stitching, even to learn and write Sindhi. I remember doing doll making at a really young age. My mom would find different ways to keep me occupied and she was creative that way.
How will a day with your kid look like and how do you come up with fun activities for them?
Firstly, they entertain themselves, they find activities on their own. But yeah my son loves colors and he loves painting, so he has the easel board and gets completely occupied there. Plus, he likes solving a lot of puzzles and he goes down in the evening for cycling and football, so that’s how he is entertained. It’s a whole lot of fun and also me being on my feet all the time, he loves playing with us and we are pretty hands-on.
Life before and after The Activity Room.
Before The Activity Room, my world obviously was revolving around my child but of course, before he was born I was working and have always been busy. Now that we are back into work, it is all about managing time. And it feels good to be back in the running.
How do you manage your work-life balance and how supportive has your family been?
It needs a lot of planning and needs a lot of support. I’ve still not mastered the balancing act yet. But yeah, every day is a new day. With the help of my family and nanny and of course being quite organised myself, I have been able to manage so far.
Tips and tricks for millennial moms to plan a play date for their kids?
Well, I have friends who have made their children do creatives, personalized aprons, cards, pizza making – all creative activities. I’m sure there are a lot of such fun stuff moms can do with their kids at play dates.
