This is an idea whose time has come. A creative-women-who-are-also-moms hackerspace. A studio where women can explore individual and collective projects, feed their creative side, express themselves among a community of similarly driven women? With childcare? Shut the front door.
And excerpt from their site:
“Life with young kids can be an isolating state and a fractured existence. … Mothership HackerMoms evolved with babysitting as an integral part of our creative process, giving us the time and space to work. Traditional moms groups tend to be about the kids. We are here to first support the mother, her identity as a powerful creator, woman, explorer, entrepreneur, the artist of her life and of family life. We want to model active creative lives for our kids to learn from, so it’s important for them to be present with their projects, too…. If we don’t support this playful creative self, we risk burnout, depression, and 2-yr-old-level temper tantrums. It’s a use it or lose it philosophy to motherhood sanity. All work and no play makes mom a dull mother, lover and friend!”
I have thought many times as I walked past one particular empty office space on my favorite path that it would be cool to open a creative spplace ace for women who just need a proverbial Room of Their Own. Where they can paint and write and build and compute and cogitate and congregate and communicate. Did I mention the childcare? And not in a “pawn your kids off and get them out of your hair” kind of way, but in a “someone to keep them safe near you while you do your art or intellectual thing.”
The simple fact that these women exist makes me happy. These are my peeps, yo. I must go find them and join. And tell you about it so you can do the same thing in your ‘hood.
I must go learn more. I will report back. Because every town should have a hackerspace for artists and especially a hackermom space. If you are a wealthy philanthropist or investor who wants to see the amazing benefits of such a space, send money. To Mothership Hackermoms. Or me. With enough money I’ll open a hackerspace for creatives, too.
But for now, they are it. Huzzah.
NaptimeWriting 
Where do you find this stuff? COOL! : )
Utterly brilliant! And amazing timing, because I was just brainstorming exactly what I want to create in my learning center, and I NEED to tack on time for this!
I want to check it out, too!
Oh, my. Oh, YES! Report, please!
Stephane, The Universe wanted me to find it. Someone emailed the school listserv about the fundraiser this weekend.
Dana, their meeting times don’t work for my current life, so I have to either change my life or wait. I’m hoping one of the Sunday meetings works.
Ink, will do!
Hi! This is Sho Sho, founder of Mothership HackerMoms. What a great article. Thank you for finding us and for getting what we wanna create, and the selves we wanna resurrect. For many of us for whom motherhood is but one aspect of our multifaceted creativity, it’s certainly saving our lives and our sanity. We must meet soon! You are so on the mailing list. – With compassionate irreverence, Sho Sho Smith
YAY! I should have sent you a link, Sho Sho, but was giddy with excitement after finding you that I posted in about four seconds flat.
Hope the fundraiser bought you a year of awesome hackerspace.
See, fair readers? See why I want to hang with this awesomeness? Just LOOK! Talk bracketed with resurrecting self and irreverence. Can you even stand how hackermoms need this everywhere?!
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I started putting together a business plan for something like this a year ago! How cool to know that it actually exists…too bad I live so far!