Two mums linked by rugby club Saracens have launched a new website aimed at helping families find the best classes, activities and party ideas for their children in their local area.
Mother of five Daisy Hodgson and Julie Morrow, a mum of two, set up www.kidzcentral.co.uk to ease the lives of busy parents.
The inspiration behind the site came from their own experiences after moving their families to St Albans when Daisy’s husband Charlie signed for Saracens, and Julie’s husband Phil took the performance director role at the club, moving the family from their native Belfast.
Daisy, who last year gave birth to twins, is director of marketing and strategy: “We were always looking for holiday camps, sports clubs, and swimming schools, the usual clubs which most parents at some point have to Google! It became frustrating when we had to enquire, telephone, print forms out from the internet and pay with either a cheque book, or send a bank transfer.
“As most mums do, we often talked about this, and Julie was equally as fed up with having to sift through the mountains of information to find out what was happening in the local area that could entertain our children.”
Owner and chief executive of Kids Central UK, Julie explained: “Having spoken to other parents who were similarly frustrated like Daisy and I, we thought it would be so much easier to centralise all the information in one place.”
After months spent searching for similar websites Julie came across Kidz Central Station (www.kidzcentralstation.com) and approached their owner Lauren Pohl to ask if she could pick her brains: “Lauren’s story was similar to my own in a lot of ways. A working mother who was frustrated with the difficulty in finding some sort of online booking system, so three years ago Lauren started Kidz Central Station in New York. “
After speaking to Lauren, Julie was given the opportunity to license Kidz Central Station and bring it over to the UK. “And here we are, starting our adventure in Hertfordshire and the surrounding area, with the intention of scaling it out beyond in due course all being well,” Julie added.
“We hope to provide an easy to use service that local parents can trust,” said Daisy. “We all would like our children to go out and experience as much as possible, try new things and meet new people. In Hertfordshire we’re blessed that there is so much for a family to do. We know parents have little time, so instead of spending precious time searching all over the web, they can now find (and book) the best kids’ activities all in one place.”
Along with the simple search functionality, the site allows parents to manage bookings for upcoming classes or parties. Parents can even add themselves to the waiting list of a class that is full at the click of a button, and if a class is not currently running in their area the site allows parents to request one.
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