Hello! I've been wanting to start a mini blog on my website for a while and I thought what better way to begin than to share the story I get asked most about - why and how I quit my stable NHS job as a children's nurse and health visitor to open a children's play space.
For those that don't know me, hiya. My name is Hafsah and I'm in my early thirties, living in Newport with my husband and daughter for the past 4ish years. I qualified as a children's nurse in 2016 in London and since then have worked in both hospitals and community settings in London, Bristol, Bath and Cardiff. Over the past almost 10 years, the level of pressures on the NHS has only grown and grown, and it has slowly gone from a career I loved to one I didn't.
I did an extra year at uni to qualify as a health visitor as I personally love the teaching aspect. I love doing antenatal visits and sharing about bonding and attachment to the new mum. I love discussing baby brain development and how we can encourage this in the early days. I love weighing tiny babies and the way they scrunch up. I love the validation of a mum who has been struggling breastfeeding finally getting to grips with it. I love working with dads, partners, siblings and family members and sharing information with them in a family-centred way. I love discussing weaning onto solids, importance of reading to your children, managing fussy eating and tantrums. The day in, day out work - or so I thought.
Unfortunately, I began working as a Flying Start health visitor in a deprived area in Cardiff and found that so much of the role centred around safeguarding and child protection. What use was discussing the importance of child nutrition when families were blending McDonalds nuggets and chips and putting them in a baby bottle to feed a four month old? There was very little willingness to receive any advice and so I slowly found myself falling out of love of the role I'd thought was the one for me.
When my daughter was born, in the midst of the Covid Lockdown, I used to wish I had somewhere to take her where I could just sit and eat/drink something in peace whilst she played safely, socialising with others. Soft play is just not for me, I do enough chasing her at home, I didn't want to pay to go out somewhere and then have to climb up ladders and down slides after her! There are many lovely play cafes in Bristol that we would frequent with friends but nothing in South Wales similar and so an idea was born.
It took me around 3 years of thinking about this and another 1 year of researching and planning once I'd got to the point of wanting to get out of my NHS career for good. I worked hard in that year - researching, saving money and writing a thorough business plan with support from Business Wales and the Princes Trust. I viewed 5 properties in Newport until I finally stumbled on the perfect little space just before May 2024.
Lots of cleaning, renovation, painting and tears (so many tears and wtf have I done moments!), and finally my little happy space was born. I opened my doors 2 months after receiving the keys and what a journey it has been since.
This was the why, follow my story with how I opened next!
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