Because that’s what we call our flagship project – Zmalucha.pl. The idea for the website was born during my maternity leave. When I became a mother, the biggest challenge wasn’t getting up at night, teething or mood swings. I was preparing for this. My city threw the biggest obstacles for me…
But from the beginning. I’ve never been a homebody. Nor was I a big party girl. I just liked city life : shops around the corner, cafes, pubs where you can have a nice breakfast on the weekend. A few years ago, quite by accident, I moved to the very center of Warsaw, although I had never planned it. I always traveled mainly by public transport, the car was usually used for trips outside the city, most often to visit my parents. My life was rather normal, not to say average, but I liked my life. Practically until the day of giving birth, I spent long summer evenings in cafe gardens, walking around Pole Mokotowskie and by the Vistula.
Everything changed when a new man appeared in the world. Mine. Of course, he turned the world upside down in his own way, but I was mentally preparing myself for this revolution all through pregnancy. The first days at home were tough, but when I got used to this little creature and found its rhythm, it was fine. Despite the sleepless nights, kilos of diapers every day and breasts bigger than ever.
Little appeared in the world in mid-June, so we wanted to go out together quite quickly. It was fun. We would sit in cafe gardens, drink lemonade and go for hour-long walks. And then unexpectedly quickly came an ugly and cold autumn, and I found myself in a completely different space.
I was blown away by my city
It quickly turned out that I would not go to my favorite cafe anymore, because it is impossible to drive a pram into it, and once when the child had pooped, I had no way to change it. I won’t do the shopping, for example rolls for breakfast, because the doorframes of the bakery and the shop around the corner (as well as its aisles) are too narrow for a trolley to get through them. Dinner in the restaurant is out of the question, because the people sitting around roll their eyes at the sight and sound of the baby, not to mention the exposed breast for feeding. I was devastated. Suddenly it turned out that I was a prisoner in my own house. My mood was getting worse day by day, as was the weather outside …
Dirty glasses and cold tea
Two months after me, my friend also gave birth to her first child. “It saves me!” – I thought. We will meet. But we quickly got bored of going to each other’s place, and organizing more than a clean tea glass was overwhelming for both of us. Well, why don’t we deserve good coffee (even decaffeinated coffee) and a cookie? There must be places somewhere adapted for parents with children ! I started searching the Internet (how did people function without it?). Passionately. I was looking and I was looking for. And sometimes I came across a blog entry from a few years ago, sometimes a mention of a weekend event in a cafe, sometimes a review on Zomato. It took hours to find some place to go with the baby. But I was determined. So I was looking for. And then I was driving. One, two, three. It quickly turned out that many of the places I found do not exist or that their description on the website differs significantly from reality. I was going to a cozy café with a cute kids’ corner, and I found a cold burrow there, with a dirty carpet and a teddy bear without a single eye. Do you know it?
Pizza – an unattainable dream
After one such trip, a thought began to sprout. A friend from another city visited us and we wanted to eat something. I searched, searched and found. An Italian restaurant with a great kids’ corner (according to the information on the website) was waiting for us and inviting us. We went. The family room was upstairs with a steep staircase leading to it. The staff did not allow me to leave the stroller on my partner. I had to carry him with the child and the whole bundle upstairs. The corner turned out to be useless, because it was unsecured and next to the stairs. And the changing table? Was. On the ground floor. So stairs again. After this visit, I must have broken some line and my thoughts sprang up. I have 6 months left until the end of my maternity leave. I decided to do it! I’ll make a search engine for child-friendly places! But not only cafes dedicated to families. First of all, “normal” places where you can safely enter with your child. There are no stairs in which there is a changing table, you can easily breastfeed. I decided that I would check all the places on the portal personally. For the next 6 months and more, because I have been doing it to this day, I was visiting Warsaw, looking for places: cafes, restaurants, then cinemas, museums, clubs. I tested, checked and described all of them. In order to make it easier for other moms to do what turned out to be a torment for me – the everyday use of the city.
This is the story of a toddler, i.e. the Zmalucha.pl portal.
You will not find sponsored offers, paid reviews, ads. On the other hand, you will find proven and reliable information about places worth visiting with your child. And a friend, husband, grandmother, partner. Use your health and pass it on! And when walking, look for such a sticker. She will guide you 🙂
Agnieszka