ELORA – A former healthcare worker has taken her love of taking care of children and desire to fill a gap in children’s activities she has noticed in Centre Wellington with her new business.
Locally born and raised Bethany Bolger is the owner and operator of the new Hometown Hideout Playroom in the plaza on Wellington Road 7 next to the Village Inn on the edge of Elora.
It’s an indoor children’s play room with a country theme offering interactive play including a toddler soft-play area, a two-storey “Old MacDonald Barn”, LEGO, interactive touchscreens and more.
Prior to this, Bolger spent 13 years working in health care mainly with children before having her now five-year-old twins Breyer and Harper. When they went to school last September, she decided she didn’t want to go back to health care.
“It’s too stressful, the shift work is very hard and challenging when you have young children.” Bolger said in an interview at the business.
She has always gravitated towards taking care of children and ended up seeing a gap that could be filled to provide children and parents with a place to go.
“I always had to travel outside of the community, as well as all the other mothers and fathers in this area do as well, so that’s kind of where (the idea) sparked from,” Bolger said.
She signed a lease for the space in early 2024 and fully renovated the space from an office space to the indoor playroom it is today. Bolger got her twins input into the space as it is geared towards children about their age and she went with a country theme as a nod to her and her children’s rural upbringing.
The business has started with open play sessions, which require pre-booking and supervision from a guardian, and a for now once-a-week “casual daycare” where parents can drop potty trained and school aged children off for a three-hour block of time. Bolger said parents can use this time to go on a date or do some errands on their own while the children can enjoy the room’s amenities and have a pizza party.
Bolger said getting away from the children for brief periods of time can be difficult for parents if they don’t have family in the area.
“Your kids can come to us and have fun. My hope is that they’re excited to come back and they are asking to come back,” Bolger said. “Nothing is worse than being like ‘oh the sitter is coming’ and they’re (children) are like ‘no I want to go with you.’ At least this way they can be like ‘you’re going to go play’ and maybe that will entice them to not feel like they’re left out.”
Bolger is upfront about the playroom not being a licensed child care facility but does employ ECEs. Hometown Hideout is accessible and Bolger said a child in a wheelchair would have no issues enjoying the space.
It can also be booked for private events such as birthday parties and she is looking to expand the business to be a space for other parenting and children’s programming such as summer camps.
Hometown Hideout Playroom can be found at 66 Wellington Rd. 7 Unit 1.
