A father who found himself scrambling for weekend activities with his young daughter has turned the challenge into a free online resource for other parents.
Alex Vickery, who works as Head of Technology at the Perth Children’s Hospital Foundation, created ‘Weekend Rescue’ while on paternity leave with his newborn daughter.
The website brings together family-friendly events for children under five across the City of Canning, City of Belmont, Town of Victoria Park and surrounding areas.
Alex said the idea came late in his wife’s pregnancy when he was spending weekends looking after their three-and-a-half-year-old daughter while also preparing for the arrival of their second child.
“My wife and I both work full time, and it was really difficult for us to find things to do,” he said.
“We have our local councils, which are really good at publishing their events, but combining that with other things that event companies and businesses might be doing was something I had to do myself.
“As working parents, we’re quite time poor. We have about one minute to plan the weekend now.”
What started as a personal project opened his eyes to the number of family activities happening across Perth.
Alex said he was surprised by the variety and volume of events available.
“There are dozens of events every single weekend in every local area,” he said.
“There are things I didn’t consider, like kindergarten and daycare open days where kids can get their face painted and have a kick around with a ball.
“There are markets everywhere and lots of local businesses running events.”
One discovery that stood out was a Cannington-based indoor skate business offering lessons for children aged four to seven.
“They teach little kids to skate, which is such a great idea,” he said.
Weekend Rescue was largely built during the quiet hours of early parenthood.
Alex said much of the work happened while caring for his newborn daughter overnight.
“I would say probably 80 percent of it was built in the middle of the night with the baby on my chest,” he said.
“My second daughter sleeps for a couple of hours at a time, so I’d be there with the laptop while doing the new-dad bouncing thing to keep her asleep.”
While the technical side came naturally due to his professional background, finding and verifying suitable events proved more difficult.
“The events curation has been the hardest thing,” he said.
“I didn’t want to make it too wide. It’s very focused on weekends and kids under five.
“Finding those events and doing the research to identify them was the biggest challenge.”
The website also allows community groups, businesses and event organisers to submit activities directly through an online form.
Although the project has only been running for a few weeks, Alex believes it has already struck a chord with parents.
“The biggest thing I’ve learned is that we’re all kind of in the same boat,” he said.
“We’re all trying to look for things to do on the weekend.
“Everyone is just trying to do their best, especially on the weekend.”
His goal is to help parents spend less time searching and more time enjoying time with their children.
“I hope I can do the searching so that you don’t have to,” he said.
“The headline on the website says ‘Rescue your weekend in under a minute’ and one minute is about all parents have to plan their weekend.
“Hopefully it allows parents to spend one minute doing it rather than having to search themselves.”
Alex hopes Weekend Rescue eventually becomes a go-to recommendation for families with young children.
“I’d love it to become something that’s a no-brainer that everyone recommends to everyone else,” he said.
You can view the site here: weekendrescue.com.au
