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Kids in Madrid, a website for English-speaking families living or moving to Madrid
January, 2009
Kids in Madrid defines itself as 'a guide to family friendly activities in Madrid', but it’s first of all the dream of a single mother who felt a need and started her own business around its solution.
Paloma Irving moved to Madrid from London in 2001 with her son Adam. At that time, there was very little information available on the web, or even in print, in Spanish, let alone English, for families living or relocating to Madrid. "It occurred to me that it would be great to put something together to help other parents with the settling in process", says Paloma.
But Paloma was busy with her job and family commitments. She had to put the idea on the shelf until February 2007, when her employer made everybody at the Madrid office redundant. Far from despairing, Paloma saw this as an opportunity to branch out on her own. "I had always longed to have my own business and an ex-colleague of mine asked me to join him in setting up a mathematics academy for children." Paloma accepted and today 'Mathnasium' is up and running.
Her mission accomplished, Paloma remembered her old project, and www.kidsinmadrid.com was born. "Initially it was just going to be a hobby," says Paloma, "but now it's become an obsession. To be quite frank until then I didn't realize quite how much Madrid has to offer. I have discovered a whole new side to Madrid."
The site, www.kidsinmadrid.com is packed with practical information. Need an English speaker babysitter? Head to the classifieds. Trying to choose a school or an after school activity? Go to 'Living in Madrid'. At loss at what to do on a rainy Saturday afternoon? Try 'Explore Madrid' or the 'What’s on kids' monthly agenda.
"It's been a wonderful project and to top it all, the FCO (Foreign Commonwealth Office) is recommending my site to families that are relocating to Madrid from the UK," says Paloma, a smile on her face. "I have recently started collaborating with 'In Madrid' a monthly magazine which prints information for the English speaking community in Madrid. They are now running a mini version of my web’s calendar of events. I also collaborate with www.kidsinbarcelona.com, a well established and very respected website for international families in Barcelona."
"I’m always working to make the site as comprehensive and updated as possible. I am also constantly checking out new venues and facilities", says Paloma. With so much on her plate, you’d think she would be happy to stay put. But, no such luck. "I am working on a Spanish version, which should be up soon," she says "because I started to get all these emails and realized www.kidsinmadrid.com is visited by just as many Spaniards as 'angloparlantes'. My ambition is to make it the number one resource for parents living in Madrid on 'all things kids in Madrid'."
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