Family Friend, Portland, OR (2026)

10/16/2026

Today I read about the ages of the victims of the school shooting in Bend yesterday, who passed away along with a teacher. A 7 year old was also injured. I read the ages and my mind instantly jumps to the faces and memories of the kids I’ve cared for at those exact ages, and it breaks my heart each time. The grief and pain being felt by the Silver Rail Elementary community is immeasurable and has produced a ripple effect that reaches us all 🖤

I’ve gone back and forth about if I should post something to add to all the painful and sometimes triggering things circulating online, but I wanted to show up for you all to say that all the feelings you may be having around this are normal and it’s ok to take a beat and just sit and feel them. Acknowledge the feelings and let them fill you with the rage/passion/energy you need to build a better world for kids (and everyone) to be safer in community. Cut yourself off from the doomscroll. Talk to friends and family about what a better world looks like. Be outside. Hug your kiddos / loved ones / pets / self / whatever you love to hug most ❤️

Whenever you’re able to, I challenge you to imagine a world where care is valued as it should be - childcare and development education are researched further and become widespread, and people start building communities around supporting and protecting kids. These ideas will eventually become hallmarks of our society and when that change sets in, it starts to shape our neighborhoods and day to day lives. In this environment, families and kids feel empowered and confident. This is a future we need to collectively envision in order to create it. With a central vision and goal, we can start to make real change and shift from the current systems which directly cause violence and harm to the most vulnerable people in our communities.

My heart aches for the parents sending their kids to school today with worry in their hearts and anxiety in their stomachs about what might happen or what they might feel when you can’t be there to help. I see you and I acknowledge that these times are so stressful and painful and even triggering for so many parents and caregivers 🫂

Love 💕 Bella

10/08/2026

Hi friends! Excited to share that folks who are on the early access list (available for limited time) will hear about membership launch FIRST and be able to sign up for access to the childcare network in the next couple of days ❤️ if you’re already on the list, keep an eye on your emails for a special message from me 👀

If you have childcare needs and/or want to tap into this community and start connecting with other q***r folks who care for kiddos, follow along, get on the list, and tell your friends! ✨

Launching this has been a long time coming and has required a bunch of behind the scenes work that I am really excited to see pay off very soon 💕🍂 can’t wait to connect yall with some of the fantastic caregivers I’ve gotten to know over the last couple of months and continue to build upon and grow this resource and community for us all!

10/05/2026

Parents and caregivers - have you heard of or participated in a childcare pod? Childcare pods are when multiple families with similar needs join together and share childcare (or other services such as tutoring or lessons) either from a professional caregiver or educator, or families can choose to rotate childcare amongst themselves. Care pods typically consist of 3 or more families on board within a small geographic area 🏡🏠🏡

Just like any family dynamic, childcare pods come in many different shapes and sizes and can be organized to meet the needs of each group of families and kiddos. They offer a unique blend of flexibility and socialization in an extremely personalized environment that can be a great fit for some families and caregivers. It is an excellent option for families who are seeking a “village”, and something we will nurture through our family and caregiver network. ❤️

It’s a major part of our mission to nurture a starting place for connection and conversation around these alternative forms to childcare to solve a very real need in our community for safe, reliable, and more accessible childcare. 🚼

If you’re a parent or primary caregiver and are interested in joining / starting a childcare pod in Portland - check out the Families page on our site and fill out the form to join our families first access list and hear first about when our network is launched! 🖥️

OR comment a ✨ on this post and I’ll personally DM you link to get on our first access families list! 💌 👀

09/18/2026

Autumn is coming and it’s such a sweet time to gather, harvest, celebrate, and be in community with neighbors and friends. I can’t wait to see some of y’all at these upcoming events, make sure you mark your calendars (details can be found in our posts or reposts, story highlights, and on our website) 🗓️🍁🕯️

Collaborating on events and providing fun, creative, and engaging moments for families while also fostering an environment for caregivers to connect has always been a meaningful and super fun part of this work for me. Come out, enjoy some family friendly fun, support our mission + some other amazing orgs and friends 🌈❤️

ʏᴏʀᴋ ᴄᴏʟʟᴇᴄᴛɪᴠᴇ Jane Flanagan Survivor PDX

09/15/2026

Hi friends! Bella here, checking back in online after some time at the coast visiting with family and showing them some of my favorite places in Oregon. How lucky are we to have such amazing natural beauty (with public access) in our area? 🖤🌲🌳🪾🌊🪼🦭

I’m lucky to have grown up near the ocean, and it has always been a comfort place for me where I can reset and realign with the big picture, and this visit was no exception. Each morning I could, I would take a trip to the beach at low tide (cause iykyk, I was lookin out for those cool rocks and early morning wildlife) I was reminded how much we can be affected by the tides in our life. The tides being all those things that feel huge, bigger than us, moving, shifting and make major changes in our day to day lives and perceptions 🌊

Some days the tide surprises us with a little treasure like a piece of jasper, or the treat of a gorgeous sunset on the horizon, and some days the tides reveal a mess of jellyfish slime, stinky seaweed, and clouds cover the sun before it sets. If you focus on the day to day differences and details, it can feel disorienting, stressful, or even boring. I think noticing /accepting this truth about the tides and their constant yet chaotic alteration of the coastline forces me to think about the bigger picture, taking the bad with the good, and how that is parallel to much of life💧

Starting a project like this has been FULL of those wavy ebbs and flows, and getting back to work today was no exception! Sometimes you wake up with one plan and then you have to be quick and shift to make a new one, and that’s just how it goes! To all the folks who have been a part of this early chapter of Family Friend, thanks for your flexibility and understanding of the human being who’s behind all this, shifting and changing with the tides! Due to that nature, it will happen a little slower than we’re used to in this modern world 🤖🌿

I’m so excited to see the impact all of this work and movement will have over time, and I’m grateful for the perspective shift to appreciate those day to day changes, slow progress, and the “chaos” that keeps me on my toes! 〰️🌊🌎

09/07/2026

HAPPY LABOR DAY CHILDCARE WORKERS! 🚼🧑‍🧒‍🧒❤️🍼🌱🌿🐣

The labor of childcare is no easy feat, but it CAN involve a walk in the park! 🛝 If you do this work now, or have done it in the past, cheers to you! ✨ we honor you today and every day ❤️

Childcare is one of the oldest and most fundamental forms of labor that exists in our modern world - not to be dramatic but humanity literally depends on it 🤭😅 this work is the foundation of our economy, human development, and creates the village we often talk about. Unfortunately, childcare labor has never been valued enough by our society, but we’re taking steps to change that.

🔎 Did you know nearly 2.5 million individuals in this role are excluded from federal protections in the United States? In Oregon, we do have a protection act in place that grants rights to in home childcare workers, though the act has a number of exclusions and loopholes, and many states do not have any such laws in place. Childcare work has historically been devalued and under appreciated and it’s not something that changed overnight - the fight continues to this day!

It’s important we look around at our fellow caregivers and see how we can collectively lift each other up in this work - for all the folks now and throughout history who have chosen this work or had it forced upon them - we can make a change now for future care workers (and kids and families) who deserve so much better. There’s a lot to change and change moves slowly, but it’s definitely coming!

If you want to be part of the movement towards more rights for childcare laborers - let’s collaborate! drop a line in my comments/ DMs / inbox! 📧

09/04/2026

Hi friends! Come out and be in community with us at the York Collective Community Care Harvest on Sept 26th at Overlook Park! 🍁🍂🌾

If you’re looking for an opportunity to be in community, connect with us and support an awesome local organization ʏᴏʀᴋ ᴄᴏʟʟᴇᴄᴛɪᴠᴇ , definitely check out this event!

York Collective is a black-led community organization working to leverage cultural memory and black collectivism to improve and create better communities. The org is named in honor of York, the enslaved explorer who traveled on the Lewis and Clark expedition, yet was widely erased from “history” lessons.

Placemaking, dismantling inequality, and BIPOC liberation are hugely important values to hold while building community, and are values I personally hold and center in this work with Family Friend. I’m super excited to be supporting this org and event and hope to see some friends and neighbors there!

📸 We will be there to run the Chosen Family Photo Booth, and there will be lots of other amazing local orgs, food vendors, vendors, raffles, games, and family friendly activities to enjoy! 🌈✨

08/29/2026

I wanted a simple start to this huge conversation of community care that I plan to dive deeper into and thought, what better way to start than with the basics about nanny shares? I’ve been the dedicated caregiver for quite a few very sweet “nanny shares” and it’s been an overall positive experience for all of us 👶🏼👶🏿👶🏻👶🏽👶🏾

Nanny shares, like any kind of childcare arrangement, come in many forms. Simply put, a nanny share is when two or more families join together with similar childcare needs and share one dedicated caregiver. It’s a collaborative, budget friendlier option that creates a little village for your little one while supporting local childcare workers 💕💞✨

Families “split” the caregivers wages (typically this is about 2/3 of their single family rate), so families can save ~33% while receiving specialized, private childcare in a small group environment. The arrangement can look like one family hosting at their home for all of the time, periodically swapping homes, completely synced schedules, rotating schedules, specific philosophies or teaching styles, school break care pods, and more. 🏠🌳☀️🌻

Drop a comment below if you have questions about nanny shares, or tell us what you think about it if you’ve had experience in a care share! 🚼📓

⭐️Families / Parents! 💌 Make sure you get on our membership launch email list (on our families page) to hear first when we release membership to our caregiver network. We are also going to have a dedicated online space for our families to connect and chat with each other to find families to establish or join existing care swaps with, and discuss all kinds of alternative and shared forms of care we can build in community! ❤️

08/24/2026

Hey friends! I wanted to bring back this lil throwback pic of me checking out the community room at the North Portland Library. This was at the very first craft and chat I hosted for care workers a little over a year ago, in the earliest days of my journey starting Family Friend! 🌱

🤩I am so excited to host you all here again on September 6th from 12:30-2:30pm. Bring a craft you’re working on or use some of our supplies, it’s a super relaxed and fun time to get a little creative and meet other folks who care for kids.

👥 WHO is invited to this event? If you feel like it’s maybe you - then YES, YOU! All levels of experience / care workers are welcome! Nannies, babysitters, daycare employees, early educators, doulas, and beyond. Whether you’re and creative or just want to chat and doodle. We are assembling all the people who support the q***r parenting village of Portland to collaborate and just hang out together. Drop in any time and just say hi, or stay throughout and craft to your hearts content.

❤️Though we love kiddos, this event is focused on the adults so we can have space to talk and connect with others in the same boat. Activities are centered around grown ups, but it’s at the library and all are welcome, so if you’ve got a kiddo who wants to come hang out and read some books, definitely still swing by and say hi!

If you have littles tagging along and you are looking for ways to get crafty with us - we have something super fun for you on OCTOBER 3rd 📅 you can grab a ticket for our upcoming collaboration with Jane Flanagan , hosted at Second Shapes Bookstore - check out the post on our page / Jane’s website for more info and tickets! 🎟️

Q***r Kin Collective will also be meeting up at this space for storytime THIS SATURDAY AUG 29th - 2-4pm 🌈📚 so families should definitely be sure to check that out!

So excited to spend some time in person being creative with y’all again soon 🎨💕✨

08/17/2026

Hey families! It’s been such a privilege talking with some of the most incredible caregivers in our community while building up this network and I’m so excited to be gearing up to launch this resource (and more) to y’all soon! Thanks to all who have been submitting info and sharing the post around to some incredible people.

If you or someone you know is a q***r parent and going to need childcare in the coming months (or further in the future), or you’re just looking to connect with other likeminded parents, join this list to be the first to hear about launch and all the exciting things coming along with it! ✨🌈🧸

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