An Alternative to the Mommy-style Telecommute

I have long had a beef with people who pitch telecommuting to their companies as a way to help them balance childcare needs. Uh, no. You're working, not watching your kids. Watching children is a full time job, and that's why we pay people to do it for us when we're not able to do it ourselves. Telecommuting in the same space as small children works about as well as taking those same small children to important meetings in the Real Office.

Which is to say it doesn't. Don't do it.

However, here's an article about a good alternative that an entrepreneur in the SF Bay area has come up with: co-working space with built in childcare. I must say that this sounds fantastic. They have a separate space for the kidlets, plus a conference room and by-the-hour cubes for you to hide/get some work done in. It would probably get expensive over the long haul, but for the casual tele-worker, or those times when your daycare arrangements break down and you still need to work (but you don't go out to a work place) this kind of thing could be truly ideal.