Veena's Parent Volunteer Board

When you're managing twenty children and need one extra pair of hands for painting or story time, tap to ask a parent who is already at the gate.

Who this is for

Veena Raghavan runs Little Sparrow, a preschool on the ground floor of her building in Yelahanka, Bengaluru. Twenty-two children, two helpers, one of whom has a bad knee and takes Wednesdays off. It is 10.15 on a Wednesday, the paint trays are out, one child has already put a blue hand on the wall, and Veena is holding a crying two-year-old on her hip. She needs one adult for the next forty minutes.

How the job is done today

There is a WhatsApp group with all twenty-two parents in it. Veena types into it with one thumb, usually with paint on her fingers, usually while the crying is still going on. The message lands under three good-morning forwards and somebody's photo of a birthday cake. Two parents reply at 1.40 in the afternoon saying they would have come. By then the painting is over, the floor is mopped, and Veena has done it alone. So mostly she stops asking, and Wednesdays are just harder than the other days.

The screens, in order

1. Free this morning — The parent's screen at drop-off, where one tap says I am around for the next hour or two.
2. Who is around — Veena's home screen, showing only the parents who have already said they are free right now, as names and faces she knows.
3. Ask for a hand — Three or four large buttons for the things she actually needs, so the ask goes out in one press without typing.
4. On the way — Tells Veena who said yes and roughly when they will walk in, so she knows whether to start the paint or wait.
5. The board — A simple list of who came and helped over the last few weeks, so nobody feels taken for granted and nobody feels asked too often.

What it keeps track of

• Parents — name, which child, phone number, whether they want to be asked at all
• Free right now — which parent, from what time, until roughly when, still free or gone home
• Asks — what is needed, what time it was asked, who it went to, who said yes, who actually came

The one decision that matters

Should the ask go to all twenty-two parents at once, or only to the two or three who have already said they are free? Sending to everyone feels safer and gets more replies. But most of those replies are from parents at work in Whitefield who cannot come, and Veena then has to read and answer all of them with one thumb. Send only to the parents who are already free and nearby. It means some mornings nobody is available and the app stays quiet, which is honest. Every message that does go out is to someone who can genuinely walk in within ten minutes, so a yes means a person, not a nice thought.

What to leave out of the first version

Leave out planning ahead. No booking a parent for next Thursday's sports day, no calendar, no rota. That is a different problem, it needs reminders and cancellations and people changing their minds, and it will swallow the build. The whole value here is the next forty minutes. Also leave out chat inside the app. If Veena needs to say something long, she has WhatsApp and everyone's number already.

How you would know it worked

On a Wednesday, Veena presses two buttons while holding a child, and nine minutes later Anitha walks in with her sleeves already rolled up. Veena did not open WhatsApp once that morning, and the painting started on time.

Build it

Paste this in and let it run.

I run a small preschool in Yelahanka with twenty-two children and two helpers. Some mornings I need one extra pair of hands for painting or story time, and I cannot stand there typing in the parents WhatsApp group with paint on my fingers. Please build me a phone app where parents tap once at drop-off to say they are free for the next hour or two. On my side I then see just those few names, and I press one big button that says I need a hand for painting now, and it messages only them. The first parent to say yes shows up on my screen with the time they will reach. Everything on my side must work with one thumb while I am standing and holding a child, so keep the buttons large and the words simple.