My baby girl is 8 months old, and I brought my baby and my hubby along to SXSW this year. For me, it worked out great since I got to see her at lunch and after the sessions ended. I did miss out on most evening activities, but managed to catch “NerdCore Rising” and some lunch fussball games with new friends, so overall I didn’t miss out that much!

I love that I brought my family with me, it gave me a chance to have both worlds nearby, and I would like to add that my hubby loved having some vacation days hanging out with his baby in Austin! He loved the city and I hope we get to all come back next year!

Blogging unfortunately does take a back seat to marriage and family—I guess unless you write about your family all the time. (And if you’re writing about your family all the time, get away from the computer and go spend time with them.)

Now, most of us have children, and they’re even beginning to reach school and sports ages. Finding the time to not only attend conferences but blog and do much of the after-hours stuff we do is becoming increasingly difficult. Ex: My boys are lined up for several sports this year, I spent some time at their school last night enjoying books they created, etc etc.

Long story short, this and many other discussions on the topic are needed and very relevant.

Seems like SXSW could swing an IKEA-like playroom, or even kid sessions! My oldest is 12 and last summer he attended a week-long web design camp that he really enjoyed.

The nanny idea is great but I would also like to see more family friendly events. I am sure we could come up with something. Geek BBQs or even a family version of geek bowling.

What about meetups (like barcamp) as well? They always happen over weekends, the most precious time for those with families.

But I’m looking forward to an amusing run of tweets and craigslist ads next February as people try to recruit reliable short-term nannies by long distance!

P.S. For the older kids, Austin is home to a bunch of great rock&roll camps. If the people running those camps are smart, they’ll double their offerings next spring break and advertise in SF and Palo Alto. Bringing your kid to Austin for rock&roll immersion during SXSW: what could be cooler than that?

Especially pertinent following hearing from my wife on the second day of the conference calling to say our son Sean had cut his head and had to go to hospital. Whilst he was fine, you do feel rather helpless when you are a long way from home and something like that happens.

I’d certainly be into being able to bring the family in a way that means everyone enjoys themselves.

My son is much older now. He was in Kindergarten when I started attending sxswi and next year he starts high school (eep!). We may not have the child care need anymore, but I have long wanted to include him in this conference and the people that attend that are so near and dear to my heart. On that note, I’d also like to see some earlier in the evening, non-alcohol driven events that are family-friendly. I’d also like to bring him to the conference itself on a student day pass or something that didn’t cost me the full-price badge.

Austin is a neat city, and there are so many things kids could stay occupied with all day. So many other conferences could benefit from this as well.

As a single mom, it’s really hard to leave for these long stretches, especially in March when all the %^&* conference organizers butt everything up against everything else.

Dare I say, lack of things like this could be a contributing factor to why women don’t get into technology at rates as high as we would all like. In this global village we tech people live in, it’s hard to stay in touch without copious travel, and copious travel is difficult as a parent!

Also, I would totally be willing to swap out “party nights” – i.e., you go to all the parties you want tonight, I’ll go tomorrow. These events are an essential part of the SXSW experience!

+1 to the idea, and if anyone is organizing a group for next year for slightly older kids (8-12 or something), I’d love to be a part!