Emma Wright-Smith (Class of '16) is the Director of Melbourne’s leading babysitting and nannying agency, recently expanded to Sydney she shares the story of her business journey and turns to the Loreto community to help with her expansion.

Purchasing the bones of this business from a fellow Loreto old girl, Emma at age nineteen began juggling the life of both a university student and a business owner. Five years down the track Peas in a Pod is the leading babysitting and nannying agency in Melbourne, and we expanded to Sydney in 2023. We've built a community of trusted sitters at the fingertips of families who need regular and stress-free support. A few years ago, I turned to the Loreto community in Melbourne to help expand our network of sitters and clients, I would love to do the same now in our Sydney expansion.

Emma is immensely proud to be the owner of a business that is not only completely women owned and operated, but also operates with the mission to make women’s lives easier. While we absolutely love our Peas dads and are so happy when they’re the ones reaching out to us, 95 percent of our clients are mums, often busy working mums. To be a working mum you need reliable, trustworthy support and that’s what Peas offers. Our vetting process is what ensures that level of reliance and comfortability for our Peas families. What separates us from the other agencies out there is our word-of-mouth system. Essentially, it’s like asking your friend where she got her great sitter from but a larger, Sydney-wide, scale. This community is what differentiates us from other agencies.

When it comes to finding good care for your kids, trust is so important, this is what we’ve been working to naturally build over the past several years. That trust and comfortability goes both ways, we want our sitters to feel safe going to our families’ homes. The relationship between a nanny and their family is so incredibly intimate, establishing and building a relationship that goes both ways. We’ve witnessed over the years nannies staying with their families for five to six years. Families go out of their way to support their nannies who’ve done sensational work, often introducing them to industry connections or helping them get a foot in the door for something they are passionate about.

As I embark on this next step as a business owner, I am grateful for all the members in my community who have supported this journey and I am excited to share what my business has to offer families in Sydney.