Time for Tots is a free, quarterly magazine for parents and carers of children from birth up to going to school, with ideas on things to do and places to go in the local area as well as local services and products. It is distributed through channels such as local nursery schools, playgroups, libraries, Health Visitors, leisure centres and play areas.

Time for Tots was founded in 2007 in Kettering, Northamptonshire by the current senior editor and owner Vanessa Simpson. With 3 young children Vanessa found there was plenty of information available on how to care for your baby (health visitors, books, the internet were all full of advice), but very little local information on what activities and services were available in the vicinity. Vanessa spotted a definite need for a comprehensive, central source of local information where parents could find that crucial local knowledge, and where local services and classes could communicate directly to their target market…. and so Time for Tots was born!

With Vanessa’s background in Business and IT, including strong desktop publishing skills and experience, and her husband Pete’s 10 years of marketing experience (most recently as Head of Marketing for the Financial Times), they had a solid skill set from which to launch the magazine.

Since the launch of the first issue, Time for Tots has gone from strength to strength with year-on year growth in circulation and the size of the magazine. In response to demand, Vanessa launched a second edition in the other half of Northamptonshire in Autumn 2009 and currently runs both editions herself while still having plenty of time to spend with her family and run the Time for Tots franchise network.