About

There are so many wonderful parks to explore, family friendly events to attend, playgrounds to have fun at and cafes to enjoy in and around the Parramatta district. Yet before ParraParents, it was very difficult to find out about them.

ParraParents aims to make it easier for families to uncover all the wonderful things to do in the area. We love sharing our fun adventures, particularly ones little known to other local parents or written about online, and hope that it helps you create fond family memories too.  

ParraParents was started by three local mothers, Claudia, Kellie and Melissa, who hung out each week at playgroup with their toddlers and preschoolers. They live, or grew up, in the City of Parramatta and love exploring the area with their kids. But found it difficult when they first had kids to find what there was to do with kids locally. And thought that they may not be alone. There is now a team of parents who contribute and support ParraParents.

ParraParents 2nd Birthday Party

This site is provided as an information resource and community service. All contributors to ParraParents volunteer their time, wanting to helps other families enjoy all the wonderful things the Parramatta district and surrounding areas have to offer. And we LOVE hearing about the fun you have had thanks to our information.

To help support local businesses reach local families, and cover costs, advertising is available. ParraParents also loves helping out wonderful local charities wherever possible.

We hope you enjoy travelling this crazy parenting journey with us and look forward to this website helping you create fond family memories.

Make sure to subscribe to the ParraParents newsletter.

Management

Kellie Darley - Park Hunter, Pinterest Tester, Gardener, Bushwalk Guide and Kids Song Writer

Kellie thinks she must have been a girl guide in another life as she is definitely the ‘Be Prepared’ mumma, always carrying extra’s with her ‘just in case’. Kellie is currently enjoying the role of full-time explorer with her boys, out every day – rain or shine – going on new adventures. But always in her daggy mummy uniform.

She is a full time educator and entertainer to gorgeous, active 6yr and 5yr, as well as chief cook and cleaner…..but she is working on them soon taking over those roles!

The first few years of having 2 kids under 2 saw her lose a fair bit of her sanity and she never thought she would put her 20+yr career as an executive in community health/ development organisations on hold to raise her boys full time. She now loves the challenge of applying her skills, along with a large dose of patience, some creativity and a bit of luck, to raising her boys into passionate, strong, inquisitive, fair and kind men (she hopes).

Kellie also thoroughly enjoys connecting families in the community and supporting and inspiring them to get out into nature more. She was very honoured to be named the 2019 City of Parramatta Volunteer of the Year, as part of the Australia Day Awards.

About ParraParents

Contributors

Fran

Fran is a mum to a little boy. She loves family adventures, exploring the outdoors, eating good food, making childhood memories, and wandering aimlessly through markets, fetes, and parks.

Sandy Chan

Sandy is a mum of a strong willed 4.5yo girl and a 9mth old boy that hates sleep. Her favourite meal of the day is coffee, she is always in search of an Instagram worthy brunch meal (Instagram @sendee).], and in deciding a place for dinner Sandy always look at the dessert menu first. She has a social work background and has been in the public service for over 10yrs, previously working for Community Services and now for Education (but currently on maternity leave).

Julie Mason

Mum of two very active little boys! Thomas is 5 and Mitchell is 3yrs. Julie previously worked in Retail Management – large format baby goods stores and at Bed Bath N Table. She likes encouraging mums to enjoy new things. And writes about places to explore and things to do, including laygrounds reviews, health awareness and paid activities for children.
About ParraParents Julie Mason

Melissa Pazin- killer of air plants, baker and lover of the smell of rain

Melissa, more commonly known as Mel, is a young mum to a very loud, car and train loving 5 year old boy who wants to become a professional strawberry eater when he grows up. She is hoping child number 2 enjoys sleep more then her son.

She is a lover of baking, cats, Gossips “Sweet Lips” moscato, camping and the smell of approaching rain. She wishes she could dance and make jokes that are actually funny. One day she will not kill a plant that is supposedly unkillable and catch something that is not seaweed while fishing at Easter.

You can find her walking the streets of West Ryde, at your local sushi train or chasing after her son who is trying to steal flowers from the neighbour’s front yards.

Claudia Stamfel - Chief Geek, Gardener and Coffee Lover

Claudia started the Parramatta District Mums Facebook group and created the ParraParents website. She was part of the admin team until April 2017 to return to work.

Claudia loves coffee, margaritas, going for walks along Parramatta River and of course playing with her two gorgeous girls. She still loves using ParraParents as it is a great way to find out what to do for fun with your kids in and around the area.