We hadn't even opened to the public yet.
It was our soft launch — just friends and family, people we trusted, people we wanted to walk through the space before we let the world in. We wanted honest feedback. We wanted to catch things we'd missed. We were nervous in that quiet, low-key way where you're smiling and hosting but internally running a checklist in your head the whole time.
And the feedback came.
Not about the play area. Not about the coffee. Not about the food.
The first thing people couldn't stop talking about was the toilet.
"OH MY GOD THE SMALL POTTY. SO CUTE."
Every single person who walked in there came back out with the same reaction. Grown adults, genuinely delighted, by a tiny toilet seat.
Here's the backstory.
When we got the unit, we had two toilet cubicles. Standard. Nothing special.
I looked at them and immediately said: one of these has to become a kids' potty.
Nana was actually on board with it straight away — which, honestly, made everything easier. We were both firm. We are a kids café. Our toilets have to be kids-size friendly. It just made sense to me — if a four-year-old is going to use this bathroom, they should be able to use it independently, without mum having to hold them over a full-sized bowl like they're dangling over a cliff.
So we converted one cubicle into a proper child-sized potty. Small toilet seat, low to the ground, everything scaled down for little people.
And then we kept going.
We installed a kids-height basin — so they can actually reach the tap to wash their hands without being hoisted up. We hung the tissue lower too, at a height small hands can grab without asking for help.
The whole idea was simple: if a kid walks into this toilet, they should be able to handle it themselves. Because independence is a big deal when you're three. And because parents deserve two minutes where they're not on toilet duty.
Then we opened to the public.
And something funny happened.
People started writing about us online — which was already such a surreal, wonderful thing to discover. Organic write-ups, honest reviews, people sharing their experience at Naru with their followers.
Almost every single one of them mentioned the potty.
This little toilet that I insisted on — the one that came from a very straightforward, very practical thought — became the thing people remembered. The thing they photographed. The thing they mentioned in the same breath as the play area and the coffee.
I did not see that coming. But I love it.
Honestly, it's one of my favourite things about Naru — not the potty specifically (though I am proud of the potty), but the fact that the details matter. The little decisions that nobody might notice… sometimes those are the exact ones people notice most.
We didn't put in a kids' toilet to go viral. We put it in because it was the right thing to do for the families who were going to walk through our doors.
Turns out, people feel that.
Ru
Co-founder, Naru Play Café
Come visit us — small potty and all. 🚽