This is not a good look.

Still, God forgives … even if fellow parents might not.

As I walk across the bitumen and approach the red double doors, which remain locked until approval has been grated via a video monitor, I wonder just what I’m about to see as I clutch my notepad.

Oh yeah, the notebook.

I couldn’t find my usual professional reporter’s pad so grabbed one of my daughter’s … which is rainbow coloured and stamped with golden letters that read ‘Unicorn Power!’ Another bad look.

Although it is all about the horn, right?

The door buzzes and I’m granted entry to my first ever brothel — Silks on Upton.

It looks kind of exactly how I’d pictured a Bundall brothel would look.

The walls are black, the ceilings low, mood lighting in corners highlight photos of scantily clad women. There are couches in the waiting room where a young man is … here for an appointment.

I feel like such a naive rube, but can’t stop staring — until Jenny Rogers comes into the room.

The 66-year-old is the co-owner of this establishment, along with her sister-in-law Denise.

Yes, this brothel is a family business.

Indeed, Jenny is not your stereotypical madam. While she has long been a working woman, owning a number of small businesses on the Gold Coast with her husband of 46 years, she has never been a “working girl’’, as the euphemism still goes.

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She’s dressed for her day’s duties — bookkeeping, endless laundry and admin. She has the look and chatty demeanour of an unpretentious rural publican.

She takes me upstairs to a quiet room for a chat. It, like all the others, has no windows. Just a bed, a couch, a desk and a chair. I opt for the chair.

Jenny tells me that buying into a brothel was purely a business decision. She’s experienced in the service industry and this is no different. Just more washing.

She’s accustomed to dealing with people and this is the greatest skill she brings to the job.

“My sister-in-law and I bought this place in 2009. She’d owned a brothel in Burleigh but due to divorce that changed hands so we bought this together,” says Jenny.

“You have to be fully self-funded, you can’t get a loan to buy a brothel.

“It’s really not that much different to any other business — same s***, different pile.

“The difference is in the goods we stock. You don’t normally love products the same way I love these girls. It’s my job to look after them and their job to look after the clients.”

Speaking of the clients, Jenny says they see all kinds.

There’s Ned*, the guy I saw downstairs, who comes in about three times a week. He never wants to marry and prefers to get his physical needs met with no strings attached.

In a way, I admire his honesty. It’s better than being pressured into marriage and then betraying that trust.

Jenny says there are few surprises left when it comes to clientele. From 18-year-old virgins to 70-year-olds seeking company, she describes them as “licorice all-sorts’’.

To illustrate her point, there are a number of wheelchair-accessible rooms downstairs.

“That’s the side of the industry where you see you really are doing a service. We treat those people like any others, with great respect and care,” she says.

“Normally their carers bring them in, they shower them and leave and wait until the time is finished.

“People forget that just because you are disabled does not mean you don’t have sexual needs too. They are normal people, just like anybody else.

“We also get a lot of virgins. Young men want to learn on the job without judgment. Our girls are here to teach them and give them confidence.”

Jenny says she’s proud of her job. Her children know what she does as well as her friends.

She says she doesn’t always publicly broadcast the industry she’s involved in, but that’s due to others’ reactions, not her own shame.

“There is nothing to feel ashamed about. This is one of the most highly respected brothels in Queensland,’’ she says.

“We’ve never had any connections to the mafia or bikies, we are legitimately family owned. The premises are clean, the girls are clean and our clients are clean.

“The girls like to work here because the bosses are women. It’s a safe place for them. They know that we are here to protect them, we’re mothers and we look after our girls.”

Later, when we’ve finished our conversation, Jenny takes me downstairs to see some of the rooms. Despite our honest conversation, I still feel a little awkward peering into rooms where who knows what happens.

I’m a mum of two myself. It just feels like an alternative universe.

But then, as we walk though the staff kitchen, Jenny introduces me to two of her working girls.

They know who I am and that I’m writing about the sex industry and they are busting to tell me the truth about who and what they are.

And here it is: they are mums.

Our kids are all around the same age. Sally* is even of a similar age to me.

They are well-spoken, intelligent, attractive women.

It’s only when they stand up and I realise they are wearing lingerie that I remember we’re not at a mums’ morning tea.

“I used to work in retail,” says Jane*.

“I would see all of these women coming in buying these amazing clothes. I became really good friends with one of them and I asked her, how do you afford all this? What do you do? And she said ‘I’m a working girl’.

“I was like … noooo! I just drilled her brains for months and then I went to Melbourne where she worked. I met up with these working girls and they were lawyers, nurses, all at uni, they own their own apartments. They were all these high-end sophisticated women and I was like, ‘I can do this’.

“A lot of them were mothers, too. You wouldn’t believe the educated women who work in brothels. We’re putting ourselves through uni, paying for our kids to go to the best schools, it’s our decision.

“We’re not drug addicts, we’re not abused, we’re trying to build a better life.

“When I started I had the worst confidence, but on my first night I tripled my rate. It’s actually made me feel empowered. It’s my body and I make the rules and the men pay.

“And here in Queensland, because of all the regulations, we actually get really great clients.”

Sally says she’s only been on the job for a few months.

After a personal crisis, she realised she had to return to work but she just couldn’t face going back to her old job.

Again, through this secret mums’ network, she had heard that working in the sex industry wasn’t such a bad option.

She went to her doctor and said she was going to do it.

“Before I made the decision I actually went to the swingers’ club just down the road,” says Sally. “I just wanted to see if I could handle it.

“I didn’t join in but I decided I could do it. A brothel is a lot better than a swingers’ club.”

Sally says despite her initial reservations, it’s a job she enjoys.

“There are a lot of times that I really do enjoy the job,” she says.

“Plus, my first client was such a gentleman. I was really lucky.

“It’s actually made me feel more confident about my body and myself.

“I include central body touching in a standard service. I like to be turned on too. I can’t have sex with someone unless they’re touchy-feely, otherwise it feels wrong.

“Most of the men who come in are so respectful. At the end of the day we’re fit, we look after ourselves, we eat a healthy diet and we provide a service. We deserve that respect.

“Some men just come in and want to talk and want to get a woman’s perspective. They don’t know how to talk to a woman and we can help. I know it’s strange but we actually improve a lot of marriages.

“So far I’ve found that I’m handling this industry well. I can separate my mind and body while I’m in that room.”

However, Jane warns that separation can come at a price.

She says she’s in a long-term relationship and there are times when her partner feels he’s just part of the job.

“There are times where you think, I don’t want another person touching my body. You just have to take a break — just like anyone who works takes a holiday.

“Honesty is important.”

Both women say their children do not and will never know of their lives as working girls.

Jane says she has told many of her friends and has subsequently lost many friendships along the way.

“I want to scream from the top of my lungs that I’m a working girl and I’m proud of it, but we get judged,” she says.

“It’s not something I see myself doing long term, but it was the best option open to me at the time.”

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Unfortunately, with the industry in a downturn, it may be something the women need to do for longer than expected.

Jenny says between state regulations, unregulated massage parlours and the online unpaid brothel that is Tinder, times are tight.

“Queensland brothels are probably the safest place for sex industry workers,” she says.

“As an owner, there’s a mountain of paperwork to keep up all the standards plus strict rules including a complete ban on alcohol on the premises.

“In this state, sex workers can work from their own homes or attend call-outs, but only if they are on their own — which is obviously not a safe environment.

“The biggest change I’d like to see happen is for our girls to be able to attend outcalls. We would provide them with a driver, with an emergency button and we would log their times in and out to ensure they are safe. Instead, if you want to stay safe you inevitably earn less money.”

On the Silks website, it says one-hour services start from $220, with the worker receiving about half of that.

A sex worker operating from her own home can charge whatever she likes and keep it all. But it’s high risk for high reward.

And then there are the massage parlours.

“There are at least 300 massage parlours operating on the Gold Coast as illegal brothels,’’ she says.

“There is no safety for either the worker or the client in that situation. They undercharge because they don’t have to meet all the regulations we do because they’re breaking the law. And yet they continue to get away with it.”

Jane says Tinder is another problem.

“People are giving it away for free online. Unfortunately, the STDs come for free as well,” she says.

“I definitely don’t make as much now as I first did, but I think people are starting to realise the value to coming to us. At the end of the day, men prefer a simple business transaction. We’re clean, safe and professional.

“You can make more money in Melbourne and Sydney, but you get a whole different class of men. The clientele there pay more but they are disgusting.

“They’re allowed to drink in the brothels and let’s just say you have to have a thick skin to cop what they do and say.”

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Throughout this conversation with these working mums, Jenny stands in the background. She’s not editing what they say, but supporting various points and laughing with the girls at specific memories.

She works almost every day alongside these women and it’s easy to see that there is a comfort and rapport between them.

“It takes all sorts of girls,” she says.

“We get women who want to work here who come from overseas or interstate or another brothel. We take pride in our reputation as a safe place.

“But anytime I get a first-timer, particularly a young one — like 18 or 19, I try to talk them out of it.

“It’s the oldest profession in the world and attitudes towards sex workers are still from the stone age.

“I’d love to see those attitudes change but until then it’s my job to protect the girls, whether they are under this roof or not.”

Suddenly, that Christian school sticker on my car doesn’t seem so out of place.

* Name changed to protect identity