When Deree Kobets was thinking of starting her own business, she noticed a lot of moms with babies and pregnant women walking around her East Village neighborhood.
So Kobets, an urban mom herself, decided to open a store catering to Chicago parents looking to stay true to their style and lifestyle after having kids. She started Grow, which she calls “the city’s first healthy baby lifestyle store.”
Grow has organic clothes, organic cotton baby mattresses and furniture that would fit the most discriminating decorators’ tastes. The Division Street boutique has sleek cribs, bassinets, high chairs and rocking chairs that look like regular stuffed chairs and come in orange and other vibrant colors.
“It’s really hard to find a nice, pretty rocking chair that doesn’t say ‘baby,’ ” Kobets said.
When she had her first child three years ago, Kobets said sleek furniture was only available online, a place she wasn’t comfortable buying products for her baby. Now, well-designed and modern-looking furniture and gear are becoming more common and widely available.
“A lot of design is going into baby products right now, and that’s great,” Kobets said. “It’s about time.”
Grow is one of a growing number of businesses in Chicago that are catering to urban parents who are adapting their city lives to accommodate children.
There are stores such as Psycho Baby that sell tiny hip clothing you’d expect to see on twentysomethings hanging out in Wicker Park or Bucktown: tiny checked Vans-style shoes, skull and crossbones T-shirts and sweat shirts, plus cool baby gear like messenger-style diaper bags for dads.
A new store called The Kids’ Table, which will teach parents to make their own baby food and offer children’s cooking classes, is set to open in Bucktown this month. Yoga studios and personal trainers do workouts designed for both mom and baby. And homebound parents can even relive their nights out clubbing with a once-a-month dance party at the Park West for moms, dads and tots.
Tiffanie Sperling, a mother of two, coordinates the dance party, called Baby Loves Disco, and says it’s a chance for parents to have fun with other adults in a social situation while still being with their children. “Clubbing isn’t one of the things you get to do very often as a parent,” she said.
Sperling, who lived in the West Loop when she had her first child and now lives in Naperville, took her daughter Taylor to Baby Loves Disco when she was 1 week old. She says she learned with her first child, son Curtis, that it was easier to bring him into her life by taking him places she was used to going than completely altering her life to focus on him.
“My biggest problem with being a parent, and probably why I waited so long, is it seemed like parents were getting rid of anything that had to do with themselves and focused everything on their children,” Sperling said.
“It’s important for kids to see their parents know how to have a good time and take care of themselves and take care of their relationships,” she said.
Sperling says she joined a group called Moxie Moms that plans activities for new parents to do with their children. She also runs Big Belly Fitness, which offers fitness classes in the suburbs for moms and kids.
“You can change your life and have no life of your own or you can have them fit into yours,” Sperling said. “They’ll do it–they don’t know any different.”
Kobets, the owner of Grow and mother of a 3-year-old and a 7-month-old, agrees.
“You can easily fall into a life of entertaining them and lose yourself,” Kobets said.
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kmasterson@tribune.com
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NURSERY AND OTHER NEEDS
Money matters
Having a baby in Chicago can be costly. A look at some of the expenses:
$2,000 to $5,000 for a nursery and all the gear new moms need, including a car seat, stroller, breast pump and skin-care products, said Antonio Aros of Right Start in Lincoln Park.
$3,000 to $3,500 for just a nursery, including a crib and bedding, a dresser and changing table, and a rocking chair, estimates Grow owner Deree Kobets.
CHILD CARE
$10 to $12: Average rate for a baby-sitter in Chicago if the sitter is 17 or older, according to Genevieve Thiers, founder of the child-care search company Sitter City (sittercity.com)
$8 to $10: Average rate for younger sitters
$350 to $550: Estimated cost per week for nannies
$9,449: Average yearly cost of full-time infant day care, according to a study by the National Association of Child Care Resource and Referral Agencies
$6,806: Average cost for preschool annually
–Kathryn Masterson
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ONLINE HELP IS AVAILABLE
Old Town mom Alisa Messana, who has a 2-year-old son and is expecting her second child, says the city has many resources for new moms to connect with one another. She suggests online sites such as mamasource.com as a good place to start.
Messana, 38, has found that while it’s easy to find things to do in Chicago with a baby, it takes more of an effort to connect with other new moms. She took music and movement classes with her baby at Bubbles Academy on the North Side and introduced herself to other moms in the park.
A trained family therapist, Messana helped start a 10-week wellness class for new moms in Wicker Park that focuses on helping them find balance in their lives and learn to care for themselves while they’re caring for a new baby. The group, which advertises on Craigslist, is offered twice a year, with the next one starting in February.
Online resources for urban parents
– NPN (Northside Parents Network), npnparents.org: Non-profit support and networking group run by volunteers. Membership is $40 a year and gets you access to neighborhood clubs broken down by ZIP code and information about child care and schools. NPN says it has 3,500 Chicago families as members.
-Urban Baby, urbanbaby.com: Sort of like style site Daily Candy for the diaper-toting set. Online guide for city parents is divided into different areas, including Chicago. Includes kid-friendlyrestaurants, what kind of gear a new mom needs and tips from other urban moms.
– Babble, babble.com: Brought to you by the creators of sexy nerve.com, New York-based Babble bills itself as “a magazine and community for the new urban parent.” Includes columns, articles and blogs, including one called “Baby Daddy” by “Candyfreak” author Steve Almond.
– Mamasource, mamasource.com: A members-only site where local moms can ask questions of other local moms and post advice and referrals, as well as organize social outings with other moms nearby. Free to join.
– New City Moms, newcitymoms.com: Chicago group hosts seminars and luncheons for new moms looking to learn about parenting, meet other moms and do activities in the city.
— Kathryn Masterson
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Strollers and buggies and dressers, oh my
Raising a baby in the city means thinking about things that might not impact parents in the suburbs: space constraints in apartments and condos, the amount of walking parents expect to do with their child and traveling with baby gear on the CTA.
GEAR
Strollers that collapse and can be carried up stairs are good for city parents.
Deree Kobets, owner of baby store Grow, likes the Orbit stroller, a combo stroller-baby carrier-car seat designed by two Stanford engineers who grew frustrated with child transportation systems with their own kids. The stroller, which is sold at her store, has a double cup holder for adults, folds up easily, has a lower rack for a diaper bag and comes in hip colors such as chocolate brown. The baby seat detaches and rotates on the base, allowing parents to pull the stroller up to a restaurant table and spin it sideways so baby faces the table. It costs $900.
At Right Start in Lincoln Park, the Bugaboo Frog stroller is a popular choice for city moms. Antonio Aros, a salesman at the store, says the stroller has inflatable tires, is lightweight and folds up for storage. It’s $729.99 at Right Start. A less expensive stroller with similar features is Phil and Ted’s e3 Buggy, which sells for $379.99.
At Babies “R” Us, popular strollers include Peg Perego strollers that are lightweight and compact, including the Aria models which sell for about $200. The Quattro Tour stroller, which comes with cupholders, sells for $140.
Aros also recommends a JJ Cole Bundle Me for city babies during winter. It’s essentially a sleeping bag for babies, keeping them warm and dry when they are in the stroller. The urban model has a fleece lining and a removable wind- and water-resistant cover. Typical cost is $50.
Baby Bjorn carriers also are popular for parents who walk with their infants, and they come with covers for wintertime, too, Aros said. They cost around $80 to $100.
And urban parents need to be careful what kind of baby monitor they buy. Aros said video monitors typically don’t work in city spaces because wireless Internet signals interfere with them, so he suggests parents get an audio model.
FURNITURE
Space is key for city parents. So pick furniture that can do double duty.
Dressers with changing tables on top can become dressers for kids or another room in the house when the top is removed.
Some high chairs can be converted to adult chairs.
Ooba, a baby furniture company from Chicago, makes a modern-looking bassinet that becomes a toy chest and a playing table for tots with the addition of a tabletop.
— Kathryn Masterson
