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By Alexandra Wolfe

Published: June 5, 2005

Before the birth of her daughter, Advocate Della Fe Mina's perimeter stretches out with opportunities to accommodate the little stuff. Plus, four visit the celebrity-friendly Radu gym for a week, with hours, manicures and pedicures.

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Jamie Principal for the New York Times

Nicole Martino, Holding Cody, Lecture, Sharon Isayan, & The Blaze, At Nana's Garden in Los Angeles.

But the arrival of little Annabelle Kim two years ago put an end to that. Now Ms. Della Femina gets her exercise out of pushing a stroller and takes the occasional mother-to-baby yoga class. Manicures and pedicures are now made on an emergency basis.

“Pampering takes back the burner when you have a baby,” said Ms. Della Femina, 37, a writer of books about the Hamptons. "You're not going to get waxed anymore because there's no place to raise your baby, and there aren't a lot of mom-to-baby spinning classes overall, at least at this age."

Ms. Della Femina sees no help in sight. This October, Citibabes, a new private club for children (and their parents), is opening in Soho near her home. For specially selected people, like Ms. Della Femina, who is a 19-person member of the citibabes board, it will mean they no longer have to decide between a bikini wax and baby ballet.

Children will enjoy cooking classes and foreign languages, as well as an indoor playground in the 10,000-square-foot space at Sand Street. While the little ones enjoy their diversion, mothers can visit the club's wellness centre, gym or spa. There will be a lounge with concierge service to make reservations for the restaurant, and a cafe will offer meals with extra folic acid for prenatal and postpartum mothers.

At one year old, mothers struggle to nurture the happiness and accelerated development of their offspring while remaining socially viable and size four at the same time, the club wants citibabes to be the latest in Parental indulgence. Equally part gymboree and Soho House, the club offers new learning opportunities and the chance for children to work together, mothers and fathers (not to mention social networking).

“I’m counting the seconds until the citibabes open,” says Jack Kargman, the *** co-author of the novels “Wolves in Chic Outfits” and “The Right Address,” who is another A founding member of the club.

In New York, CitiBabes joins Kidville, a 20,000-square-foot space that opened on the Upper East Side in January. Unlike citibabes, where only 1,000 will be invited to become founding members for $1,250 a year, Kidville is open to any family with a child enrolled in a class. Fees start at $595 per semester.

In Los Angeles, Nana's Garden, which opened 10 months ago in West Hollywood, charges $90 per month for membership and is open to everyone.

All three clubs charge for a combination of personal services and children's activities, such as tarot card readings at Nana's Garden and "Calling All Future Oscar Winners" parties Kidville, where these children, walk along the red carpet and perform in a war zone.

While many adult-member clubs extol their convenience and community, they find there are concerns about the sending of mail. "I'm crazy about the whole concept," said Renée Rockefeller, a 36-year-old mother of four with her 2-year-old son, Toy, Kidville. After a few classes, she pulled him out. "It was too urban, over the top," Mrs. Rockefeller said.

"I just don't think all the sudden marketing to kids and their mothers works, it's the effort to sit at the table and keep the kids quiet because it takes effort on the part of the parent, but your job. No one is saying, go easy" .

Sitting in the offices of Citibabes architects, Garrett Gourlay, the club's founders, Tara Gordon and Tracy Frost, study models of projects they have yet to be completed. There is a member check-in at the entrance of the "Inspiration Nightclub," said Michael Etzel, Gourlay's collaborator. The lobby will include retail and space, past check-in, at the service desk, and a café. "It will be a place to see and be seen," Mr Etzel said.

As Ms. Frost, mother of 2-month-old Natasha, describes, citibabes are "people who still want to live downtown in their lofts and have coffee pastis".

Design goes a long way in romper rooms. "It's going to be a complicated jaw," said Ms. Gordon, mother of a 2-year-old son, Holden. "I'm Holden, moved by barneys and he was so fascinated by things, like silver on clothes, it made me realize you don't need all the bright Fisher-Price stuff."

While the owners of both Kidville and Nana's Gardens stressed that they were open to anyone who could pay a fee of about $1,200, Ms Gordon and Ms Frost met citibabes' invitation-only membership key, its appeal.

“People may feel discouraged at first, just by its membership,” says Ms Della Femina, who is joined on CitiBabes’ board by designers Cynthia Rowley and Amanda Tool Brooks , former creative director of Tuleh, another fashion label. "But I think it's a pity that in New York it's necessary to keep things small, because otherwise you can't enjoy the small communities that it is to have some nice thoughts about."

Ms. Kargman, who has a nanny for 2-year-old Sadie from 1 to 5, plans to be in the citibabes after, in what she calls the "zombie zone," before Sadie's bedtime.

"It's companionship for me, because I always feel very lonely then," she said. "I will have two to three times a week singing with my daughter and then have a beauty bar."

“Mothers are not enough to build friendships,” Ms. Kargman, 30, said. "It's the whole idea of ??'we all have fruit so let's be best friends,' but with this club, the proximity brings a level of intimacy. It makes the pool a lot smaller than every mom pushing a bugaboo on Madison." .

Peter Stearns, social historian and author of "The Anxious Parent: A History of Modern Parenting in America" ??(New York University Press, 2003), said the development of clubs like this " It also reflects parents' status concerns and their anxieties." Not only would doing so show that parents believe the outside world is dangerous and children must be sheltered, he said, but "it's clearly an effort to teach a class of society quite early".

It's "mini-me syndrome," says Lucy Sykes, a socialite and new mother who has created a line of clothing for Lucy Sykes' babies that will be citibabes for sale. "There are so many yuppie families out there, and we wanted the project to represent itself on their children," she said. "They want a more complicated baby." Regardless, the citibabes and other clubs were a sign of the times, a culture when wealthy parents were raising their children in big cities rather than migrating to the suburbs, not wanting to give up the fast-paced lives they received after their offspring arrived. New Age, the publisher of Watt Magazine, plans to bring out Cookie Magazine this fall - its promotional ad showing young parents in early evening wear with the tagline, "A lifestyle magazine for sophisticated parents".

Mao Guzman, Cookie's 35-year-old managing editor, is relatively new to the club, with day care options available for free in many European countries. "If you can get around the elite and the fact that they cater to some kind of girls' and kids' club, it reinforces the idea that pampering yourself as a good parent is not mutually exclusive," she said. "Whatever criticism these clubs receive, the fundamental core of the philosophy should not be criticized."

Shamisher Stanzler, co-founder of Kidville with her husband, Andy Stanzler, *** One of the people, the Cosí Sandwich Chain, said she was thinking about this day as she stumbled down the stairs with her stroller to go 45 minutes to the children's stairs on the east side.

“I realized there had to be something better,” said Ms. Stanzler, who owns Misher in London. "Time, you get the class, you have to stay for a while where it doesn't exist, it's a one-stop shop."

Before Kidville opened, 1,000 families signed up; six months later, there were 2,000 members. The club's transformation from a garage to a candyland-like playground cost $3 million. Agassi and Graf, as well as Laurie Tisch, co-founder of the Children's Museum of Manhattan, and Emanuel Grim, developer of the Soho Hotel, are among the Stenzlers' partners in the business.

Nana's Garden was started by actress Julie Fisher, her sister, Tricia Lee Fisher, and their mother, Connie Stevens. It attracted celebrities like Laura Dern, Jenny McCarthy and Heather Mills, who was married to Paul McCartney. Former talk show host Ricki Lake enjoys getting tarot card readings while her son Owen plays in the garden.

"This is a really thought-provoking provocation," Ms. Lake said. "What a great idea, getting a great read, and knowing my kids are taken care of."

Tricia Fisher said she was inspired to create the club because young mothers needed "a place to hang out."

"Now, moms wander here, all day long, and they find the whole crowd cool, young moms aware," she said.

"I think people feel ostracized from the hip place in LA" when they have children, Ms. Fisher added. "And there are members who go above and beyond to make you feel safe, like that's your own place, your local place"