Trend: Alpha Moms - Upscale Childcare

Modern moms are willing to spend money for convenience and high quality child care.

Trend Description:
Alpha Moms are young, active mothers who are well educated and had an active career before choosing to have a family. They tend to be more informed, cosmopolitan and connected than their parent’s generation – and are usually more busy too. Upscale childcare services are emerging globally that cater to Alpha Moms.

Cases:

Park City’s Integrated Daycare Living
In Japan new high-end apartment complexes are being built with daycares for residents. One example of an all-in-one living complexe is Roppongi Hills. Park City Musashikosugi in Kanagawa Prefecture (near Tokyo).plans to open in March, 2009 with flat prices starting at $550,000. A similar project is in the works in Kobe City. The Park City Musashikosugi will have a sixty-child, city-approved daycare for both learning and recreation. It is supposed to be run by the Benesse corporation, which also runs magazines and children’s learning centers.

Hotels for Confinement
In China so called maternity hotel rooms offer an alternative to an extended hospital stay. Of course it is expensive to spend the first month of maternity in hotel rooms with costs of about 20,000 to 30,000 Yuan (about US$3355). But considering the recent baby boom and consequent short supply of nannies and hospital wards, the better-off young parents are willing to pay for convenience and first-class service in such hotels. The hotels also offer doctors, nannies and parenting advice. In the new “Yuezi Jiudian”, hotels for confinement, all the services are provided 24 hours a day and 7 days a week and parents do not have to worry about lack of hospital wards any more. The arrivals of “golden pig babies” will accelerate the success of “Yuezi Jiudian” in China.

Golden Resources Mall
Built in 2004, Golden Resources Mall in China locates in the most expensive and populous resident area in the west of Beijing. Many working mothers come here for the convenience of finding baby-sitting and exclusive shopping possibilities under one roof. In fact, the huge baby-sitting area, Kids’ Garden, is the major money maker of the Golden Resources Mall. Some kids are so amazed by the toys and games that they urge their mothers to go there again and again. When they are playing with coaches and pals, mothers take their girlfriends to buy clothes, drinks, domestic appliances and whatsoever downstairs. The concepts of indoor playgrounds and childfriendlyness is also successful at most branches of the Swedish furniture store Ikea, but not quite as enormous.

Trend Impact:
Traditional childcare facilities tended to be functional, lower end and more on the cheap side. The new family-centers are well designed, playful and colorful. As these examples show, modern moms are willing to spend money for convenience and high quality child care.

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