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Get A Room! Baby Hotel Offers Respite
Filed under: Toddlers Preschoolers, Holidays, Health & Safety: Babies, Development/Milestones: Babies, In The News, Weird But True, Day Care & Education, Feeding & Sleeping, Baby-sitting, Research Reveals: Babies, Nutrition: Toddlers & Preschoolers, Expert Advice: Babies, Health & Safety: Toddlers & Preschoolers, Development: Toddlers & Preschoolers, Behavior: Toddlers & Preschoolers, Activities: Toddlers & Preschoolers, Gear Guides: Babies, Gear Guides: Toddlers & Preschoolers, Research Reveals: Toddlers & Preschoolers, Expert Advice: Toddlers & Preschoolers
Two-year old twin brothers Muhammed Armaan and Muhammed Rayhan Sayed color at the Johannesburg Baby Poll. Credit: Pablo Thekiso, AFP / Getty Images
You and your mate feeling a little frisky? Get a room.
For the kids, that is.
Parents in South Africa can do just that. Finding a sitter willing to stay overnight is difficult. But for roughly the equivalent of $68 per night, the Baby Hotel in the upscale Johannesburg suburb of Morningside takes in children up to age 3 and is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
Amenities include a dinner, bath and even a little potty training for children. Each child's name is taped to his or her bed to avoid confusion.
"Nurseries are not flexible," hotel director Esme Zwennis told the international news agency Agence French-Presse. "They have very specific hours. You have to be enrolled full time to use them. They just don't do an hour or two at a time."
Zwennis opened the hotel five years ago in response to her own frustration as a single mother of three. There is definitely a need for a place that parents can use on occasion, not necessarily on a full-time basis, she told the news agency.
The Baby Hotel isn't just for parents who want uninterrupted romance. South African single mother Sherrie Galjaard told Agence French-Presse that the Baby Hotel enables her to do such simple tasks as shopping without worrying about her 8-month-old daughter.
"Saturday morning, I wanted to go to Pick and Pay to do my monthly shopping," she said. "To take a little baby ... to Pick and Pay on Saturday morning is not a good idea. That's why I dropped her at the Baby Hotel. I needed a haircut. I couldn't take her there, either."
Tasleem Sayed found the Baby Hotel invaluable when trying to juggle moving and 21-month-old twins.
"I dropped them off the whole day and picked them up in the evening. It's so convenient," she told the news agency.
A second Baby Hotel is opening this year in Port Elizabeth in the southeast of the country.
The idea behind the Baby Hotel is the next step in hotel child care. The European Web site KinderHotels offers a network of family-friendly hotels where new parents can find amenities including baby baths and bottle warmers. However, the parents generally stay with the children.
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ReaderComments (Page 1 of 1)
9-03-2009 @ 8:29AM
Serena said...STICK TO THE SUBJECT, YOUR COMMENT HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH SUBJECT!!!
Reply
9-03-2009 @ 4:44PM
Ralph said...Shut up!
Reply
9-03-2009 @ 5:14PM
Squiggles said...I don't think that the Baby Hotel is the brightest of ideas. Who in their right mind would drop a BABY off at a hotel in order to be able to romp at home? Babies and toddlers need to be in familiar surroundings or they get easily frightened, feeling like their parents have abandoned them. I would definitely not drop my kids off for an all-nighter!
On the other hand, I like that they are mostly used as a flexible daycare. Regular daycares won't let you just bring a child on a drop-in basis, even though the concept has been successfully used at Ikea and several supermarkets and gives parents a chance for uninterrupted shopping.
As for staying at the Baby Hotel, I think I would do the same thing most parents do; stay with the baby at night but use their babysitting services if I wanted a moment for myself.
Reply
9-03-2009 @ 6:38PM
valerie5656 said...I think it's an amazing idea!!!.. The day care option has been available to working parents for a long time. What on earth could be wrong to have that same option and not pay a huge monthly fee for day care if you just need to do something for one day? Stay at home moms would appreciate a few hours without baby to get errands done in a shorter time and without trying to calm a fussy child while getting their hair cut, ect. And babies are very adaptable, they do not constantly need to be in a familiar environment - what about when they go to grand-parents or a parent's friends house for a few hours? That's not as familiar as "home" and they do fine. They learn social skills.. and yes, even babies learn from new experiences. And I am sure toddlers would LOVE LOVE to have new kids top play with. I know mine did! A safe, friendly, place to leave my child while I needed to do something else.. Whooo hoooo!!!! I wish I'd have thought of it!.. I'd be rich!!!
9-03-2009 @ 5:09PM
Richard said...Barbara, take a dime, and hold it tight with your knees. You wouldn't have 3 kids and be called a slut.
Reply
9-03-2009 @ 7:02PM
rermain2 said...In South Africa, among many of the horrible things that go on there (and on a regular basis, no less), you may see a billboard or two or three reporting on a raped baby. I'm sorry but the "Baby Hotel" just seems to me like a HUGE breeding ground for some serious problems.
Maybe it would work in America, or many parts of Europe, but not South Africa.
Reply
9-03-2009 @ 11:49PM
margie spenser said...Matt, pay attention. It's the spammers we're complaining about, not the AOL ads. At least the AOL ads are clearly just that -- they're not trying to pretend to be posted comments. How stupid do the websites originating those spam postings think we are?!?
And in answer to the people asking if they are the only ones reporting these stupid spammers, no, you're not. I report every one I encounter. My question is, does anybody ever pay attention to our reports? Or is that report icon just another trick, like the spam posts?
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