City moms pay for ‘me time’

Shubha Majumder, 36, an HR executive and mother of two, recently paid Rs 26,000 for two annual memberships at BookBuddy. She now has a clinical psychologist visit her home for four hours each week, to read to her children, aged 10 and 4.

Shubha Majumder, 36, an HR executive and mother of two, recently paid Rs 26,000 for two annual memberships at BookBuddy. She now has a clinical psychologist visit her home for four hours each week, to read to her children, aged 10 and 4.

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“This gives me time to catch up with friends, go to a movie, shop, read or just relax,” she says, adding, “I learnt my lesson with my first child. I realised how important it was to have my own space.”

In what experts are calling the next stage in the evolution of urban Indian motherhood, a growing number of mothers, backed by high-paid jobs and accustomed to a certain lifestyle, are turning to niche professional childcare services such as reading clubs, pay-per-hour crèches and night crèches to help them set aside ‘me time’.

“New-age mothers are not just concerned with work-life balance. They are now juggling work, parenting and ‘me time’,” says Nirali Sanghi, CEO of parenting website IndiaParenting.com.