Helping hands for working
moms
Indah Setiawati, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | Headlines | Thu, February 21 2013, 9:43 AM
Juggling a career, domestic chores and child care on a daily basis is now made possible for working mothers in Jakarta thanks to the mushrooming businesses that assist the city’s supermoms.
Inna Banani, 34, who runs an online business from her home in Bintaro, Tangerang, said she cooked for her 22-month-old and 5-year-old kids, but she turned to baby catering when she was too busy.
“I use baby catering when I have no maid at home, when I am sick or when I need to go out to meet my clients. The service is helpful. It saves me time and makes my life easier,” she told The Jakarta Post over the phone on Wednesday.
Baby catering services may sound new to some people, but the business has grown in the past three years. Nandra Janniata, a mother of two who works as a graphic designer in Jakarta, had the idea to set up Bebitang baby catering with her sister Neura Azzahra in 2010 when her children’s nanny went back to her hometown.
“We want to help working moms by providing healthy food for their babies and kids with no preservatives or food additives. We still limit our coverage areas because we want to deliver fresh food on time for lunch,” she told the Post.
Nandra said they cooked the food early in the morning and their four couriers delivered the food packages to their clients in Bintaro, Bumi Serpong Damai and South Jakarta. Clients can also ask them to deliver lunch boxes to schools. They also make homemade frozen food products such as nuggets and sausages that can last for up to a month.
Although there is no accurate data on women going back to work after having children, Nandra said that her customers had increased in the past two years, from one household to 37 as of this month.
Working mothers who need to send their breast milk immediately to their baby at home can also use the service of breast milk couriers. One of them, Kurir Asi, has 10 people who can pick up and send the bottles to areas in Jakarta, Bogor, Depok, Tangerang, Bekasi and even as far as Bandung in West Java.
“Mothers should call a day before they want to use this service. There is no way the milk bottles can be switched because one courier only serves two customers at the most in a day,” Kurir Asi operational manager Agus Kurniawan said.
He said the service cost from Rp 35,000 (US$3.61) to Rp 55,000.
Meanwhile, daycare services have become an alternative for working mothers who do not have a support system to take care of their children.
“We started with a pre-school, but since we are located in the heart of the city, we felt that daycare was also important for working parents,” said Rachmi Winarni, the manager of Lollikids Montessori Pre-school and Daycare in Panin Tower in Senayan City, Central Jakarta.
She said parents could send their kids from as young as 8-months-old to 6 years old from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. “Parents can pick up their children until 7 p.m. with a late charge,” Rachmi said.
KeenKids Daycare in Pejompongan, Central Jakarta, receives babies as young as 2 months and children up to 6 years old. It opens from 7:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. and can extend until 8 p.m. with an additional late charge of Rp 15,000 per 10 minutes and taxi fare for the nanny. The daily fee is Rp 200,000, while the monthly fee can cost Rp 2 million.
Lia, the administrative officer at the daycare, said they also had separate buildings for pre-school and kindergarten classes. “The kids will have taken a bath and will have eaten dinner by the time their parents pick them up,” she said.
Sumber : www.thejakartapost.com
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