Kate Lowenstein

As cofounder and co-owner of the Soho family club Citibabes, Tracey Frost Rensky has an easier time than most women balancing her career with motherhood. The deluxe facility features an indoor playground, tons of toddler classes, a preschool, a summer camp, a gym and spa for parents, and even a babysitting service. That means her kids can hang out with her, at her side or just a room away, most days of the week. She and her investment banker husband, Filip, have lived in their Tribeca apartment with their daughters for three years; they’ve called the neighborhood home for eight. Tracey, Citibabes recently loosened its by-referral-only membership policy. What was the logic behind its being restricted in the first place? TFR It was about having somewhere parents felt was safe and secure. Most important is that the children feel comfortable—it’s a second home to them. Did you get flak for being exclusive?TFR I’m sure there were people who didn’t understand why we chose that route. FR I don’t want to go too much into Tracey’s business, but there were some pieces written that compared Citibabes to Soho House. That’s never what it was. The idea was to have people understand that this wasn’t going to be too unwieldy—that if they were going to pay a premium for a club membership for kids, which was an untested concept, the results weren’t going to be a free-for-all. Now that Citibabes has established itself as a safe place to take kids, it doesn’t have to be referral-based only.TFR