Rock-a-bye.
Sleep-deprived moms and dads are melting down after the makers of a $1,695 status symbol bassinet — which uses remote technology to rock a toddler swiftly to sleep — abruptly announced a new subscription fee of $240 per year in order to access all of the pricey product’s high-tech features.
Snoo Smart Sleeper, a smash-hit from Los Angeles company Happiest Baby, comes with just about every bell and whistle imaginable to help a child nap — and ease fussing — while also tracking your little one’s snooze stats, using an app.
Back in mid-July, however, the West Coast makers delivered a shock wake-up call, restricting 10 of the Snoo’s 18 features to premium members. The Post has reached out to Happiest Baby for comment.
Users now face two choices — pony up the extra cash, or be subjected to a screaming kid.
And even though new users get nine months of unfettered access for free, that isn’t stopping p.o.’d pops and miffed mamas from putting the company squarely in timeout.
“Wow what a f–ing grift,” irked Upper East Side mother Caitlin Fuchs-Rosner vented to The Post.
“They’re taking advantage of tired and vulnerable parents. Happiest baby? More like happiest hand-wringing greed beast,” she said.
Roosevelt Island couple Christopher Cheng, 33, and Laura Daniels, 29, said the Snoo was “a lifesaver” for their 10-and-a-half-week-old son Koda, born in under 37 weeks.
But the new pricing model — and the blindsiding that came with it —left such a bad taste in the new parents’ mouths that they may not use one for their second, planned child.
“They’re effectively just milking us,” Cheng told The Post.
“From a moral perspective, this is a tool that people use to maintain their sanity and to try to get their babies to sleep so that they can sleep themselves,” added Daniels, who also said it feels like, “‘How can we squeeze every penny out of [the] super stressed’?”
On top of everything, the bassinet is something of a lofty investment to begin with — after six months, the child outgrows the pricey product, infant sleep expert Ann Marks, creator of the Full Feedings Method, told The Post.
“It’s a big expense when you’re having a baby. I think it’s become a status symbol in a way,” Marks, 41, said.
Because of the short shelf life, the resale market is huge for the Snoo. Many parents, like Cheng and Daniels, buy and sell them secondhand. A certified used one from Happiest Baby currently costs $1,195.00.
“One of the reasons I justified the purchase price was knowing that there was a strong second hand market,” one Redditor posted.
“This subscription has already lowered the value of the Snoo. How can tech companies justify killing a products resale value after purchase?” they queried.
In the wake of the pricing boost, the online forum has become grounds for parents to throw their own temper tantrums.
One called on fellow chatters to “join me in the protest” until the premium is done away with.
Another said they “already stopped at least 6 sales of the Snoo to people within my community.”
“Way to ruin your product Snoo. This is the start of your demise,” they added.
However, not everyone is tossing and turning over the added fee.
Sydney Kohan, a 24-year-old mom from the Upper West Side defended Happiest Baby after a very good recent experience with the product.
“Every company is nickling and diming their customers one way or another,” Kohan told The Post, adding that this is a way for those taking advantage of the secondhand market — and those who were gifted the Snoo — a chance to “contribute.”
“I don’t see any problem with it.”
