Parenting should make a bold, modern statement.

That's the main idea behind the Design District's children store, Genius
Jones, that opened Monday with kids enjoying face-painting, a jester-like
figure making balloons, and scores of moms and dads ogling over childsize Keith Haring chairs and Beatles jackets.

''We have all these great products, but we never really had the space to let them breathe,'' said co-owner Daniel Kron, who opened the pilot store on Lincoln Road two years ago with his wife Geane Brito. ``We want to introduce great design to your kid.''

And so, the bigger space, at 49 NE 39th St., aims to showcase the
design-obsessed Bugaboo strollers, toys and cribs while also allowing the Krons to launch an e-commerce business from an adjacent warehouse.

Walk through the glass-door entrance and you'll find something akin to a
hidden Brooklyn gallery, a Central Park West museum gift shop, or a
Scandinavian excursion -- but with a strong focus on children.

In the front room, displayed on clean, white shelves, are what Kron calls
the "design-statement products."

They include Dutch designer Gerrit Rietveld's iconic Red and Blue and Zig Zag chairs -- but scaled down to fit a youngster.

There's also a soccer ball designed by the Japanese pop art icon, Takasi
Murakami, but with a $400 price tag, it might not be the one the kids use to kick around.

Parents can relive Beatlesmania through Fab Four-logoed jackets to be worn by the kids. For such a vicarious pleasure, the deeply nostalgic parent pays $140.

Beyond the front room is a long room -- and a 20-foot ceiling that's shaped like a tent. ''It's a child's view of a home,'' Kron explained.

Inside one finds more toddler-size chairs, including a lime-green chair
designed by New York's late Keith Haring.

Of course, one of the paradoxes of such modern things is that they are also vintage-like, which, of course, is part of their charm. There's the classic wire chair designed by Harry Bertoia. It's fit for kids.

In the back is a room designed to house the baby furniture collection of
David Netto. The open room offers soft lighting, curved shelves, a mirror on the wall and a padded orange column.

Mindful that infancy is fleeting, a changing table designed by Netto turns
into an ordinary cabinet. It costs $1,600.

Not all the merchandise revolves around baby furniture.

There are also CDs for the young music lovers whose tastes lean to the
multi-culti variety.

''No Barney, no Disney -- no silly music for your kids,'' said Kron.
Instead, one finds the CDs Brazilian Lullaby and Cuban Lullaby. "We have world music for kids."

Books are available, too.

Life Doesn't Frighten Me, a children's book in which the late Jean-Michel
Basquiat's pop-style work appears and Maya Angelou lends a poem.

Perhaps a more interesting picture book is The Lonely Doll, written by Dare Wright, a writer and photographer who arranged scenes with a stuffed teddy bear and a catotonic-looking doll. The pair share a moment in New York's Central Park. The bear spanks the doll.

So could all this be a precursor to a burgeoning industry?

Said Kron: "This is going to be mainstream in another few years."