I know it's cute. But it's just not right.
Last week, Sierra and Carolyn were discussing the places where kids just don’t belong. Bars. Comedy clubs. Nightclubs (I sense a theme here). I’ve got one more spot to add to the list, and it’s not even a place where you’re there to drink: Spas. No one who isn’t old enough to pay for her pampering with her own hard-earned cash belongs in a spa, and no 6-year-old needs a pedicure. As for spas actually meant for tots, I’m appalled. Show me a kid having her sixth birthday party at the Simply Sassy Kids Spa, and I’ll show you tomorrow’s You’re Cut Off starlet.
It’s not that I object to toenail coloration for toddlers. My two four-year-olds are currently sporting attractive turquoise toes, courtesy of their 6-year-old sister and a carefully applied marker, and I’m looking the other way (at least until the day before we leave for vacation). It’s not the polish and paint. It’s not even that if I were to go to a spa myself, I’d prefer not to sit next to Veruca Salt.* No, it’s something else entirely.
*She’s the spoiled girl from Willy Wonka. Also, a fabulous nineties Chicago-area slacker band. And now, you have to read the rest of why Lily isn’t at Cape Cod with cute little flowers on her toes on Babble. (It’s worth the click, if I do say so myself.)
I will confess that I take Lana to get a pedicure pretty regularly. BUT, in my defense, living in the Midwest, it’s the only place I can take her, casually, to be with other Vietnamese people. When she first came home, and I couldn’t communicate with her at all, I took a sobbing Lana (and a close to sobbing me) into a nail salon* and asked if anyone in there could speak Vietnamese. About six ladies stood up. (No, I’m not making this up and not making fun.) I swear those ladies saved my sanity a little bit that day. So…yeah. Lana gets her toes done…
*I knew the owner of the salon was Vietnamese because I had drawn up their LLC documents a few years before
K’s been begging for one, forEVER. I told her, many months ago, they didn’t allow any one under 7. I’m so gonna have to take her when she’s seven. I don’t like the idea, but maybe one a year as a birthday treat until she can pay for her own won’t do too much horrible damage?
Pedicures make my skin crawl (they look nice but the cuticle cutting and pushing skeeves me)so no pedicures here as a bonding experience. We paint our toes at home and are currently sporting matching neon green toes. I just looked up the spa you mentioned and actually think it looks cute (still no manis or pedis though if they include any cuticle work). I teach my children to be very respectful of everyone and don’t think an occasional treat would counteract that teaching and send her on the fasttrack to You’re Cut Off.
it boils down to this:
cost of a babysitter for 1.5 hours = 12 euros
price of my daughter’s pedicure (and I’m definitely not one of THOSE moms) = 6 euros
The price comparison doesn’t work everwhere, but that’s how it works over here.