WOW -- pedicures and spa treatments for little girls...somethin' about that is makin' my skin itchy...perhaps i need a treatment - lol.

i didn't get my first pedicure until i was way past my twenties.  in fact i think i may have been in my forties.  jeezus....i'm feelin' a little gipped...oh well.

my 15 year old has had a few pedicures, but i have to admit i have qualms over it sometimes.  not sure where the lines are drawn and what's too much?  i see so many girls at this age going for the full treatments particularly to get "prepared" for their high school dances --- and then there are the limos etc....the money spent this way could probably support a small country... only in the land of plenty, right? where millions of people have no health insurance...sometimes stinky here...oh, i guess it's all those little feet.

can't wait to read the other replies...

my girlfriends and I used to have a ton of fun with our own little "spa sleepovers:" everyone brought all the facial scrubs, masks, toners, and moisturizers they had, and we'd spend the whole night trying everything out and painting each other's toenails.

I've had one manicure (just before my wedding, and I hated it.  Tore the obnoxious things off on my honeymoon.)  I've had one facial (as a gift - it was nice and relaxing, but I get better results with my homemade sugar scrub and a raw egg yolk mask.)  Massages...well, that's one thing you really can't get at home, unless you've got a massage therapist in the house.

Point being, these girls are really missing out if they get regular trips to the spa!  There's so much fun girl-bonding time to be had at home with friends or sisters or moms (or really, really fun dads) doing at-home "spa" treatments.  And they're setting themselves up for a BIG disappointment if they think they'll be able to afford regular trips to the spa during college or during their first jobs!  Good honk, that stuff is expensive.

I don't have a problem at all with spa trips for little girls as a special occasion-type thing.  I look forward to taking my girls for massages or facials on their birthdays someday.  But setting them up to see that sort of elite, expensive treatment as a regular thing - an entitlement or necessity, even - is doing them a great disservice, in my opinion.  Life isn't all about being pretty; they'd learn more if we took the money for a spa treatment and took it down to the homeless shelter instead.

...and even though I HAVE splurged, (she does own ONE pair of Seven jeans), she really is not that kind of little girl. I thank God for that. She is in no rush to grow up. She's uncomfortable with the boobs she's sporting and she bites her nails, which I hate! I've taken her, maybe less than 5 times to get a pedicure. But she doesn't need it. Besides, what kind of child needs a massage? What can a 6 year old possibly be stressing about? Math? Spelling? Coloring outside the lines? A facial? PLEASE!! Yes, let's get rid of the crows feet, pronto!!

They are so easy to maintain.  All their pants match all their shirts.  They never need more than two pairs of shoes at any given time.  Their hair doesn't need to be coaxed into rubber bands or barrettes.  No tights need to be squirmed up their legs.  And, I'd be mighty surprised if either of them asks to be pampered at a spa.

The last two times I've been to Giant after work, I've run smack into what I'd call a little dose of perspective.

Last week, it was a mom with a daughter in a wheelchair with severe physical disabilities.  She pushed the chair with one hand and pulled her grocery cart with the other.  She looked exhausted.

Tonight, a different mom, with a different kind of disabled child -- I have no idea what exactly one would call the developmental disability this child had, but he was bald and baby-like though he was probably five years old.  He sat in the front of the grocery cart with a bib on, sucking his thumb, drooling, rocking back and forth.  I've never seen a child with this particular syndrome, it was visually very arresting and hard not to stare. I felt awful as I tried to grab furtive glances at the boy to try and understand his condition.  

With both of these moms, I realized that they are in for a lifetime of hard slogging, there won't soon, or maybe ever, come a time when they can just relax and not wonder if their child needs anything.  My children are 6 and 3, and even now, my husband can grab a half hour of quiet to read a magazine and not worry that the children are in any danger.  

So, not to poop in the fun pool here, but these two episodes, coming so close together and in the same location, certainly gave me a different perspective on all the nonsense we fret about as parents on a daily basis.

my nails done, but when I do, I often see a girl of seven or eight with her mom.  I, too, admit I do dream of taking Simone when she's a little older.  But I want her to see it as a very special thing, not a necessity or something she's entitled to.

I genuinly think that the republican mentality--do whatever you want, whatever you can get away with, hoard as much as you want, you don't owe anybody anything--has a lot to do with our current materialistic society.  People have always  wanted things, but this is ridiculous.  When I was a teenager, and it wasn't that long ago, the word bling didn't even exist.  And at least among the people I knew, nobody wanted it.  Flaunting wealth was looked down upon.  A manicure never crossed my mind.  I think it's very sad that this tiny culture of the very wealthy gets so much press and makes poor and middle class kids feel even more deprived than ever.

Wow, never thought I would say this but I am so glad that I grew up poor!   I spent my valuable (and it really is) childhood time learning all the "tasks" I would need to be a decent human being type adult and it wasn't easy.  I can't imagine how much harder it would have been with the distractions kids have today.  I had my first manicure after I graduated college and began teaching.  Ditto for any kind of regular hair appointments.  No, this did not get to be a staple of my existence.  As a matter of fact, such stuff disappeared largely until I was in my late 50's.  I am in my mide 60's and have had only two facials.  Yes, they are absolutely the greatest thing since sliced bread.  I had skin specialists do them and they looked for early signs of skin cancer.  Bless them!  Luckily I had no such thing.  Pedicures are something that really should be held separately from the "beauty" thing.  Started getting them in my 60's when I had the definite impression my feet were actually falling apart!  A good pedicure is an absolute requirement for good mental health!  You can come out of one feeling like you are floating above ground!  And they are absolutely essential for diabetics or anyone coming from a family of diabetics. But dumping all this on kids??  And I do mean dumping in the worst sense.  No way!  I do admire those commenters who worked for their own money babysitting etc. and decided to spend it in this way, though.  And I agree with those comments about little girls becoming so accustomed to such a regime that they cannot adjust when necessary!

Of course, that doesn't mean you can't have nice nails, too.  I don't have a daughter, so it's all hypothetical, but if I did I might indulge in a few spa-things with her.  I'd just want to raise her to know 1). she's lucky;  2). it's not an entitlement and 3). she shouldn't judge people on the basis of their cuticles (lord help me if people judge me by my cuticles.  They are a mess).

I love what Hillary said about putting things in perspective.  It's a luxury to worry about what message having manicures sends to our kids.

Let me begin by saying I AM the kind of girl who get's her hair colored every 6-8 weeks.  When I'm 40, my hair will most likely be completly white and then, I'll let it go natural.  But when I started to have more grey than my mom at 25, I just wasn't ready.  My motto is, if I'm going to die it I might as well have fun, so the color changes completly abour every 6 months.
I like nice clothes when I go out and about once a year I get a pedicure just because it feels so darn good.  

That said, I hate to think of mother-daughter bonding centering around beauty rituals.

How about:
Hiking the Appalachian Trail
Cooking a fabulous family dinner
Reading a great book together
1 on 1 Soccer
Running a 5K together
Watching a great movie and crying into our popcorn
Jamming in the car to some tunes

Those things seem to reflect more about the woman I want her to become rather than some pamperd princess.  Can you tell that this whole spa for kids thing just makes me mad?

Seems to me the USA Today article is about class differences. Little girls on the Upper East Side have always had stuff that some of us scoff at and other of us envy.

But what's so bad about regular pedicures and manicures? I didn't catch onto this til my 30s, but I wish I had started much earlier. It's like getting a haircut--basic grooming, IMHO. My hands and feet look kind of gross without them, and my own efforts are pretty sad.

Now, I do have trouble finding the time to keep up with my hair and nails. But I aspire to good grooming. I hope the same for my daughter.

I take my 8 year old for a pedicure once every couple of months. It makes a big difference--her nails are fragile and tend to rip off if left untended. My  attempts to fix up her toes were definitely not bonding experiences.

A mani/pedi combination can be had in our neighborhood for about 15 bucks--not a budget breaker.

Just to make it clear: I am an extreme leftist  and staunch feminist. No contradiction here to me.

...SF Mom of One

I think men look better with cared-for nails, too. Sexy, really. Skipping the polish, of course.