Pamper parties for children

I agree 100%.

So do I.

Someone was telling me they had resisted a spray tan for her 12yr olds first high school party but had agreed to apply tanning cream and had to cut down false lashes as they were too long for her eyes.General conversation within the group was it was the norm. The Mums (35 - 40yrs)started comparing their own treatments/costs.
How peoples priorities and finances differ.

What direction are these children heading in?

Guilty as charged m’lud! ?

For my 7 year old granddaughter’s birthday last month I bought her a ‘mother and daughter’ pamper day. They live in NZ and the cost of postage for gifts from the UK is exorbitant. I’ve bought gifts from NZ websites, but some are less reliable than others and have caused disappointment. Last year I decided I was going to stop buying gifts and instead pay for ‘experiences’, so I arranged for mum and daughter to go to a local restaurant where the staff treated them to a slap up meal with cake and candles and it was a great hit.

This year I’ve arranged for them to have a ‘pamper day’ - they’ve not been yet, but I believe it includes a side-by-side shampoo and blow dry, and manicure and pedicure with hand and foot massage. Lovely for my granddaughter and a nice treat for her mum too.

Well to each their own, but I think a trip to the zoo, or a voucher for bowling or mini golf or for a toy shop would be more appropriate for a 7 year old.

Completely agree. It’s bonkers.

Bit different from those struggling to feed and heat their family.

Me too. Children grow up so much more quickly nowadays and girls are sexualised at frighteningly young ages.

My girls all love makeup and my oldest GD plans to have a career in film and theatre makeup.She has an interview today.They all do "cosplay" and have the most amazing and sometimes horrific makeup and can apply makeup better than a lot of adults.
I've been buying them makeup kits for years and cleansers and it keeps them happy on wet days or during lockdown.
Nothing wrong with people being "pampered" a manicure and pedicure is surely just self care and everybody needs a haircut .
I wouldn't do the hot tub ones that some of their friends have but neither would their mothers ,who tell them hot tubs are like sitting in bacteria soup.

My GD went to a pamper party aged 11 with all her friends. They had a lovely time.
They are all around 17 now and working hard for A levels. They have intelligent discussions about what's going on in the world.
A pamper party doesn't make them into air heads who only worry about makeup and fashion.
It's just a different way of having fun.

Yes I hate the way children are pushed out of childhood so quickly nowadays. By the time they're 8 or 9 gadgets have taken the place of toys, at an age where I hadn't clue about fashion they're wearing branded clothes, make up on 11 and 12 year olds is not unusual, leaving primary school is now treated like a solemn University graduation.
Just let kids develop slowly and surely.

My 9 year old GD loves manicures, has painted toe nails, has been to sleep overs where they tried out creams lotions and lip balms. But she also likes tag rugby, plays hockey, gets covered in paint and hates pink. Girls can pick and choose now and isn't it great for them!

My rugby-playing, rider DGD(12) has been to pamper parties - I don't have a problem with this.

When she was around 10 I did raise an eyebrow at a hot tub party! I expect two years of Covid has put on block on those.

OMG this is a different world we live in now. I would hope to keep children as children but I'm fighting a losing battle. They listen to adult music (gone is Tubby the Tuba and Sparky's Magic Piano) and my grandson said they showed the children Michael Jackson's 'Thriller' video in school....primary school! Complete with horror and zombies. What the hell is going on in schools?

All just adding to the sexualisation of what would once have been considered young[little] girls. No wonder they attract the wrong kind of attention from predatory men and do not have the skills to cope with it.
My nearly teenage GD got a voucher for the Lego shop she was thrilled.

As a one off treat I can’t see a problem. What child male or female ( or other) doesn’t enjoy copying Mum or Dad now and then ?
I have 3 girls who as little ones would love it if I let them have some nail varnish on or a bit of lipstick. It was play not for every day. All hold responsible jobs and can hold an intelligent conversation.

Yammy

All just adding to the sexualisation of what would once have been considered young[little] girls. No wonder they attract the wrong kind of attention from predatory men and do not have the skills to cope with it.
My nearly teenage GD got a voucher for the Lego shop she was thrilled.

It isn't "sexualising" anything to learn to take care of your skin and paint your nails. Or are you saying the only reason women paint their nails is to attract men? I'm still painting mine and I can assure that isn't why I do it.

I don't like the whole pampering industry.
We seem to be teaching women and girls that there is only one way to look and we should be "groomed" within an inch of our lives. We should be shouting out to our girls loud and clear that if they want to be their natural selves, leg hair and all, then they are still attractive and don't have to spend hours of time and shedloads of money in altering their appearance.
It is fine if it a choice, but it should be an informed choice and not an expectation.

It’s just a different sort of party.

Things change over the years always have and always will, sometimes good sometimes bad.

When I have my regular manicures if I have had a GS with me they have often had their nails painted (aged 2 - 5 at the time) doesn’t make them effeminate.

I remember kids getting hurt for playing musical chairs.
Even generation X stopped it for that reason

I wonder in which locations some posters live or how sheltered from the real world

Some of these threads expressing discontent or even outrage for today's world is worrysome, as if refusing to accept the world changes and standards also evolve with it

Pamper parties have been very normal where I live for 15+ years, not that i agree with grooming young kids into believing that they are not worthy as they are born, that they need to be enhanced with cosmetics to fit the mold.

I hate pink tax and do everything I can do to fight it

I hate to see painted nails or makeup on children. As was said upthread it can attract the wrong sort of attention at an age when they have no idea how to deal with it. Why a parent or grandparent would encourage it I really don’t. Only a short step away from the dreadful children’s beauty pageants in the US.

In 1978 my then 6 year old daughter went to a party and came home in great excitement to show me that she had (clear) nail polish and lip gloss on after having had a hand and foot massage. (The party girl’s mum was a sports massage therapist.) I remember it clearly because I was taken aback that it was done without consulting or informing the parents. On reflection I decided to overlook it, but simply asked the mum if she had considered allergies re the lip balm (she had not and was mortified).

As for the sexualisation of children, I have campaigned on this issue since 1989 and I do not conflate the issues of sexualisation with one of ‘dressing up’ like mummy or dad. Small children emulating mummy by wearing her make-up, shoes etc. has been going on for a very long time; there is a family tale of my 93 year old mother getting slapped as a 5 year old for ruining her mother’s only lipstick. I encouraged my own daughters to look after their skin and avoid make-up until their mid teens.