More parents are bonding with their children over pampering treatments, but are they spoiling them in the process?
More parents are bonding with their children over pampering treatments, but are they spoiling them in the process?
Ryan Lim was just eight years old when he enjoyed his first spa treatment – a shoulder massage at the Bangkok hotel where his family was holidaying. “Rather than send him to hotel kids’ clubs, I wanted to expose him to something different, something I didn’t have as a child,” says his father, Raymond, a 37-yearold director at Les Amis Group Holdings. “It’s my interpretation of father-son bonding,” he says, adding that having massages together is more relaxing than their other shared pastimes, such as football.
A few times a year, the family of three – Ryan is now 10 – enjoy a day out at the spa, getting body massages and swimming. Raymond and his wife, senior paralegal Kim So Young, 39, may also get manicures and pedicures. Each session, which lasts several hours, costs at least $700 in total. He is not the only parent who sees the spa as a family experience. While spas are predominantly an adult domain, some places are seeing more children, some as young as six, as well as more boys enjoying the facilities.
Customers are also showing interest in children’s birthday parties centred on beauty treatments. Parents pay for services such as manicures, pedicures, facials and massages for their young ones. Tomoka Nguyen, director of Espa at Resorts World Sentosa, says: “There are more people asking for spa experiences they can share with their kids.” This is one reason Espa launched spa packages last month targeted at family groups of three to six. They cost $180++ and $330++ a person – there’s no child price – and options include having a hammam, or Turkish bath, together and going to the steam room.
IT HELPS STRESS
One factor driving this demand is the desire to help kids destress. Stay-at-home mum Miko Ong, 35, sees the benefits of a relaxing time at the spa, which was why she introduced it to her nine-yearold son, Iain. She started going for massages regularly about five years ago, to “unknot” muscles strained from doing computer work during more than 10 years in IT, an industry she left at the end of 2014.
Mother and son sometimes have massages together. “Adults spend many hours at their desks, children spend many hours in school. I see the benefits in the long run for him,” Miko says. These include less stress from schoolwork and enrichment classes, better sleep and muscles that are soothed after Iain does sports such as rollerblading and taekwondo.
His massages, which cost between $150 and $200 each, complement the chiropractic sessions she takes him to, every six months, in a “holistic wellness package”. The chiropractor checks his growth development, such as spine alignment and posture.
Miko and her engineer husband, who is in his early 40s, let Iain, their only child, have a shoulder massage at the age of six. Although he found massages ticklish at first, Iain says he now finds them relaxing and likes the “lavender-like” scent at the spa. Auriga Spa at Capella Singapore hotel, which came up with a spa menu for teens and children in 2011, has seen more bookings for teen massages, which cost $95 each. “We frequently have parents wishing to relax with their children as a treat during stressful exam periods,” says its spa director, Alsu Abdulina.
At the spa at Four Seasons Hotel Singapore, spa manager Eve Chiam regularly sees children coming for massages to relieve the stress in their shoulders from carrying heavy school bags. These aromatherapy massages cost between $160 and $230 each. Without giving specific figures, she says: “In the past four years, there have been more boys coming in, but there are still slightly more girls than boys.”
WRONG VALUES?
Paediatrician Janice Wong from Thomson Paediatric Centre says: “Going to the spa usually does not present issues regarding the physical development of kids, but emotionally, they may develop the feeling of being spoilt by parents.” Dr Yang Chien-Hui, a senior lecturer at SIM University specialising in early childhood education, cautions: “If parents focus too much on looks, beauty and a luxurious lifestyle, children may consider these as priorities in life rather than intelligence, interests, characters and relationships.”
But sociologist Paulin Straughan says what is important is how the parent “contextualises” a trip to the spa for the child. “We should not cast judgment, it’s a private decision within the family. We should focus on what the activity represents, such as drawing parents and child together.” Sociologist Sam Han, who is writing a book on lifestyle and self- enhancement, says it is natural to see more men and boys going to spas in Singapore because “the very notion of spas has shifted”.
“Spas are not exactly a luxury anymore, it’s no longer as elite,” says Dr Han, an assistant professor at the School of Humanities and Social Sciences at Nanyang Technological University. “Spas used to be seen as being very expensive, but there are various tiers in the spa world. Spas are businesses and it makes sense to have greater participation from groups that were traditionally not the target audience.”
While the prices of spa treatments that some parents are willing to spend on their kids may seem extravagant to some, Dr Straughan, an associate professor at the National University of Singapore, says this is “possibly linked to the fact that there are more dualincome families and smaller nuclear families”.
Increased awareness has accompanied the rise of the wellness industry and led to younger spa clients. With proper precautions, spa treatments for kids do not present health risks, says Dr Wong from Thomson Paediatric Centre. “There are no concerns because spas for children use natural products that are free from parabens and chemicals, and have similar health policies for clients both young and old, which address health conditions such as muscle or nerve ailments and allergies.” So, do your homework and ensure that spa staff members are appropriately trained, and sheets and towels are changed, she adds.
