And for My Princess, a Pedicure

ON a warm massage table at Sothys Spa, far from the January chill, Fran Glennon, 52, was cocooned in white terry cloth and enjoying a facial. On another massage table, about five feet away, was a smaller cocoon: Ms. Glennon’s daughter, Emma, 9.

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GROWN-UP TIME Top, Ellen Crown with Alexandra, center, 11, and Amanda, 14, at John Frieda. Above, Emma Glennon spends time with her mother, Fran, at Sothys Spa.

Emma, of course, did not need blackhead extraction or steam to open clogged pores or a massage to stimulate the skin stretched across her delicate little face. Instead, Emma’s aesthetician gently applied to her forehead, nose and cheeks lotions made with mineral water from the city of Spa in eastern Belgium.

“How do you feel?” asked Zina Bekenshtein, the aesthetician, after a mask was rinsed from Emma’s face and a damp cloth peeled from her eyes.

A sleepy looking Emma grinned and half-whispered: “Gooood.”

More and more, little girls like Emma are participating in activities that their own mothers might not have experienced until they were adults. It is not unusual to walk into a salon and be seated next to a preadolescent girl whose twiggy legs barely reach the pedicure tub or to be dining at a fancy restaurant near a second grader or to encounter a 6-year-old in the gym locker room.

Places once considered adult domains — spas, gyms, restaurants and nail and hair salons — are increasingly becoming destinations for little girls and their mothers.

Samantha White, 28, an assistant at a business consulting firm in Manhattan, said she has noticed more little girls coming in with their mothers to her nail salon, picking out a color and sitting back for the pampering.

“My roommate has a niece who is 7, and she was telling me that every Saturday at 9 a.m. they get manicures,” Ms. White said. “She had a design on her index finger.”

The trend is driven in part by a lack of time. Hectic scheduling for parents and children alike makes it challenging for mothers to carve out time for bonding activities, particularly ones that appeal to tweens who by 12 consider monkey bars and Kool-Aid quaint relics of their past.

“Between her activities, my work, you end up trying to fit it all in,” said Ms. Glennon, a nurse, as she and Emma sat in the spa’s cafe. “We’re all so busy. Here you’re out of the house so you really can focus on each other. You’re spending time together.”

Emma was 3 when Ms. Glennon first took her along to her nail salon because she thought it would be silly to pay for a baby sitter. Now she takes Emma to the spa for the occasional treat.

Like many other mothers, Ms. Glennon cherishes those outings because she knows that all too soon her little girl will be a teenager and no longer consider it a thrill to follow her everywhere.

Trena Ross, the spa director of Sothys, added that taking tweens to the spa has become a tidy way to eliminate the mommy “guilt factor.”

Ms. Ross explained: “I want to spend spa time for myself. I want to spend time with my daughter. Why not get both in one?”

The trend is also the result of what psychologists say is an emphasis on precociousness.

“Today’s teens are mature teens,” said Michael Wood, the vice president of Teenage Research Unlimited. “They are interested in some of those very grown-up activities.”

That has become a boon for spas, with an increase in business drawn by treatments like My First Manicure, My First Massage and My First Facial, as well as Cinderella Treat and Princess Fizzing Manicure. A spokeswoman for the Ritz-Carlton Orlando, Grande Lakes, said mother-daughter spa business has doubled since 2003.

But to bond at these places requires disposable income. At Sothys, the mini-facial for children is $75 (a deep-cleansing facial with exfoliation for adults is $110), and a package that includes a children’s facial, manicure and pedicure can cost $127. (Still, it is possible to get a $10 manicure at a corner salon.)

But is it healthy for young girls to be dipping a toe into traditionally adult activities? What rites of passage will they have left to look forward to?

Mothers seeking girly time with their daughters at the spa, salon or gym say they have concluded that the benefits — intimate conversations, shared relaxation, lessons about hygiene, escape from school and family woes — outweigh the potential pitfalls.

Besides, they say, those activities are not the only time they spend with their daughters. There are sleepovers and museum trips and hours playing with the family pet, too.

Psychologists say the assimilation of young girls into adult realms is not a cut-and-dried issue, especially when the activity involves beauty.

Source Article from http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/01/fashion/01girls.html?ex=1327986000&en=c4181392a3c28a48&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss

And for My Princess, a Pedicure