Carter, Carter's progress, HUNTER, CARTER & CHLOE CARTER’S FIRST SWIM 22 December 2012

We took Carter for his first swim at 3 months old (last month)! It was at one of those baby spa places, with an individual tub filled with warm body-temperature water for young babies. Hunter’s actually been before, back in Shanghai – here, here and here.

We thought Carter would really enjoy it because he’s a really energetic baby. He arches his back to ‘help’ you lift him up, he wriggles and moves and kicks and squirms, and he’s just a pretty full-on kid. So we thought he’d be keen to kick out some energy in the water tub, and…. knock out afterwards *fingers crossed*

Outside the baby spa. Mum and Dad pointed out that I look like a school girl with an office man. And with 2 random babies there. LOL!

 

Hunter was far more excited about the ride-em car there. It’s for hair cutting purposes, so little kids won’t scream and shout whilst getting their hair cut. In theory, I suppose. He wasn’t getting his hair cut, but spent the whole time with his bottom firmly planted in the car and couldn’t be bothered to watch Carter swim.

Wheeeeeels!

 

So anyway, Carter was undressed and popped into the baby spa tub. And…… he loved it. Far more than Hunter did back when he was little, actually! He had a big silly grin plastered all over his face, and kicked around once he realised he could move by doing so. It was cute seeing him get a bit of exercise 🙂

Time for a swim!

 

“Errrr what is this? Where am I?”

 

Mr Chubbypants 

 

Lots of sloppy happy smiles

 

Afterwards, he was dried off with a towel. And here’s where I was surprised. In Shanghai, Hunter was then given a nice warm bath with bath wash. But in Singapore, they simply took him out and dried him off.

But the thing that ticked me off the most was the baby massage. They charge $24 from memory, and it was the most ridiculous, wasteful $24. I must admit it was partly Carter’s fault, who enjoyed it for about 5 seconds, before he decided he’d had enough and wanted to go to sleep. So he started screaming. And so the girl just ran her hands down his body for 2 mins, then declared the baby massage was over.

WHAT??

$24 for 2 minutes worth of baby massage? You have got to be kidding me.

I know back in Shanghai, the baby spa place would waive the fee if the baby was distressed and they couldn’t massage him. So I was shocked that in Singapore, they were still eager to collect the $24 and made zero mention of waiving it. I actually asked “Errr.. so is that it?” and she said “Yes”. Which then makes me wonder if that’s really what they do even if the baby isn’t upset by it…

In fact, all the lady did was repeatedly insist that it would be really good for Carter to swim frequently, and for us to sign up for a package.

Very silly way of running a business. Hard selling by being overly-pushy, and wanting to charge the additional $24 for a baby massage that was non-existent is really NOT the way to try and acquire a new customer!

Needless to say, we didn’t sign up for a package and walked out.

Happy for a second or two before he screamed blue murder 😉

 

The good thing was, Carter so wiped from all his exercise that he knocked out and napped for 1.5 hours afterwards. He normally (maddeningly) does just 30min naps, so that was bliss – for me!

 

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Haha. yeah…..u look like a schoolgirl in that pic! So *envious*.
I bought my son to baby Spa before and it was an unpleasant experience too. Hated the hard selling! They sort of like pressured me to sign up for the package even when my son obviously did not enjoy the swim there. My husband was so turn off that he told me not to sign up for their package ever! haha

The entire swim tub? That would cost a fortune!!! Nah we’ll just wait til he’s 1-2 months older then pop him straight into the regular pool 😛

I hate the hard selling they do there. To be fair, the second time we brought Karissa back there she was cranky (didn’t have a nap) and so started crying the moment she got into the tub. They didn’t charge us and we only paid $2 for the swim diaper which is fair enough. We decided that for the amount they charge we might as well just buy the neck float and bring her to the pool so we did that and haven’t been back to the baby spa since.

I get so turned off by hard selling by businesses that I make it a point purposely not to buy, even if I wanted to! Just can’t stsand it…

Good to hear that they didn’t charge for the swim though, I think that was v decent of them and should be the norm!