After looking back on the last few posts I've done, I realized that the Giraffe family has had quite a few family outings. Between the Maple Sugar Farm tour, Woolapalooza, the New England Air Museum and a few other events here and there, we've really been on the go. Part of it is because most of these events were organized by my outdoorsy parenting group and part of it is...here's the shocker if you knew me before kids...I've actually been enjoying going to museums and events. I'll give my friends "before kids" a minute for that one!
Before the Big Giraffe and I got married, we lived in NYC. My secret confession is, I really disliked going to museums. Sure I would go: when friends from out of town would visit. After all they were the guests and they got decide. However, I was always bothered my own attitude and definitely did not want my kids to pick up that trait! After a lot of brainstorming by both myself and the Big Giraffe on how to make family outings more fun, I came up with some key factors. Of course like anything else with parenting, this is subject to change within the next weeks if not few hours! However, in all seriousness it's been working well for about 5.5 years now since we had OS.
By honest about why you're going on the outing. Is it an exhibit that you've been just dying to see? Are you going to want to absorb every detail? If so, get a sitter. There's nothing wrong with that. There's plenty of museums and outings you can take your kids to where you can enjoy the museum but also make sure they're getting the most out of their fun experience and no, that doesn't necessarily go hand in hand. Get a sitter for this exhibit and make plans to take your child to another museum in the next few weeks or even the same museum now that you've already seen it. This way you'll be able to focus more time on making sure that your kids don't go under the velvet ropes (something that Balex Melliot may have experience with her two year old this past weekend) without getting frustrated. Alright, you may still be frustrated but part of that frustration wouldn't be missing out on the exhibit details that you have been waiting 6 months to see.
I got slammed for talking about a children's museum in a blog post I did for the New England Mamas last year. I do agree with what the commenter wrote though. Her point was that children's museums tend to be more like indoor playgrounds and thus were misnamed; they send the wrong messages to kids about appropriate behavior in a museum. That being said, I think children's museums are important for one big reason: you. They allow you to experience what it's like to go on a family outing to a museum. Forget the kids, this is your dry run of packing snacks, lunches and spare outfits. It's your dry run for how to get out the door for a family outing. Plus your kids probably will have a great time and be nice and tired at the end of the day. It's a win win situation.
Speaking of snacks, I think that food is critical for family outings. Part of the reason I disliked going on outings was that by the time I actually got into the door of a museum it was around 10:00 or 10:30 (even more so now because I live in the suburbs and I don't want to drive in rush hour traffic) and I would start to feel a slight rumble in my stomach. If I feel those rumblings before I balance my checkbook, I will eat a snack because frankly it's hard to give it my full concentration. Same thing with really giving exhibits my full attention. The problem is though, that you just handed over a chunk of money to go to this museum or event and the last thing you want to do is leave for lunch even if it just is to head over to the cafeteria. My view was always that it was a complete waste of time. Actually what was a complete waste of time was my going through the museum and not fully enjoying it.
Packing a snack is dependent on where we're going and who's going with us. It's changed as the kids have gotten older. Woolpoolza was a one day event not to mention that we were meeting up with people so we got there right when it opened. FYI if an event is a one day only event, I recommend getting there right when it opens. Since we wanted to be there at 10 am, I packed a snack and gave it my kids in the car. That way they weren't hungry and I didn't have to carve time into our trip for a separate snack. If it's just a regular trip though, what we tend to do is eat lunch before we even go to the event. That's right, if the minute hand is just one minute past 10:30 am we head over to where we are going to eat lunch. Is it early? Yes. It's it worth it? Absolutely. Plus by the time we get settled, and get our food if it's at a restaurant, it is usually 11 anyway. We did this for the New England Air Museum space exhibit and it worked really well. Plus around noon when everyone left to go for lunch we were able to take advantage of the shorter lines. We always do this for the aquarium. When the kids were smaller, I did pack snacks and let them have a snack time at the aquarium or event. Sure it was 15 minutes out of our time there, but the rest of the time they enjoyed themselves which also meant that I enjoyed myself a lot more.
Strollers. They are a pain in the neck but can be well worth it. When my kids were smaller I absolutely used them. For reasons I still don't understand, I decided against getting a double stroller. However, when we would go on outings, my at the time 3 year old older son (OS) would get tired from walking. Looking back, that was completely understandable. We are usually at events for a couple of hours. That is a long time to walk for a little kid. I didn't realize that at the time though and what I would see would be after an hour OS would start to loose it and then I would get frustrated and no one had a good time. One day I went to the aquarium with a friend who had an "opening" in her double stroller and OS was able to sit down. He really enjoyed the aquarium after that and we all had a good time. First chance I had, I picked up a double stroller at a yard sale. Now OS is 5.5 and does fine walking. However our younger son (YS) is only 2.5. It completely depends on whether or not the Big Giraffe is coming along. This past weekend we didn't use the umbrella stroller, but then again, BG was also there to carry YS if needed or chase after the kids if needed. If I'm by myself I would bring it.
A change of clothes can be important. Right after OS was potty trained, I carried around a spare set. Out of sheer laziness, I happened to have a spare set on me when OS somehow missed the toilet with a few drops. I was glad I had the clothes. Nothing can ruin a family outing like pee. Now I don't carry one around for him because he's older. I do carry one around for YS. When I have gone on an outing into a place that is farther away like Boston, I'll throw a spare set of clothes for OS in the car and I will probably start to do that for YS fairly soon. Yes, it's annoying but literally it takes about two minutes to grab the clothes and toss them in the car and if we are going to be 45 minutes or an hour away, I would rather have the option of spending 5 minutes running back to the parking lot than another 45 minutes to drive back home before we are all ready to leave. So why the car instead of with me? I just enjoy outings more if I don't have a lot of stuff on me. Less stuff means that first of all I don't feel like I'm lugging the entire contents of my house around me, and second means I am more able to do things like crouch down to explain to my kids what they're seeing or lift them up so they can get a better view (or chase after them if they go under the velvet ropes...). Not having a stroller if I don't need one means it's easier to maneuver museums and crowds. Of course having a stroller during the winter means I also don't have to carry coats which is a huge plus!
Here's my most important piece of advice that was given to me. Forget snacks, strollers, and everything else if you must. This rule is crucial: Leave before the kids are ready! That's right, leave before the meltdowns and the crankiness starts. That way their last memory of the outing will be having a great time and they'll want to come back again. More importantly you'll want to come back again. This last rule is the hardest. Just keep in mind that with places like the grocery store and BJ's you're trying to get the most bang for buck, not so with museums with small kids. Resist the urge to see "just one more thing". At the space exhibit on Sunday, the boys got to ride around on toy scooters shaped like airplanes. They had a great time. We already been there for about 4 hours and could see that the boys were getting tired. It took every ounce of resistance to say that we were leaving when I knew that there was another area of the museum that we hadn't yet seen and was handing out some cool balloons and other such freebies. However, the kids had a good time and want to go back and despite the fact I have no interest in airplanes, I had fun with them so I would like to go back too. We tried this strategy with Disney when we remembered (the last word being key) and also found it successful. I won't lie: it's really hard. Resist the temptation!
Professional Mom of two cats, a dog, an ant farm, and oh yeah...two boys: a 6 year old and a 3 year old. Also found in my house is my husband who is known on this blog as The Big Giraffe.
For those of us who didn't get an instruction manual with our babies and for whom parenting hasn't always gone as planned. On a more serious note this blog is about supporting a woman's ability to make her own choices about parenting including the choice, for whatever reason, to bottle feed her babies formula.
Great tips!