Full price babies at the Olympics

[littlepinklizard]

I'm shocked by the conversation I just had with the London 2012 ticketing poeple. My dh and I were lucky enough to get tickets to the horse jumping on 8 August. Our baby is due 2 June, so was enquiring about what I need to do about tickets for the new baby.

They said eveyone needs a ticket - fine.
Children's tickets are £1 - fine.
But there are no children's tickets for the horse jumping so I have to pay £95 to have a 3 month old in a sling!!!
I said I was planning to bf and couldn't go without the baby.
They said the only alternative was to re-sell my ticket or give it to someone else.

I can't justify £95 and I know lots of people who would love the ticket so I guess I just have to transfer it. But I am fuming.

AIBU or are the 2012 people?

YANBU policy on ticket availability and ticket prices is ridiculous
Will be viewing on TV.
London Hotel cost, availability and transport cost will be a nightmare near any venus because we are useless at providing efficient public transport at peak times. I have travelled to the London ExCeL centre for business before for major events, bloody awful. ExCeL centre capacity in the four halls will range from 6,000 to 10,000 per hall. Nightmare.
If you are going to one of the other locations outside of London, I would think more realistic to take a family and baby and actually enjoy the whole day.

KatieMN - someone get her medal for not slapping KH.

Bonkers I dont think the Olympics is a place for young children OR babies, for various reasons. Especially show jumping, where noise has to be kept to a minimum.

"The difference between the West End show and the music concert and the Olympics is that I have never had to decide to purchase show/concert tickets 18 months in advance." Yep, I agree totally, BUT the baby doesnt have to go with you, whether you knew you were going to have one or not. As has been said before, one of the downsides of having kids is that you may just have to give up doing things you love, because you cant do them any more, OR do them without the kids.

Was that apprentice lady on BBC Breakfast seriously suggesting kids aged 6 will not remember any of it?! Yes, 3-month-old ones won't but 6-year-olds? Has she never been a child?

And another thing, most airlines do not offer discounted tickets to babes in arms but free tickets for which the TAX only is payable.

And yes, for some that might mean the disappointing decision that they cannot go to an event with their tiny baby.

Daily mail alert.

Look. You all made it into the papers.

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2091141/London-2012-Olympics-Babies-need-tickets-to-Games.html

Just googled Katie Hopkins, who said she has 3 kids and kept saying 'you mumsnet lot' etc. Didn't know who she was.

After finding this article, I'm not listening to a word she says. She's bonkers. lol

www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-460026/Apprentice-Katie-Hopkins-wrecked-family.html

Spanish You are entitled to your opinion. I am inclined to agree for some events.

However, the issue here is that people had to buy tickets before they had even conceived.

Where should the organisers have drawn the line when it comes to allowing children in for free if they sit on their parents laps?

The Olympics are totally sold out for most events and the equestrian ones were the first to be sold. How are they suddenly going to magic up some childrens tickets? Many of the MNetters above are asking about the funding of the event - surely the fact that the tickets have sold well at high prices goes a long way to covering the costs and proving that it is not the white elephant that some doomsayers are predicting.

This was all well publicised at the time of the first ticket sales and there was actually an MN thread about it at the time. If children can't be left then maybe the parents do need to consider reselling their tickets.

My baby is due in April and me and DH have tickets to an athletics event. To be honest, as a first-time mum i have no idea how I'll feel, if I'll want to go still or how the baby will be at that age. But if i decide that he and we would manage without pissing too many other people off then I'd like to be able to make the choice to take him. I understand the need for him to have a ticket and am willing to pay a reasonable amount, bearing in mind that he won't take up a seat.
All the stuff about people not wanting to sit next to babies is, frankly, irrelevant bollocks, since children are allowed in anyway and 5-year-olds are easily as irritating as babies. I'm not expecting special treatment, and of course will leave the baby with a sitter if I decide that that is the best option for him and us. But i would like to be allowed to decide for myself.

Yes, babies take up more room than an adult, with buggies (which the normal public are meant to treat with the same reverence as a wheelchair, brush against it at your peril, those hormones are lethal!), huge sacks of unnecessary stuffed or slimey things to fall on the floor and I find all sporting events, especially ones requiring deep concentration and silence, such as shooting and archery, diving or gymnastics, are only improved by the constant and unpredictable risk of the worst noise known to man (they can't help it, it has been perfected over millions of years to be as unbearable as a jack-hammer in your head as a tool for manipulating its mother into stopping it with a packet of Wotsits if no one at your mother and baby group is watching or a very public, saggy, blue-veined mammary that really belongs in a bra, or at least the toilets, if there is. But then what to do with the portable house taking up 3 seats? Baby's First Kindle didn't come cheap. The younger the child, who will recall nothing of the day, ever, the more selfish you are being. You have 6 months to arrange child care, please, for the sake of those of us who have paid for tickets, don't bring under 12s, it's not fair. At least they might get another chance.

On the other hand, there must have been booking Terms on the tickets to cover any restrictions at the time of purchase. By making the purchase you'd have agreed to, via a tick box.

butkin No one's suggesting 8-year-olds should get in free if they sit in parents laps... But perhaps they could print some tickets (not find seats) for babies who weren't concieved when tickets went on sale? Or say, babies under 1 year old. It's not that complicated really is it?!

Under 6 months seems a sensible cut off for tickets, or whatever age means their conception couldn't have been known about. Highly unlikely an under 6 month old would need a seat, and whilst not all babies are carried in slings all the time most parents going to this sort of event will think of sensible options, of which the sling is the main one.

I have no objection to the concept of paying for a ticket, but not full adult price. If theatres etc can manage it why can't the Olympics?

Katie Hopkins = aggressive anti-feminist bully. If her viewpoint isn't offensive enough, her manner certainly is. She looked as though she wanted to jump on MN Katie on the Breakfast show & sink her teeth into her neck - she barely gave her space to sit on the couch. Congrats to MN Katie for keeping her cool & putting forward a more compelling argument.

I imagine it must be annoying for parents who bought the tickets before they conceived the babies ... but it is equally annoying for other adults (many who will be parents too) to have to sit next to a baby. Sure some will be quiet and no hassle, but you don't know that. There will be some events where the competitors will be trying to concentrate and a crying baby will be a real distraction ... gymnastics, diving, show jumping for example.

I don't think the Olympics is the right place for a baby. I think as a parent you should be considerate to people around you and your surroundings ...

bonkers a newborn maybe but once a baby gets to a couple of months old and starts being aware then they are much more difficult to keep quiet.

I only have the experience of my own children but I have taken them to church each week from birth so I know what it is to try to keep them occupied while others are focussing. From about 2-3 months until about 2 1/2 years I would need to take them out at least once in an hour long service in order to prevent them causing disruption (not because I was ever asked to but because it was the right thing for both the other adults and for my child).

What was the policy at previous Olympics? Surely this can't be the first time this has cropped up. As for some of the arguments against:
1-babies aren't the only ones with luggage. My DP takes a rucksack everywhere he goes and a cooler bag for drinks and food, cameras, etc...
2-noise - really? adults aren't loud, don't make any noise??? This is a sporting event for crying out loud (excuse the pun). I find the boring know-it-alls who talk non-stop more annoying than babies. Realistically, how many people will be bringing their babies, it wouldn't be very many.

Odd True.

oddboots and maiakins, surely the issue of whether babies should be allowed at the event is kind of irrelevant? Fact is, if the tickets were on sale now, rather than 15 months ago, i would be buying my child a ticket. It's up to me as to whether i use it when the time comes.

I just heard the end of the discussion this morning at 08:45 on 5 live. I Am very interested in this issue, as I was thrilled to get olypics tickets. I was also thrilled to later become pregnet. A shaddow fell over this when I discovered all people no matter what age requied an olympics ticket.

The key point, as some have already mentioned, is that to get an excellent value, pay your age ticket for the new baby, or indeed any priced ticket, I would have had to bid for a ticket for a child that wasn't even conceived.

The comparissons some people are making to other events and concerts are irrelevant. Its the fact that tickets were applied for over a year before the event, when these expected babies were not even concieved. You wouldn't go and buy a cot before you fell pregnant, so why on earth would you buy an extra ticket.

I respect that some people would not want to take a baby to the event. That is an individual choice. I am travelling down from Scotland to attend the olymics, so sorting out child care would not be very easy. I have breast fed my other 2 children with ease and found that 3 months old was a very easy age to just take along. I don't know about my new baby yet, but would like to have the opportunity to reduce my stress and increase my olymic enjoyment by being allowed to bringing a baby along in a sling, and continue with demand breast feeding.

kate Good luck obtaining a ticket for your new baby.

This debate was featured on the news today www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-16707993

I really hope they relent. I am due mid-July and have got much-coveted tickets for the Equestrian Eventing on 31st July (ie. my baby, which was not conceived when we bought tickets, will be around 3wks old and fully breastfeeding). We have family tickets (I have 2 DSs already) and the event is an outdoors one with no seating, in Greenwich Park, so we will not be disturbing the enjoyment of any other ticket-holders by attending with a baby.

I feel INCREDIBLY strongly that babes-in-arms, especially those who were not even conceived at the time of the ticket application (which is pretty easy to prove :) ), and especially those who are requiring breastfeeding, MUST be allowed to accompany their families.

It is not even a matter of ticket price for us - this event is a pay your age so I guess that would mean £1 for the newborn as that's the minimum price (who technically is aged 0 = £0...go figure). It is a matter of the event (as with everything else other that the footy as far as I can make out) being massively popular and we would have a cat in hell's chance of getting a ticket for our little 3 week old.

We would take a double buggy to the event anyway so having the baby will take up no more space than we would be doing anyway as a family.

IF ANY "POWER THAT BE" MIGHT READ THIS, PLEASE CHANGE YOUR POLICY AND IF ANY JOURNALIST IS READING AND WANTS A CASE STUDY, CONTACT ME!!

I am so glad that something may finally be done about this.
My sister and I both fell pregnant after getting tickets for the Olympics, where we will hopefully be watching our brother compete as part of the GB water polo squad (injuries permitting etc).
Of course we want to watch our brother compete in a once in a lifetime event and the childcare isn't really an option given how young they will be, so unless this is revised it looks like our husbands may have to miss out and take it in turns to wait at the hotel!
I have had similar responses from Olympic ticketing in that we will have to bid again to buy additional tickets for the babies - they will be on our knees and don't even need an extra seat!!!!!
So frustrating.

For me this is about breast feeding.
Breast feeding on demand is known to be that healthiest thing for babies under 6 months. That is why we want to take have the option to take these babies in to olympic events. If they were wheaned or bottle fed, it could well be that the best option is not to have them with us. Until we have these babies we do not know for definate how they will feed.
The times we will have to allow for travelling and airport style security checks, will be far to long for leaving a young purely breast fed baby.

Surely it's not such a good idea to take a young baby (the babe in arms who apparently rarely cries) to a packed sporting stadium or arena, with people squeezing through turnstiles and pushing through narrow spaces. Personally, I'd find the whole experience stressful for me and the child.