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?

Maiakins on that basis I'd never take a baby on the tube either

I never liked to take my babies on the tube in the peak of the rush hour when everyone was squeezing into the carriage. Do you? I'm sure it is sometimes unavoidable, but I would do anything to avoid those times as it wasn't nice for me, my babies or the other passengers. Sometimes we have to make sacrifices.

I can see why they aren't for encouraging crying babies into sports events where concentration is needed... Perhaps this policy is to put off people from bringing the babies unless absolutely necessary?

Maiakins, if I have to be somewhere and it doesn't matter what time, then I'd avoid the rush hour....I'd do that without a baby too. If I need to travel in busy times I travel in busy times. I've never been on a tube so busy it was a danger to a baby in a sling.

I can't think of anything worse than settling down to watch the Olympics (a once in a lifetime oppertunity, and one so many people have put a lot of effort into getting tickets for) and having to sit next to a screaming baby.

You are seriously telling me that you don't know a single person who can babysit for one day? You are seriously complaining that you want free tickets as well for your baby?

Stop being so selfish!

civil rights group Liberty (Emma Norton, legal officer) ?Perhaps it?s time the 2012 organisers decided whether they want London to host the Freedom Games or stand accused of putting greed above decency.
?Turning away babes in arms is a first class ticket to alienated parents and embarrassing litigation.
?Liberty will be the first to throw some toys out of the pram and any mother affected should contact us for help.?
The Equality and Human Rights Commission ?A business must not do something which has a worse impact on you and on other people who share a particular protected characteristic, such as gender, than it has on people who do not share that characteristic.
?Unless the business can show that what they have done is objectively justified, this will be what is called indirect discrimination.
?It could be argued that women are more likely to have child caring responsibilities and thus this policy might have more of an impact for women, but as stated above the business might be able to justify this potential discrimination.?

RobSmith, what an utterly ridiculous generalisation. "Screaming baby"? How do you know that the OP's baby will be screaming throughout the event?

Firstly, not all babies scream all the time. Many of them don't. Secondly, babies in slings (and, even more so, very young babies like the 3-month old) very rarely cry, let alone scream, because they are so blissed out having much-desired cuddles with their beloved parent. Most likely the child will sleep for several hours at a stretch, as mine did at that age, and will miss the whole event. If he/ she wakes then the OP can breastfeed them and get them straight back to sleep again. As people used to say to me when mine were newborns, most spectators won't even know there's a baby there.

£95 for a baby is blimmin' ridiculous. Nobody should have to pay any entry charge for a baby. I get angry with airlines who charge for babes-in-arms for the same reason - if all they're using is a small amount of the air on the flight, why should parents have to pay for that? There is so much about the London Olympics that is a total joke (the website problems and the spectacularly atrocious mascot designs for starters). They are not instilling confidence in their ability to do a good job of running the show are they?

LatetotheAprilparty says it "is not that complicated" to make a change of policy but she doesn't really answer my question of what age she thinks the cut off point should be. She mentions free entry to babies of less than a year, others mention less than 6 months.

As the terms and conditions state that everybody should have a ticket for a seat at what age do you think the organisers should now set a guideline for babies that won't require a seat?

Babies don't scream all the time true, but all babies scream sometimes and I would be absolutely furious if my visit to the olympics was spoiled by a parent selfish enough to bring a baby along. You cannot tell me that any baby will make absolutely no noise for 2+ hours at a public event!

Can anyone seriously tell me that they won't be able to organise a babysitter (given they have 6 months notice)!

I still say that anyone even considering taking a baby along is selfish. What is the point of bringing a baby along anyway? What will the baby remember?

the rest of the public won't be sitting in silence at a lot of events either. The other spectators are likely to make more noise than a baby. Granted, it wouldn't be appropriate on the centre court of Wimbledon or similar events, but I don't see how a baby noise can be more disruptive to an event than the noise of lots of adults.

It's not just about organising a babysitter. As has been said above, if the baby is under a certain age, it would not be possible to leave them all day with someone else.

The point of bringing the baby along is that the Olympics in London is a once in a lifetime event and although the baby won't remember it, its parents will. It is unfair to exclude the mother from the event because she needs to have the baby with her so she can feed it.

I can still remember having to beat a hasty retreat from a crowded restaurant with a wailing two-and-a-half month old (my first). Babies do cry at inopportune moments. I learned quite quickly that you can't always take baby with you, as much as you'd like; it's just not fair to other patrons who've paid a heck of a lot of money for tickets, a nice restaurant meal or what-have-you. It's just COMMON SENSE.

Yes, popbiscuit ... and consideration.

I wish Liberty would not refer to all parents and all mothers as if they had an equal perspective and were some kind of homogeneous group. As this thread shows, there are many parents and mothers who agree with the 2012 organisers. It is not new parents' right to get free tickets or even to get spaces freed up for them (even at a large cost) .... there are many of us who would have liked and still would like Olympic tickets for us and our family, but didn't get them.

Katie Hopkins is a bad role model as a mother of three. I feel sorry for her children. Her attitude towards breast-feeding women being able to enjoy the olympics is stuck in the dark ages, and something I would have expected from Thatcher.
Her comments about mumsnetters breastfeeding until children are eight years old- was just her trying to be controversial.
Personally I wouldn't want to take my baby to the Olympics. Imagine a baby being stuck in a 40 degrees tube train in a tunnel for half an hour or hours of traffic- it's horrible enough experience if you're an adult.
However those that do should be allowed to for £1, covers insurance etc.

I agree the Olympics are no place for a small baby, the travelling, the pushing, the noise etc. Are people trying to make a point here. And I wouldnt want to sit next to someone with a baby, with all the stuff they bring, sat next to a woman last year on a long haul flight with a young child and she had so much with her I couldnt get a wink of sleep. Baby wasnt too happy either. Realistically I dont see anyone rushing to site next to a young baby on flights - would you if you had a choice.....

Rocky12

No, mt choice would be not to sit next to a child of any age on a long haul flight. I was lucky on one to South Africa last year when a little boy (5? 6?) sat bnetween his parents and I had the mother next to me. He was a delight and I was so surprised. I do this trip fairly often and have, in the past, had crying babies next to me or toddlers running up and down the aisles, getting in the way of everyone. Apart from those examples, I've had a 13 year old sitting behind me overnight with its feet pummelling on the back of my seat. The parent said nothing so I turned round myself ands barked, desperate for some sleep.

*my choice

Freedom Games? What where you needed a Visa card to even apply for tickets in the first place......

Rob, you are very funny!

"You cannot tell me that any baby will make absolutely no noise for 2+ hours at a public event!" Er, yes I can. I already did in my first post to you, and provided factual evidence to support what I said.

"What is the point of bringing a baby along anyway?" That's like saying what's the point of taking your baby anywhere with you. What a bizarre question!

This is not meant to sound sarcastic at all: do you have children? It's just that with your assumptions about babies all screaming, and your line of questioning about why parents would want to take babies to an event, you sound like the people I know who have limited experience of babies. Those people tend to have that sadly all-too-common attitude that 'children should be seen and not heard...or better yet, not seen at all'. It's usually not until they start having children themselves that they understand this stuff better. Anyway your posts remind me of those people.

Can we please stop pushing the argument that the most important reason babies should be permitted into Olympic events is the possibility that they require constant breast feeding?

Let's not pretend that formula fed babies are independent creatures who don't need their mothers - or that FFing mothers would necessarily be more comfortable leaving their babies with a carer whilst they attend the Olympics.

BF mothers are not 1st class citizens and FF mothers 3rd class. They are equal and their rights should be.

The Olympics should be family friendly and under 2's allowed without a ticket.