Please or to access all these features

Add post

Watch this thread

Save thread

Start a new thread

Flip thread

Hide thread

My feed

Active Unanswered threads

Getting started FAQ's

Unanswered threads Acronyms Talk guidelines

Hide shortcut buttons

Talk

AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Flip

1 2 ··· 10 11 12 13 14 15

Original poster

To be happy the science museum and natural history museum might have an entrance fee soon

369 replies

Ironfistfunkymum · 30/08/2015 07:06

It makes the place unbearably busy, often have to queue to get in and most people don't appreciate it. They are just going as its something "free".

OP posts:

TheoriginalLEM · 30/08/2015 22:10

is the op Katie Hopkins?

to be honest i think the judgements on here are pretty spot on actually. Of course no one knows your income. Im certainly not in the least bit interested. But fuck me, your attitude sucks.

FrancesOldhamKelseyRIP · 30/08/2015 22:11

Start early Why, get there at opening time. Prebook your dinosaur slot and go right at the end of the week if poss once everybody's back at school. Friday should be reasonably quiet.

I think that if you can't go at the end of the week or get there early and when you get there the queues are horrible then you might be able to fasttrack your way through the queue by flashing a ticket to the butterfly exhibition. If your DC are under 4 then they get in free to the butterflies so it might be an expense worth paying (and the butterflies are lovely).

AsTimeGoesBy · 30/08/2015 22:16

I'm starting to think we should go too, DS always strongly resists going anywhere with the word museum in it but I'm sure we would find something he likes. However I remember going as a child and not being at all inspired by them (didn't stop me becoming a scientist though).

maybebabybee · 30/08/2015 22:16

whyisit best advice I can offer you is please don't travel at peak times if you can avoid it (ie, leave around or by 4pm and arrive around 10am) as south kensington gets extremely congested. If raining don't use the tunnel - don raincoats/umbrellas and go overground as tunnel gets horribly claustrophobic when it's raining and not nice for young DCs to be in.

If you have three children with you then make sure at the ticket barriers you aim for the big gate rather than spending 10 minutes queuing up only to realise you have to start again as you can't get through the little gate.

RE: museums themselves, yes do try to get there when it starts. If you can I would plan to go on a sunny rather than a rainy day as will be much less busy.

HTH :)

Flashbangandgone · 30/08/2015 22:29

Either a visit to the NHM and it's contents is an essential part of a child's education, in which case all schools should have free school trips there, or is isn't. If it isn't I don't see why they don't charge. Safaris to Africa would be a fantastic educational experience too (I've never been on one by the way) but we don't argue they should be funded by the state....

FrancesOldhamKelseyRIP · 30/08/2015 22:37

Oh and consider going home via Gloucester Road or Knightsbridge instead of South Ken if you are travelling at 5pm-ish - but I realise that might be a big ask if you've got children with little legs. I wish more parents of older children would do this though. And I wish that South Ken tube advertised the alternative routes more clearly.

Whyisitsodifficult · 30/08/2015 22:41

Thank you for the tips so far. What would I gain by pre booking the dinosaur slot? I've looked on their website about their various exhibitions would you recommend the butterfly one? I'll aim to get there for 10am, I'm getting nervous about it now!

FrancesOldhamKelseyRIP · 30/08/2015 22:47

The butterfly exhibition is just a standard butterfly house but it is quite well done if your DC would like that kind of thing. I think that buying tickets to paid exhibitions enables you to jump the queue into the main museum which is important if you are going before the school's go back. Definitely do prebook a dinosaur slot because the queue for that is grim - be aware that it's a bit dark and scary for nervous toddlers though.

FrancesOldhamKelseyRIP · 30/08/2015 22:48

But actually if you get there at 10am on the dot you shouldn't have a problem with the queue into the museum I think.

Whyisitsodifficult · 30/08/2015 22:53

Thank you Frances much appreciated.

TheFormidableMrsC · 30/08/2015 22:55

Haven't read the whole thread but went to the NHM on Thursday just gone. Got there at 10.30 am. Didn't queue. Went straight through to the dinosaurs exhibition (no queue), was just slowed up by everybody (including us) taking photos. Didn't pay for the extra exhibits as they were very pricey. Did attend a talk on butterflies, which I wouldn't normally go to but we were herded in, it was free, turned out to be very interesting and entertaining. Spent the day there. My only complaint was my son wanting a scone and being charged £3.95. I gave it back to them. We'd taken a picnic and thank God for that. It was a fab day out and aside from extortionate train fares from North Herts, was fairly low on cost.

TheFormidableMrsC · 30/08/2015 22:58

Also, for anybody in the Herts/Hemel/Aylesbury area, there is the Natural History Museum in Tring. Absolutely brilliant...and a bit smaller if you have to cater for "little legs". Beautiful grounds, free parking, lovely village for lunch if you don't want to picnic. Loved it there too

Goldenbear · 30/08/2015 23:44

YABU and I think you can categorically say that 'it would' exclude those on low/very low incomes as it is completely unrealistic to choose visiting a museum, if it's a considerable chunk of your food shopping budget for the week.

My DH is an Architect so seemingly a 'good' income, I was a SAHP until recently so admittedly this influenced our ability to justify certain activities but we would question visiting if we had to pay £30 for a family ticket as we couldn't afford it. Currently we would drive up from Brighton and are lucky enough to be able to park our car for free with a walk of about 1.5 miles. We pay for the petrol at about £40 and yes we would probably go out for some food at about £50 but that's all part of the 'treat' element. We sometimes would pop in for the last hour before closing time and I prefer to visit museums in short spurts so I wouldn't pay for half a days visit - I find it suffocating having to go in to the museum for the busy part of the day.

I grew up in London and we visited museums, galleries, my parents had similar jobs to us but this was all obtainable to them. We then went home to a fairly nice detached home and we had amazing holidays abroad and at home every year. We also went to the theatre, cinema regularly. All these things hardly ever happen for us, everything is financially more pressing than it was for our parents. It seems everything is only really obtainable to the incredibly rich now and people are satisfied with that??

JassyRadlett · 30/08/2015 23:52

It's not the adults that annoy me, you see.

I was there last week too (Thursday, as it happens). Busy but not unmanageable with a 3 year old.

The adults were absolutely the worst.

Queeltie · 31/08/2015 00:01

One of the things I love about museums being free, is that you can pop in for half an hour and look at one or two rooms. When you had to pay, I could only afford to go to a museum on a whole special day out.

I think it is far better as well to introduce children to museums in short trips. It keeps their interest up and mean they don't see museums as boring places.

Incredibly selfish to be so middle class that you see charging as simply a way to keep your visit quieter as it keeps out those like myself who earn under the average wage, and so who have to think about the cost of going to a museum carefully.

JassyRadlett · 31/08/2015 00:06

I think it is far better as well to introduce children to museums in short trips. It keeps their interest up and mean they don't see museums as boring places.

This is very true.

On Thursday, DS and I looked at dinosaurs and volcanoes. That's it. We've been many times before and it's usually best in bite-sized chunks.

If I were paying £20 a time for it, we'd stay longer and I think he'd actually get less out of it. And I can afford £20.

longtimelurker101 · 31/08/2015 00:07

YABVVU basically your thread boils down to, I'd like to keep the NHM and its ilk for people like me and I want to be able to stroll around without it being busy and full of oiks.

Well, good thing you don't get to tax knowledge isn't it. These are our national museums, maintained for the good of the nation, they should be free for all.

For those who say "who pays for it then" I can find a fair few ways of finding the few hundered millions that each museum might need a year, its mere pittance in the national budget.

The adults at the NHM that are the worst are the precious middle class pelople who tut at others, the kind of people who say things like "scumbags" about people who take their children to museums.

JassyRadlett · 31/08/2015 00:25

The adults at the NHM that are the worst are the precious middle class pelople who tut at others, the kind of people who say things like "scumbags" about people who take their children to museums.

And decide that it's fine for their little darlings to hold up the queue at the flipping animatronic T-Rex, because their kids are more important than all the others behind them. They must also position their children strategically so that no one can get past easily.

I am 7.5 months pregnant. My tolerance was not at an all time high. But anyway - yes. Museums. A public good, and beneficial for all, and so should be available for all.

CalmYoBadSelf · 31/08/2015 00:42

Museums weren't free when my children were little and yet we managed to go despite not being rich. As others have said, it is often a matter of priorities

It is also worth pointing that that free museums do not benefit all. If you are poor and live outside London you don't get nearly as much

longtimelurker101 · 31/08/2015 00:43

Yes Jassy, their children are more important than anyone elses and much more deserving.

In fact threads like this show the entitlement, its all about I, me, mine, and sod anyone else.

JassyRadlett · 31/08/2015 00:51

n fact threads like this show the entitlement, its all about I, me, mine, and sod anyone else.

Yep. It's sickening.

But of course people don't appreciate things unless they're made to pay for them. Except people like the OP of course. She appreciates good things, it's just the plebs who need the financial incentive to make them realise what they're getting.

OP, should people pay to borrow library books as well? If they don't, how on earth will they appreciate them?

elQuintoConyo · 31/08/2015 00:57

OP you could be me: 17yo car, 3yo smart phone... but that's where the similarities end.

Museums should be free. Stating otherwise is just, well, a bit cunty.

EARTH - ART = EH

Postchildrenpregranny · 31/08/2015 01:08

I have bag with that on elquinto

longtimelurker101 · 31/08/2015 01:09

Oh yes, they're children appreciate all the fine things, the plebs don't count at all.

Mumsnet seems to be fully of Katie Hopkins types these days, its becoming more and more unpleasa

elQuintoConyo · 31/08/2015 01:11

Post I have a friend with the surname Ewart who pointed out that:

EWART - ART = EW

Trés cool

Flip

1 2 ··· 10 11 12 13 14 15

Swipe left for the next trending thread