To think that this mom was Museuming all Wrong?

[ChaosTrulyReigns]

Was at a Science Museum this afternoon bored as feck, been there done that and was on the gift shop gritting my teeth and managing expectations when I observed a little tableau of another family's life and was pleasantly surprised to be able to knot my Judgy control pants .

A little girl pestered Mom for a completely inappropriate toy, Darling Ranunculus was probably 35 months. Mom immediately agreed and went to buy the meccano jeep.

Mom and happy child then proceeded to buy tickets for the museum.

AIBU to think all the seasoned parents know to visit the gift shop after the museum purely for purposes of behaviour management and persuasion?

Should I have given her the beenifts of my copious parenting experience? Aka been a meddling middle aged Harridan?

100% gift shop is for bribery

I think you deffo should have given her your parenty beenifts

A rank beginner obviously!

But she also went wrong another way - she bought the expensive add on tickets for the imax etc. Instead take your kids to the excellent (and free) clockmakers exhibit! They might actually learn something. (It was really interesting!)

Rookie mistake sounds like. She’ll learn.

Once strict budget limits have been dictated to the child, access to the gift shop full of extortionately over-priced tat comes only after semi-civilized behaviour on the part of said child during the time spent exploring the museum. Not to mention who wants to be carrying a load of extortionately overpriced tat in bags around with them or arguing that child will have to wait until home has been reached before opening the packaging and losing half the contents? It’s enshrined in the unwritten parenting constitution or, if it’s not, it should be.

You can draw blood with a Meccano jeep, and you're going to need to in the dinosaur queue.

She wasnt the kids Mum!!
No mum would buy a meccano jeep on a whim! They would surely say "Ranunculus darling the jeep isnt for sale, here have this lovely pencil instead".
This woman was either a family friend staying for the weekend or Dads new girlfriend.

@sirmione16 preach it, sister

@anniehm sadly it wasn't THE Science Mushroom, something rather more small town

She has a lot to learn.

The gift shop is always closed. Everywhere.

@WarpedGalaxy she'll learn, she'll learn.

My four learned very early that mom was consistently mean and orrible - they were only ever allowed a logoed pencil each, if I was feeling momentously benevolent they might even get one with a rubber on the end

Science Mushroom

35 months!

Pmsl at Ranunculus
Actually dying due to being a gardening fan - I know it’s a fake name but this genus of plants contains some pretty poisonous specimens and the idea of some deluded mum thinking oh what a lovely name!! 😂

Yanbu. Also I love the gift shop so it would be a treat at the end for me too.

Ranunculus however and his sister Belladonna don’t need bribing as they are perfectly behaved. We don’t believe in bribes and mama never raises her voice

35 months is avert precise estimate of the child’s age.

Sorry but the next level of smugness is not even needing gift shop bribery, so YABU

I hate “35 months” pmsl. What is this pretentious trend of saying “X months” when they are over one? I saw it everywhere when I used to be on FB, in the kind of groups where people brag that their child has never heard of Elsa

@Serin

Totally thought this!! What parent commits themselves to lugging around extra unnecessary crap for aaaaany longer than they have to? No way. Day 1 of packing that baby bag and the utter disbelief that it weighs more than your child will kill any inclination towards "gift shop first" frivolities!

There was not a film by Banksy called "Exit via the Gift Shop' without good reason.

Probably the said mum thought Jurassic Park was based on reality!

I’m with her on this one. We discovered a few years ago that if we give in immediately (to something we are actually happy to buy, we’re not idiots), we get much less moaning and whining throughout the day.
So ice cream as soon as we arrive. Also ‘own’ money to spend in a gift shop makes for much better purchases.

Absolutely gift shop at the end, and if my child said the words 'gift shop' more than two or three times there was a good chance we wouldn't go there at all. Except at Dublin Zoo because my Mum has a lifetime family membership so we all go free and I feel a bit guilty so always allow them to buy something there, often a soft toy.

Siameasy When I had my DCs back in the mists of time small children's ages were always given in months up until they were about 36 months plus.

My mother also always gave children's ages in months and she was born at the beginning of the 1900s.

I don't think it's pretentious so much as old fashioned.

She's an amateur.

Rule 17 of parenting: Gift shops are never to be entered without strict budget limits in place. —hides Tolkien cushion from the Bodleian exhibition, surely soft furnishings don’t count anyway?—

Yep, another backing for gift shop first, here. If we don’t then they just (literally) run through the museum/castle/exhibition etc, nodding occasionally and humouring me with an ‘uh-huh’ but really they can’t take anything in at all until after they’ve done the gift shop.
I wouldn’t be buying the ‘display’ ;) mecano set either. Def redirect towards the magnifying glass multi tool or the ‘I heart castles’ multicoloured erasers.