To lie about his age for free admission?

[WaitForCake]

It's DS's 3rd birthday in a couple of weeks. I'm taking him to an attraction.

It's free for under 3s, but adult price at 3 upwards. Money is tight, but after a tough few months between lockdown and his DF moving out after our split, I want to do something nice for him.
As there is no inherent difference in what he'll get from the experience the day before his birthday and on the day of his birthday, WIBU to just buy him a 2 year old ticket?

I can't take him the day earlier due to work (I did consider this already).

YANBU - get the 2 year old ticket
YABU - pay the adult price for him

Are people seriously googling other offers just so they can prove that they can do better than the OP?

Seriously....I don’t know anyone who hasn’t/wouldn’t lie about their child’s age

I booked train tickets well in advance of a trip we took for a day out a few days after my sons 5th birthday. When I realised I'd not paid for a ticket for him (because under 5s are free, was just a habit not to book) I was so annoyed with myself and I'd left it so late that the tickets were so expensive. So I pretended his birthday hadn't happened and I spent the whole journey in a state because I was convinced I'd have the transport police haul me off to jail. It was not worth lying.

The park don't know he's 3, just do it and pay forward in some way when you can afford to, if you need to assuage the guilt.

Well if Chessington are reading, they should note that going from free to £30 admission in a child's 3rd birthday is really unreasonable (and would stop people going if this thread is to be believed). But then I don't think they expect people to actually do it.

So other 80% of people are happy to lie, most likely happy to do until they can't get away with it any longer.

What a nation of liars that makes. Hope it comes to bite you when you are yourself victims of lies that result in a loss of money.

As to the wrong or right or changing full adult price, if you don't like it, don't go.

@TheStuffedPenguin

This offer

Thanks - I hadn't noticed that! A brilliant offer.

It does make the price structuring even more bizarre though. I was happy to pay £30 for an adult ticket but apparently bringing a small child makes it cheaper.

And does confirm that £30 for a 3 year IS a ridiculous charge.

We have actually got posters looking up merlins accounts and reports. Peak mumsnet. 😂 If you’re that short of things to do, do you want to come and do my ironing

It took five minutes. Do I need to justify how Inspend five minutes to strangers on the internet? Are you now going to attack the posters who looked up the offers for the OP?

I’m not sure the Family Law Reform Act applies to Peppa Pig Land or wherever it is!

Oh my good God this place is nuts. I do not think YABU at all. We have multi million pound companies aka Amazon and Starbucks dodging tax bills in the UK but nobody seems to be getting their knickers in a twist about them.

Then there is the OP taking her soon to 3 year old out for a birthday treat but paying for a two year old ticket to save a few quid and she is being branded as a thief and teaching her child how to be a criminal.

Get a bloody grip MN.

OP go and enjoy your day out with your (technically two year old at point of entry) son

If they don't have any revenue protection measures to ensure they earn the correct amount of revenue, it obviously isn't particularly important to them. If it was, you'd need a birth certificate or they'd charge by height like legoland/paultons. They don't, therefore it's fine.

It's the thin end of the wedge, though, blaming the companies themselves for being defrauded by not 'protecting their revenues'. In principle, at one end of the wedge, it's the huge theme parks, but at the other end of that same wedge, it's that 5yo lad who had the goods on his stall and the contents of the honesty box stolen from him the other day. You could say he was asking for it, because if he really cared, he would have installed CCTV and employed a security guard. Two very different scenarios, but the basic principle is pretty much the same.

I literally don’t know anyone who doesn’t do this. My tiny daughter is going to be under 5 until she’s 9.

It does make the price structuring even more bizarre though

You think that it is bizarre, but we’ve already established that you have no idea how business works. I expect that the commercial directors of theme parks all over Britain have seen the error of their ways now, because of the incisive analysis of a dishonest customer.

Yup, now that we know it's Chessington, turns out the park offers exactly what OP wants!. One adult and one 3 or 4 year old can go for £25. No fibbing needed. Paging @WaitForCake , and props to TheStuffedPenguin who got there before me.

www.chessington.com/tickets-passes/day-tickets/adult-pre-schooler-ticket/

Amazing, well done penguin, they'll make £5 less by OP being honest than if they had done what they were planning.

Oh gosh, so many knicker-hoikers on here 😂
My DS was really small for his age (and is only 5ft 7 as an adult) and we got into loads of things cheap as people assumed he was younger than he was.

Backfired a little as a late teen when he got stopped going into a 15 film (had to get the manager to sort that one out 😂).

No regrets at all. Had enough ‘gosh isn’t he small for his age’ looks and comments over the years to make up for any guilty feelings.

This thread is brilliant to actually explain the price structure and the reason behind so many "offers" everywhere. It works beautifully.

@Soubriquet

Are people seriously googling other offers just so they can prove that they can do better than the OP?

Seriously....I don’t know anyone who hasn’t/wouldn’t lie about their child’s age

It's not to prove I can do better but it does actually show that if people did a bit of research - what did it take me to find this on the Chessington website - 5 seconds ? that there answer is there and all this has been a storm in a teacup .

OP: these "attractions" have their rules in place for a reason. They are offering something you want to do with your child and you want to cheat them. YABU even it is only a day.

For the sake of one day I would do it.

Sorry I haven't read the whole thread, as it's long, so this might have been already asked, but what actual time of day was he born ( to the hour and minute) on his birthday. Perhaps the treats will take place before he is technically three?

Well if OP turns up on the day without a pre-booked offer, she should still have no qualms about saying DS is free, despite the Mary Sue objections.

Go for it!
Would not bother me in the slightest.

Bloody hell, the drama lol
I'd say he was 2 and feel no guilt.
I also eat a grape or 2 in the shops...... I don't wanna buy bitter ones. I'm going to the big house for grand theft.....

We have multi million pound companies aka Amazon and Starbucks dodging tax bills in the UK but nobody seems to be getting their knickers in a twist about them.

You should read the thread about better-off people paying more income tax. Those companies were attracting plenty of opprobrium there. Mainly from people who didn’t think that they themselves should pay more income tax.

You’ve missed the point, though. Amazon and Starbucks aren’t breaking any laws or even rules. The OP is proposing breaking a rule by lying to get £30 of services for her son.

You can’t justify dishonesty by pointing at corporate bodies and saying, “well, they are much worse and until they behave according to a code of conduct decided by ME, I’ll cheat and lie as much as I like”.

@Iamthewombat

It does make the price structuring even more bizarre though

You think that it is bizarre, but we’ve already established that you have no idea how business works. I expect that the commercial directors of theme parks all over Britain have seen the error of their ways now, because of the incisive analysis of a dishonest customer.

Actually I can guess how it works.

Charging £30 for 3+ on peak means families who are taking several older children at a weekend are also stung for smaller children.

During off-peak week times, a parent alone is less likely to take small children to a theme park as an 'activity' because they are expensive and not aimed at small children. The company is also aware that a parent with a small child can't access more of the attractions - so they are offer an 'incentive' price.

Stop being so fucking patronising.