What age would you find it appropriate to show a child an Egyptian Mummy in a museum

[wishuponastar25]

Bit of a strange question but just as the title says really!

Any age I think. I grew up near museum which has a fair few, so I used to see them regularly.

I was much more creeped out by some of the taxidermy on display there ... I remember being quite scared of the group of foxes, which I would avoid. They gave me the heeby jeebies!

Any age. And not all mummies are human.....

@tcjotm

I don’t think kids would be particularly interested before aged 4.

I am opposed to human remains in museums. They are people who were buried in accordance with their culture. If we did someone up during excavation etc then they should be reburied respectfully. But this perspective didn’t really hit me until my mid-20’s so it’s not like I didn’t see them as a child and I certainly wasn’t traumatised at the time. Children are ghoulish little buggers and adore things like this.

@NeverDropYourMooncup that’s hilarious. Your DD2 sounds like a very clever little monkey 😂

She really was - whenever I took her somewhere, it was always with a mixture of trepidation and wonder at whatever the hell she was going to say next.

I did have to make it very, very clear once whilst sitting in the Vet's waiting room that under no circumstance was the vet going to countenance the removal of internal organs and return The Cat suitably desiccated so that we could have her wrapped and sitting on the mantlepiece adorned with jewels and assorted beads in perpetuity. Especially as we were only there for a flea treatment.

Her older, far more sensitive sister decided at that point she was nothing to do with us whatsoever and asked the little old lady and gent sat opposite us with a Yorkshire Terrier 'Do you think you could adopt me, please?'.

I suspect that DD2 is the type of person who will have her remains shot into the Sun.

Wasn’t powdered ‘mummy’ used as an ingredient as a cure-all in the medieval wellness industry?

Any age tbh, how will they cope if a mummy scares them

Our local museum has one, not sure if it's real or a fake one. Ds first saw it when he was 2. Around 4 he was interested and asked questions.
Dd was learning about Egypt during lockdown ds5 ended up watching the horrible histories mummification episode with her. He went on about brains being sucked out of noses for weeks. But thankfully didn't seem traumatized by it.

@Rivermonsters

Any age tbh, how will they cope if a mummy scares them

How will they cope with what? DS has avoided the mummy section in museums, but it doesn't affect his day to day life at all. He's been fine with learning about it at school. It's not something that comes up a lot.

@LawnFever, both! What happened 100 years ago (or even less than that) is still history!

@AuntMasha

Wasn’t powdered ‘mummy’ used as an ingredient as a cure-all in the medieval wellness industry?

It was, but it's unlikely it was actual ground up human flesh (despite what people at the time thought). It's a mistranslation of an Arabic term, which people cottoned onto because they enjoyed the macabre-ness of the idea.

Later, though, people did grind up actual mummies, and you could buy mummy powder for sale as late as 1917.

@SarahAndQuack — Thank you. Yes, I’ve seen those antique apothecary jars labelled ‘Pulv Mumia’. The history of medicine is littered with bizarre cures including the supposed healing properties of a hanged criminal’s dried and preserved hand.

I can't believe I missed a Bodies exhibit! 🤦🏻‍♀️

I'm someone who is crazy curious about bodies, I wanted to be a pathologist or mortician when I was a child but ADHD brain struck and I dropped out of school. There is a 'Dinner and Dissection' event running (it's meant for medical students I believe) but no one will go with me.

Being taken to see the Mummies used to be my birthday treat of choice from 6 to 9! On my seventh my mother and I had the added adventure of some old geezer flashing us and wanking in the Mummy Room. I was quite fascinated. Then my mother said in a very loud echoey voice "Put that thing away, I have seen much better!" Reader, he put it away! I also wanted to be a forensic pathologist. Until my mother kaiboshed that idea by shuddering and saying it would involve "cutting up babies". Thanks, Mum!

The point being it is the living not the dead who are real threats to children.

@Geppili I agree with your point and also your mum sounds amazing!

I think it depends on the individual child - most will be fine at any age but some won’t. I took my daughter to a museum where there was a mummy when she was 6 or 7, and we went to look at the Egypt bit as they were learning about the Egyptians at school at the time. At the mummy exhibit, you could only see the case and cloth, I read out the label of who it was etc, she dissolved into inconsolable tears and kept saying ‘there’s a real person in there, dead?’ She was really upset by the thought she was looking at a dead body. My son at the same age I don’t think would have been bothered in the same way.

Any age really.

Any age. I was fascinated by the Ulster Museums mummy from the age of 4 or 5. Nothing scary at all.

3 or 4?? Think ours were quite young when we went.

I think we took DD to the British Musem when she was 5, she felt a bit overwhelmed but it may also because the exhibt is crowded and there is a lot to see. No nightmares or squeamish though, just not really a fan.

When she was 6 we saw bog bodies in Germany, she was utterly facinated.

They did the Egyptians in Y5 and went to the British Museum. According to her some friends never went before and were a bit horrified but then they already covered how a mummy is prepared, something we didn't explain when she was 5, and the knowledge how a body ends up being a mummy kicked in.

At any age, it's not something that needs to be censored.

Geppelli Your Mum sounds Ace!

We had a similar problem and we ended up using a different name. I had a name in mind that I loved but it sounded ridiculous. Like Roman Ryman or Wesley Wisely

Sorry cross posted! Aargh

DD loved her Playmobile Pyramid mummies since she was tiny. They are ace BTW, a skeleton in a mummified coffin thing.
But then she's always been the more gruesome the better!