To think the price of days out for kids is excessive?

[Niniope]

Looking at planning days out with DH and just turned 2 year old DD and a bit shocked by the prices!
We earn decent wages but both work part time and have quite a few outgoings.

For context we live in greater Manchester and have been to pretty much every museum in the area, as well as regularly going swimming, soft play, parks, and farms - a lot of days out are free or under £15 for us all.

I was trying to plan going to an aquarium and as DD is over 90cm it would be £72 for us all! Looked at sea life and that equally would be £52 as they've changed from under 3 go free to under 2 go free!

Cbeebies land would be £105, which although not feasible for us to spend I can rationalise more as a big day out, but an aquarium we will spend a couple of hours at before she naps!?

I was also looking at visiting a WWT site but that would be over £30, which is also a bit excessive when we can walk around numerous bodies of water and nice countryside for free.

I know these places have got to run and meet overheads but the prices mean they are just inaccessible to us. We just can't justify it to then not be able to do anything else for the rest of the month.

Am I being a skinflint?

You regaled OP with what you did whilst remonstrating with her for daring to want to go out. So evidently you think you are. But it doesn't appear it did you any good, since you felt moved to bring school into a discussion about a two year old.

I agree with you, our local zoo is struggling and half empty but they charge £70 to go. Loads of interesting museums and places to go but don't want to pay £50 to pop in for a few hours.

Coming off the back of a few years of high inflation, it's hardly surprising that many things seem expensive. This is literally how inflation works. Sadly wages have not necessarily increased with prices so it will indeed be harder to afford as much as you once did a few years ago.

The gripe I have is in people believing that the attractions are charging an 'excessive' price. These places usually don't make huge profits and have to charge enough to cover their costs and hopefully make a bit of money. I think some people think it's an attraction' responsibility to ensure that they are affordable when these places are often a luxury for most and out of reach for many. That's just how our capitalist society functions and I can guarantee that if you were the one that owned the attraction you wouldn't be happy to absorb huge losses so that families can enjoy an affordable day out.

We have a 4 year old and 2 year old and we do lots of walks to parks, around lakes to feed ducks & swans, to the beach (even in cold weather) to go rock pooling. We also have annual membership to our local zoo which has an excellent soft play for the kids to play in as well as all the animals to visit.
The kids also love just playing in the garden with the mud kitchen and the sand and water trays, having a picnic in the garden is the 4 year old's favourite thing to do!

Agree with you OP. It's partly that many toddlers, my 21mo included, still nap in the day so 2 hours of our day there he is sleeping, plus 1.5 hours eating lunch and snacks. That doesn't leave much time to make the most of expensive tickets. It's not the price of the just the child tickets, it's the adult prices and it all adds up.
I get the needing entertainment for toddlers and myself too.
NT is great and we have membership but they don't all have playgrounds, fortunately they are cottoning on and more and more places do have them. But in the cold wet weather my DS doesn't enjoy more than 30 mins outside and sometimes I just can't face the getting suited up, wellies, wet gloves etc, tears falling in the mud, especially with newborn in tow.

Just in case it helps anyone else out, the Southend Sealife Centre does a Day Pass for £14 or an Annual Pass for £18.