'Family' Tickets

[Chil1234]

Booking tickets for a visit to a historic attraction for the weekend (Adults £18.00, Children under 15 £13.50) I noticed that a 'family' ticket (£50) is for up to 5 people in the same family. For a single parent to profit from the discount they have to go along with three children to save £9. Whereas an adult couple benefit by £13.00 if they take just two kids along.

As a single mum with a single child none of the above apply - as usual. Sometimes it feels like there are less obvious penalties for being a small or single-parent family.

[cestlavielife]

i dont think they check if you actually related - you can join up with a friend and child -- or find some random other single parent family in the queue?

[oldraver]

I would go with cestlavie's suggestion. Even if they did question , I would cheekily say "your not going to discrininate against a same sex relationship" (if it were female)

It does bug me, every year my council send out 2for1 entrances for October for local attractions.. no good to me as I dont know anyone to hook up with

[Chil1234]

Thanks for the suggestions. I'm afraid I don't like accosting strangers in queues and whilst I have gone along with friends and their children in their past I don't really want to make everything a group activity. Other places don't give 'family' discounts at all and I actually think that's fairer all round.

[Tortoise]

I have a similar problem in that family ticket is normally 2 adults 2 children or i have seen 1 adult 3 children tickets but i have 4 children plus me.
There needs to be other options.

[cestlavielife]

suggest you write to national trust/english heritage with suggestions - or to the attraction itself asking what discount they can give you.

it also discriminates againt one child families?

to be fair - i think they use "family" as a word but it doesnt imply you have to be man plus wife maried present your wedding cert with 2.4 children and dog and volvo like a kellogs advert....... just means group of adults and children...

perhaps they should say "family and friends discount ticket" like the railcard is called "family and friends"?

[emmygreen]

There is definitely a blatant bias in regards to this. There really needs to be a law to change it.
I used to think it was bad in America, but since I have relocated to the UK, I find it's much worse. The negativity associated with being a single parent in this country is overwhelming! And it's sick and wrong.
The fact that you have to pay so much more in addition whether for transport, or entertainment is insult to injury.
A family in this country is not recognised unless it fits the stereotypical nuclear 2.5 children scenario. Did I hibernate the last few decades, or is it still the 50's?
Don't even get me started on all the hostility that so many people here express about 'benefit scroungers' etc. What's happened to the post war country that was so proud to have introduced the welfare state, NHS etc? Why are people so narrow-minded and hateful now rather than banding together to give each other a compassionate helping hand?
I don't understand why something has not been done to address this legally yet.

[mogs0]

My local pub was running an offer for a free child's meal. I took ds in for tea one evening but when I read the T&Cs you had to buy 2 adult meals to be able to get the children's meal free. I jokingly told the barman that the offer discriminated against single parents. He looked a little but didn't offer an alternative.

[mogs0]

I also agree about not always wanting to go to things as a group. I sometimes like going places just ds and I.

Chil1234 - take a look online for offers. I often find bogof entry to places.

[Chil1234]

We find the occasional offer, but they are few and far between. The ticket for the day out just annoyed me for some reason. Holidays were a nightmare in the early days. The idea of 'single parent holidays' doesn't appeal because I like to mix with all kinds of people on holiday, not be corralled together solely with other single parents like some latterday leper colony. And when I tried to book a cheapo last-minute villa on one occasion my booking was simply refused on the grounds that there was only one adult!!! (Holiday solution has been found since, luckily)

Meals, as someone has mentioned already, and other 'kids go free' deals are almost always based on the kid being with 2 adults. I'm sure there are others if I thought hard enough. Frankly, I stop noticing after a while and just cough up the dough. (BTW Not on income support and qualify for almost nothing in tax credits either... so nothing helping this single parent to even up the score!)

I don't resent other families getting the special offer so much as I resent my little family being excluded because there aren't many of us. Don't want special treatment just fair do's for all.

[Rebecca1982]

Chil1234 How did you slove the Holiday problem?

I ams still finding it hard to sort out single parent holidays and often find myself taking Grandma along with us to make life cheaper!!

Don't get me wrong I love my Mother dearly but would like to take DS away just me and him some time!

And on family tickets I've found if you make a fuss at the gate when paying they tend to offer to let child go free! Its always worth a try!

[hana]

but this goes the other way as well - we have 3 kids and often have to pay a supplement because of the extra child - holidays, hotel rooms, attractions etc etc . And we need a bigger car to fit 3 carseats into.
it's not just smaller families that get the raw deal, it's anything out of the 2 parents, 2 kids mould.

[Chil1234]

Solved holiday problem by going for a UK company 'HF Holidays' that specialises in activity/walking holidays. They're all-in and therefore pretty expensive but there aren't any supplements if you're sharing a room with your child/children.

hana.. .I'm afraid I can't sympathise with you too much because, in my original example, your family would benefit enormously from that £50 ticket offer I mentioned. And presumably your three-child status was to some extent voluntary or maybe even planned? i.e. you opted for a larger family knowing it was to going to cost more... need the bigger car etc. I don't think you have too much to complain about.

[hana]

huh? I'm not looking for anyone's sympathy or complaining - it's a factual comment.

And you're right it was our choice to have 3 kids.

it is what it is!

[Rebecca1982]

Chil1234 Thank you for that will have a look at them!