Pushchairs in museums & galleries

[Philippat]

I've just come back from the Museums Association conference - the big yearly shindig for those in my profession.

At one of the sessions a delegate mentioned that she had been stopped from taking her toddler round her local art gallery in a pushchair, despite the fact that it had just been refurbished to allow wheelchair access. I think that's pretty dreadful!

I'm thinking or writing something about this sort of experience for our professional journal to encourage museums and galleries to re-think policies like that.

So, I need your help! Have you ever been stopped from taking a pushchair round a gallery? (or for that matter been stopped from doing something else because of your child that put you off going again?). Historic homes and National Trust houses are a bit different because they have different responsibilities for wheelchair users, but I'd be interested in hearing those stories too.

I don't need to know who you are, obviously, but the age of your child and the name of the museum/gallery would be useful.

Thanks everyone!

I have never had a problem in an Art Gallery or a museum - either large or small. I am yet to find a National Trust place though which allows pushchairs in which can be a real pain, especially if you are on your own with more than one child. Not least because it is far easier to stop an inquisitive toddler touching things if they are strapped in.

We had to leave pushchair at reception when taking ds1 round the Beatrix Potter centre in Windermere a couple of years ago. I didn't think much about it at the time, but now I've got ds2 ...... If it happened anywhere else I think I'd be tempted to just let them run riot and touch everything and serve them right.

never been stopped, but only been to biggish places like Tate Modern with dd. I'd be outraged if it was suggested, their little legs get tired!

The only museum in London that I've been to that I found very child unfriendly was the imperial war museum. Ds wasn't born yet, but we went with my 3 step kids (6,7,11 at the time). There was next to nothing that they could touch or interact with and I found myself hard pressed to explain to my stepson how his touching a steel tank would damage it.
I've been to the Tate numerous times with ds and think it's wonderfully set up for pushchairs and children. The BM has too many stairs and not enough ramps and lifts, but that's because it's an old building. I've never been made to feel unwelcome there with a pushchair.

Don't know if this helps because it is in the US, but I have been stopped almost every time I go into the Yale Art Gallery. I would either lug dd around in my arms or put her in the baby bjorn carrier if I had remembered to bring it. One time, they wouldn't even let me carry my diaper bag! I was with a few other mothers and babies, and they took them all away (the bags, not the babies!) and put them in a closet. So we just kept bugging them whenever we needed a diaper change, etc.!