Does anyone without kids ever wish they could attend “family oriented” things such as zoos, museums etc on days where kids are not allowed?

I know it sounds selfish, and I don’t dislike people having kids or parents in general, but often on the weekend if I ever want to do these activities, I often feel like im fighting for space with children or families to view exhibits. I wish there were days, maybe once a month, where you could attend and no children under 14 were allowed or something. Maybe if its an income thing where the zoo/etc is free, there is an admission price that day.

Thoughts?

#AskKbin

  • Nepenthe@kbin.social
    1·
    1 year ago

    I think there would probably be too big of an outcry for many places to do that, especially if it they’re not especially massive and the loss threatens to cut into their profits in a real way. Most people who go to the science center here are families, and I’m fine with that. I’m NOT fine that utterly zero of them know how to keep their voices down or their hands to themselves for three minutes, and in tailoring themselves more towards families with small children, they’ve only worsened the issue, not mitigated it.

    They added a gigantic pirate ship play place…that is integrated into the aquarium. It is not a separate area, there are portholes along the sides of the room that display fish and such. If I want to see the 2/3rds of it that is outside the immediate penguin/stingray area, I must also be ok with toddlers shoving into me, shrieking across the room, and just generally running EVERYWHERE without supervision.

    Problem: beyond my own control, my nervous system is so sensitive to that level of chaos that I literally just had to leave entirely and go sit outside in the rain by myself for the half hour it took my idiot body to calm down. I just…can’t go to the aquarium anymore, I guess. Dinosaur room? Also hard to be in after 10-15 minutes. Among other well-intentioned mistakes that encourage similar behavior, the t-rex has been updated to roar now every time someone walks past it into the adjoining hallway. It’s disruptive and you can imagine how much people --kids especially – enjoy setting it off over and over. At the very least, they realized the singing bird puppet on a video loop wasn’t testing well with visitors and finally removed it.

    We already have a children’s museum here, btw. There was no need to do this in the first place.