Kids in Museums: Flexible family ticket watch

DOES your family fit the shape of a standard family ticket?

Or perhaps it's Mum plus her four kids, Dad plus his only child, and the young cousin who lives with them.

Maybe it's grandparents and their grandchildren, for whom they care or big sister and very little sister, whom she looks after. Mum, Dad, Auntie and her daughter.

Yet what’s the shape of a typical family ticket to a museum or gallery? Two plus two.

Kids in Museums has launched the Flexible Family Ticket campaign at the British Museum, supported by Ed Balls, Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families.

We’re kicking off the campaign with the Family Ticket Watch, run by Kids in Museums.

For the Watch, we want you to tell us:

• What has been your experience of a family ticket?

• Did it fit your family?

• What would you like a family ticket to look like?

Let us know by: Email – yourview@familyticketwatch.org.uk

Twitter – www.twitter.com/familyticket

Website – www.familyticketwatch.org.uk

Post – Family Ticket Watch Kids in Museums Downstream Building One London Bridge London SE1 9BG

Mariella Frostrup, Patron of Kids in Museums, said: “Visits to museums and galleries should be at the heart of family life, there are few better places to spend quality time with your kids and also give them an enriching and memorable experience. Most museums offer a family ticket but it’s increasingly rare for families to fit the two plus two standard that remains the norm. Why shouldn’t you bring along your Mum, Dad and Stepmother too, or perhaps Granny fancies a day out?”

Kids in Museums will publish the results of all your comments in March, recommending a Flexible Family Ticket format that can be adopted by all museums and galleries, to reflect the changing face of families in Britain today.

Kids in Museums produces the Kids in Museums Manifesto, a 20-point document compiled entirely from visitors’ comments. And a top issue for family visitors – point number two on the Manifesto – is that their family can’t get a family ticket. Because their family isn’t two plus two.

To get your free copy of the 2010 Kids in Museums Manifesto, email manifesto@kidsinmuseums.org.uk

http://daddacool.co.uk Alex

Am I missing something? Nearly all of the National Museums and galleries are free to enter anyway?
http://www.gotyourhandsfull.com Linda

Hi Alex – there are plenty where entrance isn’t free around the country – bigger and smaller ones?
Here’s what the campaign website adds:
Even museums with free entry often charge for special exhibitions or events. The result is that today’s families, of all shapes and sizes, often feel unwelcome in Britain’s museums and galleries.
I know that families with triplets or one child then twins can feel the pinch so I hope this can help!
Karen Kirk

I know we have found it difficult and very expensive when our eldest two girls were younger – we have 5 children. Two of whom are now 20 and 16 but when they were younger, a trip out to a museum was not something we would have considered unless it was free entry.
Our kids go out quite often with their granddad so that’s a one adult scenario and 3 children.
Now if we go out with all our children that would be classed as 4 adults and 3 children!
All very complicated.