I am a big fan of children’s museums. If you have never been to one they are basically designed for children (usually 8 and younger) to engage in play activities. I think we have 4 dedicated children’s museums in Ohio. This past weekend we went to one in Pittsburgh though and a great time was had by all…mostly.
This particular museum’s claim to fame is the Mr. Roger’s wing where they have Mr. Roger’s Neighborhood sets for kids to play on… the castle, the trolley, the front porch swing, the clock tower, etc. They also have a elaborate attic for kids to crawl through and find treasures, an art studio, a garage complete with tools and a real car and gas pump, a dance/music studio, a nursery, and a waterplay area.
My kids had a blast. Mom and dad have a few complaints though. The staff was overall very unfriendly and one staffer woman even shoved my 4 year old daughter. Hubby had to handle that situation because mama bear was ready to attack. The beverage/snack bar closed about 1.5 hours before closing time so that was irritating. We went into the art studio over and hour before close and they refused to give my oldest son paints because they were “closing soon”. We ended up having to use paints that other kids left out and they hadn’t gotten around to cleaning up yet. They officially closed the room a full half hour before the close of the museum. Then with 30 minutes till closing we went back to the waterplay room and they were already cleaning up all the waterplay toys, practically snatching them out of kids hands. Basically they were trying their hardest to get parents to pack up and leave 30-60 minutes before closing time. I thought that was really outrageous and I will be writing a scathing letter to them. So much for customer service. IMO if the museum closes at 5PM then that means they don’t touch anything until 5PM. It is like trying to get people to leave a movie ten minutes before the end!
BUT my kids did have a good time and we have some great pictures and memories of them playing.. check out this Flickr set for complete pics. We just won’t be going back to that museum anytime soon. Cleveland will likely get our business next time.
