Out to make their $5

After reading Mel's post about her fun trip to the blow up play land (like ready set play for my wardie friends here), I was reminded of my last trip there and vowing not to go back until Alex could FULLY enjoy their equipment, which probably wouldn't be until he's AT LEAST 2. We will then have a small window of one years time to use the $5 fee before he turns three and is bumped up to $8.50. At least if I have a baby who can't crawl or walk in that time period, I'll only have to pay for one kid. However, if that baby decides to army crawl at 6 months... five bucks.

So here I was a new mom who needed social interaction. Being able to get out once in a while was SO NICE! All of the moms in the summer fun group had older kids that needed fun things to do, so sitting around at someone's house (or chick-fil-et) for 2 or 3 hours wasn't an option. ;) So I went thinking that no business in their right mind would charge admission for a baby who was not going to go anywhere near anything except their couches. And if they did it certainly would be less than what they charged older kids. NOPE. I was wrong. I got to pay $5 to talk to my friends, hold Alex, nurse Alex on their comfortable seating, entertain Alex with the toys in his diaper bag, and, as a bonus- enjoy their free coffee (which I didn't since I don't drink it), air conditioning, and a lot of noise. I could take a Coke to the library for story time with friends or go to Chick-fil-et (and eat NOTHING... just sit there with friends) and have just as great of a time for a whole lot less than $5.

My favorite thing had to be the reason that was given to me at the place.
When I got there and they told me it was $5, I choked out an "excuse me?" and asked them why they were charging for a baby to sit on my lap. I talked to the main lady there who told me that if they didn't charge admission, there would be nothing to stop moms with babies from coming in just to hang out because they had soft couches and free coffee. Talk about a great laugh! Why would I want to get a group of ladies with babies to all meet up at the local blow up toy place so we could all hang out. Wouldn't inviting women with babies to my home make a whole lot more sense?

Anyway...
Am I wrong for thinking that it's strange to charge for a baby to sit in his mom's lap while she tags along with a playgroup full of older children? Is there something wrong with ME for thinking I shouldn't be charged? Do I just expect too much?

Funny thought... I'm thinking that they decided to include a toddler area (haha... a foam playmat, blocks, and a little mesh blockade/fence around it) just so that they would have an excuse to charge for kids once they started crawling.
Here's a pic of the toddler area:



So of course, I have now started wondering just what places charge for kids under 2.

Austin Children's Museum
Admissions
Adults: $5.50
Children 2 yrs. old & older: $5.50
12-23 months: $3.50 | under 12 months FREE

WOW! I can take my crawling baby to the CHILDREN'S MUSEUM for FREE. And they probably have a foam mat, blocks, and MORE. Although, probably not free coffee. Bummer.

Zoo... Sea World... Disneyland... Aquarium...water parks. All under 2 are free (and all a lot more entertaining for kids under 2 than a foam lined floor and foam blocks).

Clark Planetarium in SLC has exhibits and don't charge an entrance fee for anyone, just for shows (from what I could see).

Granted, at all (minus Clark) of these places you do have to pay an adult admission, which I guess is a trade off for charging babies (?).

I also have to add that everywhere we go out to eat (besides fast food), Alex doesn't even get a kids meal and instead will eat some of mine and some of Jon's food. He's also free at Cici's (pizza buffet) and I swear, last time we were there, he ate/wasted probably as much pizza as I ate (and twice as much of their alfredo sauce). Gattiland (more pizza buffet/arcade) even has a day where if you pay for a kid's meal mom's get to eat free.

I guess my whole point of this post is that I just don't understand how they can charge $5 for a baby! To me, there just seems to be something really wrong with that, especially if you're letting other babies in free with an older sibling. There are probably just as many older kids in there without a younger sibling that it would probably all work out. Haha... I should have waited outside the door for someone with a single child to come in and offered to pay them a buck off of their admission so that my baby could be their temporary younger sibling and get in free. Or signaled out one of my friends with older kids and said that I was bringing their younger sibling later and that he was needing to get in free with them. Or they could just not charge for infants.

At the very least, I feel that lowering the price for kids under 2, and especially only charging a dollar or two for kids under 1 if they feel like they have to charge for them, is very reasonable. I love the pricing scale that Austin Children's Museum has. Totally based on how much a child will actually be participating in, which makes total sense to me.


I guess everyone has to make their five bucks somewhere though, right?

*ps* I'm not bitter enough that people should know me as the cheap-o that doesn't like to pay for her baby to do things, so don't invite her to anything! I just have a problem with having to pay $5 for services (besides air conditioning, comfortable couches, and free coffee) that my child won't even be using.