Kids in Museums

 - because two plus two doesn’t add up for today’s family

We’ve published the Flexible Family Ticket Guidelines, helping museums and galleries to introduce a family ticket to fit today’s family – in all its different shapes and sizes. 

We listened to over 500 families and 120 museums and galleries. They told us the standard two adults plus two kids family ticket didn’t work for them. They wanted a Flexible Family Ticket. The Flexible Family Ticket Guidelines help museums and galleries make this happen. You can download a copy here. You can download our Family Ticket Watch report here.

Family Fortunes Workshops

If you work for a museum or visitor attraction and would like to find out how to welcome more families, including how to have a flexible family ticket, find out more and book your place on our upcoming Family Fortunes Workshop.

Date: Monday 11th March 2013, 10.15am – 3.30pm

Location: The Wallace Collection, London

Cost: £75

Flexible Family Tickets

Here are just some of the things families said:

• We don’t want to begin a visit with an argument about who counts as our family. Which of my three children am I supposed to disown? A visitor said: ‘It sends a message that you are not a proper family unless you fit the approved model. There are enough ways to feel stigmatised without experiencing it almost every time you go to buy tickets.’

• Why do different museums think kids become adults at different ages? A visitor said: ‘What really annoys me is that a lot of places count children as adults if they are 12 or over. I think it’s unfair to have to pay adult price for a 12 year old.’

• We live with a grandparent who does a lot of the childcare. Why can’t they count as part of our family? A visitor said: ‘We tend to go to places with one parent, one grandparent and the three children. Family tickets are rarely flexible enough for that.’

• Families come in all shapes and sizes – single parents, extended families, foster families. Family tickets are rarely good value for these families. A visitor said: ‘A family ticket doesn’t fit my family. My husband is currently serving in Afghanistan and can’t accompany us. It’s quite upsetting really to be classed as a non-family when we’re involuntarily separated.’

Flexible Family Tickets don’t only work for visitors. Kids in Museums commissioned a Commercial  Report on Introducing a Flexible Family Ticket, detailing all the income generating opportunities they can bring. These include increased secondary spend and attracting new families who wouldn’t otherwise visit. As more museums introduce and increase charges, it’s important that they do so without losing new family audiences.

‘Our team likes to be able to show what good value for money we are, so a flexible family ticket that accomodates all visitor requirements is bound to be a winner on both sides of the desk.’ Diane Lees, Director General, Imperial War Museums

‘At the British Museum we aim to give the greatest possible access to the collections for all visitors. We have created flexibility for our visiting families by ensuring free entry for under 16s for all charging exhibitions. We fully support the Flexible Family Ticket guidelines and are grateful to Kids in Museums for championing this important issue.’ Susan Raikes, Head of Learning, British Museum

If you hear of any great examples of flexible family tickets, let us know. You can also tweet them here.

Here’s why you say Flexible Family Tickets are so important:

“I’d just like to say how great the Family Ticket Watch is. I grew up in a single parent family and my Mum used to get round the fact that she had to buy a National Trust family ticket (2+2) by taking in any male friend she could find to be her husband that day. Obviously we all thought this was hilarious, but it showed a real lack of understanding and could have put my mum off if she wasn’t happy to find a new husband each weekend. This was 15 years ago and thankfully the National Trust have stopped discriminating against one parent families (or even groups that don’t go with 2 adults on
that particular day).”

Flexible Family Tickets make a real difference, to real families.

Download a copy of the full Family Ticket Watch report here.