Attendant's View
  • Cartoons and Blog
  • About
  • Contact
  • Links Elsewhere
Picture

Family Friendly doesn't mean bubble wrapping everything

4/6/2016

1 Comment

 
I just had to have the same conversation three times regarding "You shouldn't chase your sister near the big glass cabinets" 

In the first instance the children stopped, and the parents backed me up with a sorry smile and "Come over here, don't do that."

In the second instance, the parents were in another room entirely, with a closed door between them and their children aged about 4 and 7. "Sorry, we didn't realise they had slipped in there."

In the third instance they were in the same room, and could see the children. I asked the parents "I really don't want to administer any first aid today. Please make sure they understand about all of the glass in here."

The parents were well dressed, well spoken, and apparently utterly indifferent to, or blissfully unaware of, the impact their children were having on other visitors, and also the potential hazard of allowing very young children to run around a museum. 

​This happened yesterday, and I bring it up because kids and accidents are a big topic at present.
Picture

Everyone is talking about parental supervision with regards to the child and the gorilla. Also under scrutiny is the responsibility of family friendly venues with regards to signs, walls, barriers, staff and safety.

I don't know enough about the gorilla incident to comment on it, but have seen so many things in museums, galleries and historic venues which relate to this debate* I think it's worth a quick chat about safety. By and large, it boils down to: weigh up the chances, put appropriate measures in place, always assume you will get a few idiots, don't let them spoil it.

Recently we had some work done on a raised area, allowing visitors to look down at a display. Before the area opened to the public, we were assessing the installed toughened glass and metal barriers in place and these opinions arose.
  1. Most staff "It's fine, as an adult it's good elbow resting height, and it's hard to topple over it unless you try."
  2. Staff with kids "It's fine, but on this corner kids may slip their feet under the glass."
  3. Health and Safety "Really there should be a full height screen, ideally ceiling height to stop anyone throwing things over the top. This barrier; kids can climb over, adults may over balance, and parents holding kids may drop them."

​As you may guess, opinion number 3 made everyone do a double take. A lot of complex discussions had to take place. We already had these barriers, so would we have to replace them? Would we have to attach something to the top of them? 

In the end, there was compromise. The barriers remained as installed, a metal plate was attached to extend the edge of the raised area where we thought kids may get feet stuck, and we have an age restriction on unaccompanied minors. We concluded that the majority of visitors would be responsible, for both themselves and anyone in their charge, and if anything did happen, it could be safely said that we had weighed up the chances and felt we had appropriate measures in place.
Because weighing up the chances and putting appropriate measures in place are all you can do as a public venue.

​What visitors do you expect? What behaviors do you expect from them? Talk to different people to get different viewpoints about visitor behavior because, as we discovered, parents may well spot issues none-parents won't. What could that visitor behavior lead to? How likely is that to happen? How great would any repercussions be? What could you put in place to prevent or limit these? What impact would that have on other areas such as visitor enjoyment? 
Periodically you should reassess areas - are measures still appropriate? If a near miss happens - are measures still appropriate?

No matter what you do, kids will be curious, people will trip over, morons will be risky and you just have to be confident that you 
have been realistic, and made decisions based on the best evidence available. After this comes honesty. If something does happen, you can either honestly say that you didn't see it coming, or you can honestly say that you made the decision you thought right at the time. 


As with maths, show your working out, and it'll go a long way to demonstrate why you haven't bubble wrapped your venue.
Picture
* One of my top horror tales is the mother actually encouraging her children to climb archaeological remains and jump into a road, complaining that if it's dangerous there should be signs (If you are allowing your children to do something usually reserved as a joke "Go play in the road" you may not be great parent material)
1 Comment
Lex-Kat
25/10/2017 10:35:28 pm

It is unfortunate that there are so many ignorant people in the world, that we need signs to state what should be obvious. Like:

"Please, don't hold you child over a fence that contains a dangerous animal within."

Reply



Leave a Reply.

    Webcomic and occasional blog about the heritage sector.

    ​Follow The Attendant:

    Facebook
    Twitter
    Tumblr

    RSS Feed

    Topics

    All
    Archaeology
    Art
    Behind The Scenes
    Blog
    Book
    Cartoon
    Castles And Houses
    Complaints
    Daft Questions
    Don't Do That...
    Don't Do That...
    English Heritage
    Entrance Desk
    Forrin Tourists
    Guided Tours
    Handy Gallery Attendant Tip #
    Happy Stories
    Kids
    Mischief
    Museums
    National Trust
    Old Dears
    Parents
    Parks And Gardens
    Review
    School Visits
    Submitted
    Tourist Information
    Yuk

    Author

    All text and images are produced by and copyright of the artist, holder of the domain name of attendantsview.com
    Please contact for permission to use images, which will probably be gladly given, but it's only polite to ask first!

    Archives

    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    March 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012
    July 2012
    June 2012
    May 2012
    April 2012
    March 2012
    February 2012
    January 2012
    December 2011
    November 2011
    October 2011
    September 2011
    August 2011
    July 2011
    June 2011
    May 2011
    April 2011
    March 2011
    February 2011
    January 2011
    December 2010
    November 2010
    October 2010
    September 2010
    August 2010

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.
  • Cartoons and Blog
  • About
  • Contact
  • Links Elsewhere