Museum of Science

Our house is a day trip away from New York, New Jersey, and Hartford, but Boston is a little bit of a stretch.  Even so, on this day in 2014, we went to Boston for the day and went to the science museum.

Not Crazy?

This was not AS crazy as it sounds. Our kids were very good car travelers and Dave was heading to Boston for a meeting anyway, so he was able to drive us. That also meant I could grab a few winks in the car, which I sorely needed by this point in our busy ‘staycation’ week.

I had been an elementary school science teacher in the Boston area and had been on field trips to the Boston Museum of Science. I knew what to expect. I knew where to guide the kids to find the stuff they would love. I wasn’t going into it totally unprepared. That said…

Rolling the Dice

This was still a serious roll of the dice for a few reasons.  Dave was driving us which meant I didn’t have a car with me at the museum. I didn’t have an out if Mikey was not happy. Plus, it had already been a long week. I wasn’t 100% sure if Mikey would be worn out.  Will is an energizer bunny! He was always up for any adventure so I knew he would be okay.

I prefaced the trip by reminding Will that we’d already had a week full of fun and this one might not work perfectly. I always tried to ask if that was okay with him (knowing that he would still be disappointed if it didn’t work out). He was game and we gave it a try.

Why We Try

Will really wanted to see the lightning show.  I had some pretty serious concerns that it might be too loud for Mikey. So, here’s how we handled it.  

1. We saved the lightning show for the last thing of the day so it couldn’t derail the whole trip if it went poorly.
2. We sat right near the exit.
3. I prepared Will that he would not need to leave with us, but Mikey and I would stand by the door if Mikey needed to leave and we’d wait for Will and meet him right after the show.
4. I prepared Mikey for the fact that it was going to be crazy loud. I don’t have a photo of this, but likely, we put on the big-time sporting event noise blocking headphones.
5. I modeled excited, interested, but calm behavior for Mikey and reminded him it was okay.

The lightning show was Mikey’s favorite!! He was thrilled by it! He would have done it again right away if he could have. Even though we’re experts on our kiddos, we can’t predict everything they will do. We can’t know if they’ll be afraid or excited by something.  As long as the activity is physically safe, I think it is okay to try, but observe your child during the experience. Look for signs of distress and be ready to make a quick exit.

For example, the quiet, peaceful butterfly garden was causing Mikey major stress. Even though we had caught butterflies in our yard, being in a smaller space with many more butterflies was not calming for Mikey. We moved through this exhibit pretty quickly and on to more enjoyable things.

When the butterfly landed on his backpack, I snapped a photo to show him later…I didn’t even tell him it was there in the moment. In this case, the journal (or the spring break book) gave us an opportunity to revisit a scary thing in a calmer moment and (we hope) shed light on the idea that this is a safe and fun thing…nothing to worry about.

If we can keep an open mind and give things a try, sometimes our kids surprise us.  I NEVER would have predicted that Mikey would LOVE the lighting show and get freaked out by the butterflies!  What do I know? I was totally and completely wrong!

Lucky for us, our kids don’t need us to be perfect and they don’t need us to ALWAYS be right. Just keep their needs top of mind and be ready to respond and you’ll be their greatest protector…even when you only need to shelter them from the horror of…butterflies.