Toddlers and Museums: A How-To Guide
So - You’ve traveled with your toddler halfway around the world (or simply across town: equally impressive) and are dying to see a world-famous museum. But you realize with dread you have a ticking time bomb with you - your adorable-yet-loud spawn, ready to wreck havoc on the joy of museums that linger in your mind from your study abroad semester, from those dates with your beloved or from those far-gone afternoons wandering some city alone after drinking wine with lunch… Ahhh…
…but back to reality. A toddler? In a museum? Yes. And, FEAR NOT, you CAN do this! And even have fun and create a fun experience for your toddler too.
How?
The key is to allow yourself to acknowledge a few simple truths, then try out some hacks to make your adventure run smoother and celebrate the victories along the way.
First some simple truths about bringing a toddler to a museum that it is best to acknowledge before you even walk out the door.
TODDLERS + MUSEUMS = SIMPLE TRUTHS
1 - There is a zero percent chance you will see everything you hope to see. That’s ok! You WILL see some amazing things, and hopefully have opportunities to enjoy this and other museums one day again.
2 - Your toddler will most likely not be silent when other people are being silent. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t work to limit disruptions to other guests, or use some of my mom-hacks along the way to keep them quiet and keep yourself sane. But the reality is art and culture are FOR ALL and your toddler counts. Own it!
3 - Toddlers can’t hang in museums for that long. No matter how good they do they will eventually need to run around and be loud and messy and annoy their mother and eat, which is hard to do inside a museum. If there is a museum you have waited your whole life to see that will take several hours you can tag-team with a partner or hire a babysitter and enjoy it like an adult. No judgement here.
We recently took our then-21 month old William to Paris and saw several museums. So all of these tips are all toddler tested and mom approved. They work if you bring your toddler with others or are by yourself. For context we went to the Musée de l'Armée's/Invalides with my parents, the Orsay, La Fondation Louis Vuitton, and the Louvre with my husband, and the Musée de l'Orangerie, the Centre Pompidou and the Musée Rodin with just myself and William. And then in keeping with Simple Truth Number 3, I hired a babysitter and spent an afternoon alone to enjoy the Musée de la Chasse et de la Nature and drink wine.
Ok, so you have decided to hit a museum with your little one! Congrats!
Here are my Top Ten Hacks. Basically, your strategy should be to keep finding ways to buy yourself another 10 minutes, another 10, another 10 until you realize your toddler doesn’t have 10 minutes left using these Top Ten Hacks.
Top Ten Toddler Museum Hacks
1 - Be as active as possible beforehand. Luckily in Paris the city is teeming with playgrounds and open spaces for play. We found it was essential to start the day off going down slides and running around. No matter where you are, get your kid active before you hit the museum. That way your toddler will be more compliant to sit down or be quiet (or even better, nap!). If you do one thing, this is it!
2 - Prep your stroller to be your command center. Our stroller was essential at every museum we went to. In Paris, it helped us get to the front of the lines when checking in and also got us priority viewing at some essential sites (in the Louvre we didn’t wait in line to get in, to go through security or even to see the Mona Lisa. They brought us right up front!). The major downside to your stroller is that a lot of old historic buildings have LOTS of stairs (the Louvre especially).
We always had in our stroller at museums: water cup with straw/lid they can’t get off, snacks (you aren’t supposed to eat in museums but I would give William small things as we walked to help keep him quiet), small portable fan (no air conditioning in most of Europe), portable sound machine (if it helps them nap, the noise is better than the sound of your crying child), favorite books and stickers, diaper changing station, change of clothing, diaper bag, small toys.
3 - Time your visit to capitalize on your toddler’s best and easiest time of day, and “nap on the go.” We found William was best at a museum either early in the morning when they opened (but only after we let him play for a while) and we ended our visit before he wanted lunch. Or we hit them right after lunch when he usually took a nap (this one works well if your toddler is good with naps on the go). When timed the “nap on the go” visit right, I was able to get around an hour of time in the museum when he was asleep and I could really enjoy “alone” time pushing him in the stroller while he was snoozing. I would recommend the nap-time visit as the best time of the two if they are good with “nap on the go.”
4 - Go see the most famous thing or the top thing you want to see, first. I think most visits with a toddler can last about 45 minutes before a meltdown. Maybe an hour or so. If you time an on-the-go the nap correctly, you gain another hour or so. That isn’t a ton of time for some of these famous museums (remember Truth #1 - there is zero percent chance you will see everything you want to see). So go see what you really need to, first.
5 - When your child is awake, engage them, but try to keep them in the stroller. Your child is an actual human so treat them as such at a museum. Ask them questions. Point out beautiful things. Give them the map and have them look at the routes. Sing them silly songs you make up about Picasso. Basically do anything to keep them engaged in the experience so they don’t get fussy. Sometimes, you need to let them run around. I would always try to know where the cafeteria is so we could escape there for a while if we had to. Some museums have kids areas to run around as well. In Paris, almost all museums are close to parks, so if we had to bail we knew that a park was just around the bend.
6 - A key way to engage your child is to play “Eye Spy” as you walk through each room. This was a great idea by my sister-in-law Jessica before our trip. “Eye Spy” (even if they are a little too young to actually play) works awesome in museums. “Eye Spy” something: pink, blue, green, with wings, a statue, the stairs, a lady, a dog, a duck, a man, a cow… You get the picture. This helped William and I go through several rooms of amazing famous art that I could see and he could also enjoy.
7 - Have your child mimic the sculptures or do other things pictured in the art. This one was my absolute favorite at the Rodin museum, because each of his sculptures were in really exaggerated poses (ie, The Thinker). William LOVED that I was being active and silly and he could too. My overly-cultured heart literally burst with pride when he made a fist and sorta-kinda made his body into the same shape as The Thinker (see video HERE). I also made him fly like birds, or touch his head or his toes etc as we saw art that did those things. You have to be OK with folks watching you do this (but I found that mostly people would come over and compliment me on bringing my child to a museum rather than mock me from looking slightly like a fool).
8 - Let them read their favorite book or use stickers while you walk around. I found that William does better with books he likes and knows than new ones, but if your child needs new stimulation save those books for your museums and pull them out one by one.
9 - Appreciate how amazing it is your child is getting exposed to art and culture at such a young age, and is learning a new lesson in patience instead of worrying about if you have to leave earlier than expected or if it didn’t go great. Some visits will be better than others. But fear not. You are doing GREAT by even attempting to take a small one to a traditionally ‘adult’ place. Good work!
10 - Choose smaller museums, ones with outdoor sculpture gardens, interactive areas or funky exhibits if possible. William did pretty well in all the museums we went to but my least favorite to bring him to was the Louvre. Yes, it was the “most famous” but it was also huge and hard to maneuver with tons of stairs and difficult to fully appreciate with a little guy. He did the best at the Orsay (because it was smaller, easier to manage, has a pretty atrium and better elevators) and the Rodin museum (because the most famous and impressive part is outside and he was able to run around there). He also liked the Pompidou, because the modern art was often more colorful/bold/eye catching for him.
BONUS - Celebrate your accomplishment together! I would try to find a park right after the museum that he could run around but that also sold wine. And ice-cream. A win-win for us both!
Sharing art with your child is a wonderful experience. It isn’t that easy, but it gets a lot easier with practice. YOU CAN DO IT!
For more toddler travel tips and hacks follow me on Instagram @nashvillenomading!
