Living in New York City with five children under the age of seven, I can tell you that New York City is the perfect place to take a little trip–even with little kids. The trick is to know, what to see, what play ground is nearby, where the bathrooms are, and where the nearest McDonald’s is. It is with this idea in mind, that I offer some guest blogs on “doing” the Big Apple with your littlest crowd!
The Metropolitan Museum of Art is one of my kids’ absolute favorite places to go in the city. I think this is a pretty amazing thing to say considering that we live less than 10 minutes from the Bronx Zoo. Nonetheless the Metropolitan Museum of Art carries a mystery and holds fascination for my children.
How To Get There:
You can park under the Metropolitan Museum of Art if you have an arm and a leg to spare. It is very pricey–but convenient. You can also find parking on the street if you’re very patient but it could take 30 minutes or more and it may be metered. (Meaning that you’ll have to leave the museum every hour to feed the meter!) If you take a train down, you will be walking about 4 blocks west and 5 blocks south. If that too seems infeasible, make like a New Yorker and take a cab.
Getting In:
The stroller entrance is on the South side of the front of the building and is kind of hidden. It says in big letters, “School Group Entrance” but a tiny sticker underneath also designates it as the wheel chair and stroller entrance.
In tinier letters is the sign on the ticket prices that say, “suggested donation.” I am not advocating being cheap, but you should not feel guilty about paying less than the suggested donation. I usually pay $1 per person, which is not only about what we can afford, it is also proportional to how much of the museum we’ll actually see! The ticket people will not say anything or make you feel guilty–they are used to it–and it is after all a suggested donation. However, they don’t like it when you make it public to other tourists who were willing to pay the whole suggested donation so be as discreet as possible!
Unfortunately, for your donation, you’ll receive a ‘perfect-for-choking-on’ sized button that you are supposed to hook to each person’s clothing. I always hook my kids’ onto my own shirt and then we’re good to go. The guards don’t always like it but they really would not like me if one of my kids started choking on one of these buttons!
If your kids can read or you have a mix of ages, the Museum offers some great kids take along activities just sitting their with the brochures. Take advantage and grab one!
What to See & Do:
Surely you must realize that you cannot do the whole museum in a whole day even without kids. The best thing to do is pick one or two things to see–preferably things that are close together. Our personal favorite is to go through the Ancient Egyptian wing, passing by the Temple of Dendur (which is in and of itself worth the trip), and onto the Medieval Armor and Weapons. However, you also may want to consider, the Costume Institute (which has been closed the last time few times we were there, but I am assured that it will reopen shortly), American Decorative Arts (the fancy way to say really old and cool furniture), European Sculpture, or the Art of Africa, Oceania, & the Americas (check out the really cool collection of face masks).
Regardless of what your fancy is, one of the reasons the Met is a great place to go is that there is so much to look at.
Museum Etiquette:
There is no doubt that there are certain rules of etiquette when going to a big art museum. I have found the guards to be very friendly and personable as long as you use common sense. I have two big rules when we go to the museum. The first is that we try to use library voices as if we are detectives. That last part about pretending to be detectives is key, because using plain library voices is not fun at all. But rest assured, no one gets their feathers too ruffled if your kids are delighted with glee at the art they’re looking at and asking good questions.
My second rule is that we go through and play the pointing game. For almost everything we see–we point at something we find interesting or like. Pointing–not touching–is perfectly acceptable and much appreciated by the Museum guards.
The Potty
The potty is easily accessible on all floors, BUT the museum is huge and if you have the type of child that tells you she needs to go when she should’ve gone 5 minutes ago, you are better off stopping at the bathrooms on each floor (conveniently located by the elevators) “just to try.”
Cheap Eats Nearby
There are ample opportunities for dining at the local hot dog cart right outside. Lunch for a hot dog, soda and bag of chips would likely cost around $5-$6 per person.
If you’re not into hot dogs, and are up for a little walking, you can head north on 5th Ave. to 86th street and then go east on 86th street a few blocks to Lexington Ave. Within a two or three block radius of this spot is a Pizzeria Uno whose staff is fabulously friendly, a Burger King, a Subway Sandwiches, a Hot & Crusty (similar to Subway), a Dunkin’ Donuts and a whole lot of others. Don’t forget dessert either at either Ben & Jerry’s (86th & 2nd) or Cold Stone Creamery (around the corner from 86th on 2nd Ave.).
The Ancient Playground
Before you head out to eat, take your kids to the Ancient playground on the North Side of the Met. One great things about play grounds in Manhattan is that the gates are relatively child proof. If you go inside, and shut the gate, you can be assured your little one won’t escape easily and you can let her run free.
The Ancient Playground has pyramids to crawl through, climb up and slide down, a pretty big sand pit, swinging ropes and all sorts of other stuff. They also have a smaller section with a tire swing, baby swings and a baby sand pit. This playground is definitely worth the stop for your little one. The bathrooms are not immaculate, but they’ve always been pretty clean when we’ve gone.
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