Hellobee Boards

I think memberships are even more worth it when kids take naps! Then you don't have to feel bad about paying for admission and only spending an hour or two at the place! Plus, 3 and under are usually free, and individual membships are usually cheaper than family ones at some of the places we go. We have tons of memberships...children's museum, aquarium, Crayola Experience, and a zoo membership. Most of those were gifted to us and the yearly membership costs were practically the cost of daily admission. We live in a cold climate and we need indoor activities for the winter because my son and I don't do well cooped up in the house all day! We usually do an outing in the morning, head home for lunch and nap, and then hang out/play at home in the afternoons/evenings.

We have one to the zoo and one to the children's museum, totally worth every penny.

I have a membership to a children's museum 30 minutes away. I have to go 8 times a year in order to make up the cost of the membership vs paying for tickets each time. I take my LO at least once a month. I can bring 1 unrelated adult per visit for free (all immediate family and grandparents are included in the membership) so if I go with a friend as a play date, the other mom gets in for free and just has to pay for the child. It's also in the children's museum reciprocal network, so I can visit other museums in the network for 1/2 price.

@Bao: we went to the aquarium 5 times in a year. (Came with 5 parkings passes). Kids museum like 8 or 9 times...my BFF lives near it and we met up a lot! We just got the science museum pass!

Yes. We have a membership to our local science museum (that is very toddler/kid friendly). We got at least once a month, and way more in the winter.

We have one to our science museum and love it! It's only half an hour away so we go at least 6 times a year, plus it includes the grandparents for free. But the best part is it gets us in to almost all other science museums in the U.S. for free and children's museums for 50%. We use that feature lots when traveling.

We have several and they have all been worth it. The zoo is about half an hour away so we go for two to three hours once or twice a month during decent weather. We also use the reciprocal benefit to go to a zoo about 75 minutes away a couple of times per summer. We definitely go more than we would if we didn't have a membership, the are a lot of times we pop in for an hour after running errands.

Our science center is closer but mediocre so we don't go much but it's cheap for a membership and we traveled a lot this year and used the reciprocal benefit at 4 other museums which easily paid for the membership by itself.

Our zoo membership is the best money we've spent, I think. Going 2+ times makes it worth the money. What I love about the membership is that we can go in the morning, spend a few hours there, and go home for nap - I don't feel like we have to spend the whole day there to get our money's worth. We went every other weekend all summer. Even in the winter we go to spend time in the pavilions and let B run some energy out.

My kids are 32 months and 11 months and for us NO it is not worth it right now. At these ages i just want them to have lots of free play and opportunities to explore and observe the world. They can do that at parks. The weather is pretty good here in california so we are only rained out a few weeks a year.

I was debating a membership to the children's museum (which is 15 min away) but each time i go it would be $5 parking. If parking was free i think i would consider this one since it's geared towards younger kids.

There's a zoo/amusement park 15 min away too.. But I don't like amusement parks too much. And the zoo it not that good I heard. If there was a good zoo 15 min away maybe i would consider a membership to that.

I decided whenever I feel "bored" as a SAHM or feel like the kids aren't thriving or aren't "stimulated" enough I will reconsider. Also I am considering homeschooling in the future and I would definitely get a membership to the children's museum then when they would really benefit educationally from it.

We have two memberships: one is worth it but the other is not. The aquarium membership is for sure worth it; we only needed to go twice to make it worth it and have been more than that. My LO is totally fascinated. A really big bonus is that it gets us a 50% discount at the zoo; we've also used that.

The other membership is to our small local children's museum. It would take more visits to make it worth it but the big problem is that they have very limited hours and close down every time the surrounding park has an event. I did not realize that when I bought the membership. We haven't been able to use it as much as expected.

@Pollywog: What and where is the free soft playroom? I haven't heard about that.

We have no memberships, but usually stay home.

We have a zoo membership and use it all the time. Since I get a friend free, we do play dates at the zoo, and my friends with passes to museums etc reciprocate and invite us to their membership locations.

We have a zoo membership and it's been worth it for us because it is only 10 minutes away. The membership is actually for 2 zoos and the other zoo is inarguably better but we've only been once in the two years we've been members. We get the membership where we can bring in 2 other adults and a total of 4 kids so it's nice for play dates too. Other museums are mostly in the city so it's a challenge for me to just bring the kids on a whim. To visit those we will choose a day where we can get discount passes from the library.

We had memberships to a museum, aquarium and science centre at one point and we used them a ton, they were all easy for me to get to on public transit, good for the kids to play in and a fab way to get out in the winter when it was too cold and icy for playgrounds. That said, they only worked because they were so easy for me to get to. Also, one allowed me to split a membership with a friend so that was amazing value. We could also bring guests and unlimited children, so we could have play dates there instead of home. They were amazing for us.

@Mrs. Toad: It's at the Fairlington Community Center. It's a room full of giant foam structures to climb on and over. It's so much fun!

Https://parks.arlingtonva.us/community-center-drop-in-activities/fairlington-pint-sized-indoor-playtime/

Our zoo membership pays for itself in 3 visits. We go a ton so it's so worth it for us. Also you get in the secret fast line for "Boo at the Zoo" so that alone is almost worth the money!

I think it depends on how convenient it is and how often you'll go. We have an annual pass to our local zoo. It's less than 10 minutes from our house, so that's nice. Several of our other parent friends also have memberships. We can meet up first thing in the morning before it gets too crowded, spend a couple of hours there, and leave to grab lunch together. By nap time, the kids are all fed and in the car on the way home.

Because we have a membership, it's okay if we only see a few of the animals each time, and we don't have to force the kids to stay an entire day if they're feeling cranky or whatever. We know we'll be back again, and we can see different animals the next time. But if I was paying a full price admission each visit, I'd want to maximize the day and make sure we saw as much as possible. I feel like the membership helps us be more casual and flexible.

Depends whether you'll use it! (Obviously.) We were given a subscription to the children's museum when DD turned one and I have loved having it. I appreciate having an outing option that's guilt free from a cost perspective, and that we can go for short visits. Her use of everything at the museum increased a lot over the course of the year, so I would maybe hold off until LO is 18 months or so. It wasn't really useful when she was still on two naps.