A popular children’s museum in Portland, Maine, doesn’t allow entry to adults who don’t have kids with them, a policy that angered a local newspaper columnist who had been hoping to pay the place a visit.
Leslie Bridgers, a writer for the Portland Press Herald, was shocked she was turned away when she tried to buy a ticket for the Children’s Museum & Theatre of Maine.
She said she had been wanting to go for a while and had passed up multiple opportunities to go with her friends who do have families, mainly because she ‘didn’t want to have to go at their pace or wind up watching their children.’
‘I wanted to check out the exhibits that interested me, skip the ones that didn’t and leave when I felt like it — you know, enjoy it the way I do anything as a childless adult,’ she wrote in her Monday column.
She explained that she finally came up with the perfect excuse to go alone; she could bring her reporter’s notebook and write a piece about whether the museum was worth the $18 admission.
According to her column, the museum’s ‘unaccompanied adults’ policy was put in place because of ‘security concerns’ and to prevent adults from taking up tickets on busy days that could have gone to children.
The museum’s executive director, Julie Butcher Pezzino, said she was ‘a little surprised that this was a news story’ given that this kind of policy is very common for children’s museums around the country.
Pezzino also told DailyMail.com she wasn’t aware of any ‘security concerns’ that led to the museum disallowing adults without children. In fact, that policy has been in place there for last six or seven years, she said.
The Children’s Museum & Theatre of Maine, which is in Portland, has banned adults without children from entering for at least seven years
The spotlight on the ‘no childless adults’ policy came as a result of a Monday column in the Portland Press Herald written by Leslie Bridgers (pictured)
‘We focus on children who come with their parents or guardians,’ she said, adding that ‘there was no particular incident’ that spurred the museum to bar childless adults.
‘It was more in keeping with what other children’s museums were doing at the time,’ Butcher Pezzino explained.
In her column, Bridgers even noted that other kid-friendly attractions around the country, including LEGOLAND Discovery Centers, children’s rooms at libraries and playground areas at parks, often have policies that ban childless adults.
In her attempt to find a reason for her local children’s museum not letting her in, Bridgers stumbled upon a 2015 law review article in the National Recreation and Park Association’s magazine.
It talked about how in Hollywood, Florida, local government officials banned adults unaccompanied by minors from entering or remaining in a park playground area.
The article claimed that one Hollywood commissioner wondered if the new rule ‘might draw legal challenges’ but claimed it ‘will put a little dent into getting rid of the undesirables in the park.’
Another commissioner then reportedly argued that the ordinance would protect kids from sex offenders ‘that have not been caught yet.’
Bridgers took this to mean that playgrounds in Florida (and the museum in Maine) have adopted discriminatory policies that profile people based on how ‘creepy’ they look.
Butcher Pezzino said she was disappointed in Bridgers’ article for not putting enough emphasis on the tours open to adults and not mentioning the museum’s annual Halloween event that’s for people 21 and older
Adults are also freely allowed to attend any theatrical performances put on by the museum, Butcher Pezzino said
‘In other words, because you can’t ban someone for looking creepy, then why not adopt rules (with backhanded reasoning) to keep away categories of people who you think are most likely to be,’ Bridgers wrote.
She further claimed that the no childless adult policy ‘sounds kind of like’ how the Trump administration terminated a $250,000 grant to the children’s museum that would have been used to fund programs teaching kids about the history of the Wabanaki, a Native American tribe that is primarily in Maine.
The museum clarified that adults can attend certain events on their own, including theatrical performances, staff-led tours by appointment and its Imagination Ball fundraiser on May 9, with tickets starting at $125.
Butcher Pezzino said she was disappointed in Bridgers’ article for not putting enough emphasis on the tours open to adults and not mentioning the museum’s annual Halloween event that’s for people 21 and older.
Bridgers briefly mentioned the Halloween party, not by name though, and linked back to a previous article that covered the 2022 event, which reportedly drew 300 costumed guests.
‘I also was aware of the adults-only parties at the museum, but I wasn’t interested in making a social outing out of it either. Even though I knew it might be awkward, I just wanted to walk around on my own,’ Bridgers wrote.