Newborns Needing Tickets for 2012 Olympics?

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Organizers of the 2012 London Olympics said on Tuesday that they would consider options for new mothers who want to attend the venues and events with their newborn babies.

The London Organizing Committee made a statement after complaints flooded the British parenting website Mumsnet, with pregnant women who bought tickets for themselves but not for their unborn children.  Several mothers were concerned as to what they could do with babies who were breast-feeding and argued that a months-old child would not be taking up a seat of its own.  Organizers originally said that every child — including newborns carried in a parent’s arms must have their own tickets, in part to keep track of the number of visitors so venue capacity is not exceeded. They said special programs exist to make some tickets more affordable to young people, but those discounts did not apply to all events.

London’s policy is very similar to the one that was instituted at the 2010 Winter Olympics.  Organizers in the Canadian city used discretion at the gate, however, categorizing parents who brought an infant without a ticket as a child care issue. Thus parents who appeared with children less than a year old babes in arms, were not turned away.  Many of the mothers who posted on Mumsnet said they had bought Olympic tickets before they became pregnant, or will have newborns by the time of the games.  What do you think the policy should be?

Source News: Fox Sports

One Comment

1. 

   Yummy & Olympic

   January 26, 2012 at 10:27 am

   I would love for my kids to see something like this live – it’s an incredible event, but when I think about the crowds and the long hours which they are meant to sit still and behave, it really puts me off. So in terms of tickets, kids do really need a seat of their own (even though it would make this completely unaffordable, as anything that parents are trying to do with kids). However, special events for kids around the theme of Olympics would be an awesome idea!

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