A trip back in time – entertaining the sods on a rainy day

It’s pretty shitty weather at the minute. The snow has all gone thankfully, but it’s windy, cold and wet. In my opinion that’s the perfect weather for sticking on your comfies, and curling up on the sofa, watching crap tv and films. I’ve got one small person that will do that quote happily (one of the reasons he’s sometimes my favourite 😂) , but unfortunately I’ve got another small person that is incapable of sitting still. Ever. So I have to get her out of the house before she wrecks it. She not destructive, but she just leaves a trail of mess and shit everywhere she goes (not actual shit, she’s mastered the toilet for that thankfully) She’s just one of those kids that has to involve absolutely everything in her games. She can’t just play shops with some money and a couple of bits of play food. She has to build a life size re-enactment of Tesco throughout the house, then run around like Dale Winton is cheering her on.

So when the easiest and cheapest option, a dog walk, is out of the question, I have to find other things to do. We discovered milestones museum last year, and I love it. The best bit, you pay once and you can go back as many times as you want during the year. I think I’d get bored if we went too often, but a few times a year is perfect.

For those of you that haven’t been, it’s basically an aircraft hanger type affair, filled with things from the past. It’s got Victorian streets to wander round, old vehicles to climb in, and rooms with objects and artefacts from all decades.

The kids favourite is definitely the penny arcade. You’ll need a little bit of cash for this, which you swap in machines for old pennies. It’s full of weird, creepy looking machines, that you can actually win prizes on. While the kids were off trying to win a kitkat (I’m not sure that’s authentic Victorian time food) I found a fortune telling machine and convinced myself that if I tried hard enough then the Zoltar type thing would turn my kids into adults so they were ready to look after themselves. Sadly, I don’t think the film Big is a true story…

At the entrance to the museum you can buy a voucher for a ration of sweets from the old sweet shop, and then you can spend a bit of time being all self righteous and showing your kids how spoilt they are compared to war time children. A day out isn’t complete without a lecture.

I quite enjoyed looking at the cabinets full of toys from my childhood, although this led to my children questioning what I actually did for fun because my toys looked crap. Cue another lecture about how they should be outside playing and inventing their own games, not relying on toys and electronics to do it for them (says the woman that buys them all their toys and electronics 😂)

Ooh, another great bit, there’s an old pub so you can stop for refreshments on the way round. I was quite tempted to again give them a picture of my childhood and sit them outside with a bag of cheese and onion crisps and a bottle of coke, while I sad inside drinking my beer in peace, but I felt that might have been a step too far, and might have been frowned upon by the other, better parents that were there.

We have plans to return with the grandparents soon. This will be right up their street. No doubt they can reminisce, and walk around lecturing me on how little they had compared to what I had as a child. So that’s something to look forward to 😂

Starting this half term they have a Lego event there, Bricktropolis and the attack of the mighty monsters. We’ve been to one of their Lego events before and they’re really good. There loads of models dotted around that they kids have to find, and they have building areas and activities to do. It’s definitely worth a visit. It funds from the 16th February to the 28th April. Tickets are available here https://hcct.digitickets.co.uk/tickets?branches.branchID=1349

A family ticket that lasts the year is only £45, and unlike a lot of places a family ticket is for up to 5 people, not 4. Under 5’s go free. From one that’s quite tight with her money (I prefer frugal) I think it’s pretty good value.

One word of note, the car park is quite small, so if you want to park nearby get there early. There is another big car park a few minutes walk away, but if it’s raining, remember your umbrella. Or conveniently forget it so that you have to get dropped off at the door with the kids and don’t have to walk anywhere 😁