"BodyWorld" Inappropriate for 3.5 Year Old?

Maybe you could borrow a copy of Grey's Anatomy (not the tv show!) from the library or one of the other anatomy books that have clear plastic overlays of muscles and bones, etc, and judge by her response. My daughter is only 4 months old, but if she was 3 or 4 years old, I would not hesitate to take her. I think your reaction will direct your child's response. If you say wow,how cool, she'll probably be fascinated. Have fun! I'll be interested to see other mom's opinions.

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my high school daughter just went and stated that this is not an exhibit for small kids. she saw several field trips of elementary school kids whom she felt were not mature enough to view this exhibit. my daughter is 17 and will be starting her pre med studies in sept.

Yes, I think it will be VERY disturbing to a young child-even to some adults. As a healthcare professional I had two anatomy dissection courses and I really think NO CHILD NO MATTER HOW CURIOUS (or how "gifted" her parents think she is) should see this exhibit.In fact, I really can't think of anything more inappropriate than this exhibit. How about getting some books at one of the children's bookstores to explain what is under her skin (Children's Book World on Pico or Storyopolis in Studio City). There are books like "How Things Work". The people behind the desk at children's book world are very helpful.

Don't take your small children. We're going to go to the exhibition (I've been putting it off as long as possible) and we're not taking our son. Go with your gut feeling, you know what is best.
Best wishes,
C.

ABSOLUTELY NOT OK FOR KIDS THAT AGE. I've seen the show a number of times and it's quite remarkable and distrubing at the same time. There are all sorts of exibits at the museum that are age appropriate, but unless you want to guarantee that your child has endless nightmares avoid this show until they 10 or so.

I am definitely not an expert but the one thing I would consider is that this information might only be scary or disturbing because of the meaning that we assign to it. For a child that has no context of pain and horror it could really be interesting and informative. Why not try checking out a book from the library about human anatomy, look at some pictures together, talk about them and see how she reacts ....

I saw the exhibit a few years ago in Los Angeles, and my husband saw it last week in Las Vegas. We both found it fascinating. I think that it's OK to take the child, esp. if you describe it to the child beforehand and the child expresses interest in seeing it. If you act calm about the experience, it's likely that your child will, too.

Regards,
L. E

To tell you the truth I really believe that this may be a little to much for children to handle. My daughter is facinated by the human body and I have even bought her anatomy books that she herself picked up. I am very open with my daughter about death due to her father being in Iraq even with all that I think my daughter is to young for that exibit let alone at your kids age they are very inpresional at that age you may just get screaming nightmares. Especially when they do not understand death and life.

That has nightmares written all over it. My husband played a computer game with my daughter, who is 4, watching & she had nightmares for a couple of days about that "man" in the game. I recommend getting a sitter and having a "date" with your husband to go see the exhibit.

I recently took my 4-year old daughter. This is her second time to Body Worlds as she also went with me that last time Body Worlds came to town.

I think it all depends on how you set-up the visit. Yes, they are dead bodies, but I never told her that. I just said "Look, this is what lungs/hearts/muscles, etc look like..."

Also, when I was disturbed my some of the displays (like the fetuses) I tried my best not to show it on my face, but rather tried to keep things straightforward and age-appropriate.

I personally think it will be fine...it will just be up to you and your husband to phrase things appropriately.

To my thinking, the only answer to your question is - it depends on the child, and even then, it probably depends on where that child is in development. At the age your kids are, my daughter would have taken the display matter of factly and not attached any scariness to it. Now that she's older, I'd have to think very seriously about whether she could deal with it. That said, she has seen anatomy books made for children, that show the various body parts, in their layers. So I guess I'd ask her how she felt about going to see actual bodies. I can imagine it would be a bit freaky for a kid. Fascinating too. I actually hadn't known about this exhibit and I want to tell my daughter about it and see if she wants to go.

I think it's very cool that your 3.5 year old is fascinated by the chicken drumstick. How children handle stuff like this depends greatly on how the adults in their life handle it. If your husband really really wants to go and take the kids, perhaps a bit of preparing would help. You could pick up an anatomy book and show it to your kids, talk about what's under our skin & how our bodies work. My daughter loved the book, which I got when she was in kindergarten.

Bringing a 2 year old to anything is always a wildcard. At that age, they just don't get why they should stand around looking at anything for very long; or if they are completely taken in by something they don't get why they should move on. I'd be less worried about how they'd handle it as I'd be worried about staying in the flow of the rest of the crowd. When we went to the earlier thing at the museum, it was so packed I couldn't believe it. My daughter was 5 or 6 -- it was that giant body thing. She was interested, but the boy who went with us was undone and had to be taken out of the room. I couldn't tell if his mom was expecting his reaction and was hoping it would work out or if she was surprised. You just never know. Maybe try to go at a less busy time, like a week day?

Whatever you do, have a good time, and be glad there's lots of other stuff to see at the museum and beautiful grounds to romp around in.

All the best,
C.