Hey Mom's: Would You Go to the Circus If It Came?

The circus comes to town every year here in Austin. I would explain that to your children.It will be in town many times in the future.

BTW the one time I took our daughter it was terrible. Just as Arismama03 stated. It was more like a Las Vegas show.. Too many things going on all at once for young kids to be able to focus on.. The neon colors were cheap and garish..

When we got in the car, I asked my daughter "What was your favorite part?" She said, "when the elephant pooped." ~ Out of the mouths of babes..

I agree have the kids pick one per year.

5 moms found this helpful

No to the Circus. They are cruel and inhumane to the animals so we no longer go. I would say pick one big place to go this year: either Disneyland or Walking with Dinosaurs.
Yes, we are staying in more.
We do other cheaper forms of entertainment: bbq at the lake, Sunsplash type of water park that is local, picnics, go boating w/friends (go on their boat if you don't have one), picnics, movie night where we rent something the whole family will watch (have a little one so can't all go to the theatre), parks, camping (a favorite), the beach. All fun things.

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I would find something else to go to because the circus is horrible with the way they treat their animals. I would never support an organization like that!

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Circus is currently in our area, but we're not going. I personally just can't support the mistreatment of animals that I KNOW goes on w/ the circus. We'd love to go to Walking w/ the Dinosuars, but at $80 a ticket? Not likely!! We're keeping it cheap these days. Our daughter misses our Disney passes and asks regularly about reinstating them, but that's not happening in the near future. Even Disneyland is $76/day now, and it's sooooo crowded I can barely stand it anymore.

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We went to the Ringling Bros Circus a week ago. We found $10 tickets at a store. IT WAS HORRIBLE!!!!!

They changed everything this year. Bright neon colors, all theater light and dancing. No lion acts, no trapeze (my fav) etc... the elephant act was 10 min and the same with tigers.

Mostly dancing and cheap clown stuff. Everyone was leaving early. If you have shiner circus go to that.. Oh lemonaid was $9, chips 3.50, candy (.50 cent kind from walmart) was 3.50, popcorn $6. etc... rip off..

Last August my 7 year old daughter (6 at the time) and I did Disney 10 days stayed on resort, ate food there, 10 days park hopper pass and plane tickets for 1,000. You can do disney cheap!!! Email me if you need info.

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Like many of the other posters, I would personally pass on the circus. For reasons of the way the treat animals, terrible entertainment, etc. I think the nostalgia of what our experience was like as kids is much different than what they have today.
As for family entertainment, depending on how old your kids are, I would invest in annual passes for something in you local area.....zoo, kids museum, gymboree/kids play place, water park, etc. many of those tend to be a better value, you can go as often as you like and for as long as you like. As for Disney, they do offer free admittance on your birthday and this year they offered free admittance in exchange for one day of community service. Look on their website, both require you to sign up and for the community service they list pre approved service work in your local area. If the kids are too young to do the community service, parents can do one day of service and get their admittance free, and if you plan to go on one of the kids bdays, that's a lot of savings right there.
For other things kids want to do, it is a good way to discuss as a family how much everything costs and either have kids earn points for good behavior towards an event, or have them save some money to contribute. Also, if you have family that buy gifts for bday or holidays, maybe if they contribute money towards a fund for these events.....

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How old are your kids?

If your kids are not babies and say 4 years old and up... then you can certainly teach them about money/budgeting etc. That is what we do.
If your kids want to see all 3 of those things in 1 year... well you either agree or not... and explain, that you can or cannot, due to budget, and it takes saving money for it etc.
You do not 'have to' see everything and anything they want.
Even going to the movies nowadays, can be expensive.
Each family's budget being different.

good luck,
Susan

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Like some of the other posters on here, I purposely avoid the circus because I don't believe that wild animals like lions, tigers and elephants should be mistreated for our entertainment. Therefore, I don't believe in supporting their business with my money. I would agree that finding smaller less expensive things would be the way to go - it should be about bonding with your kids and making memories, not how much money you can spend (I know it's not about that with you but with some people it is). You can tell them that, hey, that really does sound like fun but there are other fun things that we can do with our money and are not as expensive (but I've heard that it's not a good a idea to say "we can't afford it" because it creates a mindset in kids that if they just had more money, they would be happier and more money is the answer to life's problems).

My husband and I did end up doing a family membership to the Detroit Zoo (we live in SE Michigan, in the 'burbs) both last year and this year, and what was great about it was that all of us could go as much as we wanted and it was good for a year. We pack sandwhiches and drinks from home so we don't have to pay crazy prices for food. We probably ended up going 5 or 6 times each year and my 3-year-old daughter was ecstatic every time. 7 years ago, when we lived in Massachusetts, we did a family season pass for Six Flags - it was an hour away and at the time my stepsons were 8 and 9. We would take them every weekend and they had a blast. If you can find something where you can afford to pay an annual membership and going even 2 or 3 times pays for itself, that might be worth it.

When my stepsons were younger, they liked going to the paint-your-own pottery places, and I can't wait to start taking my daughter. My daughter has also enjoyed the local cheap water park, the beach at the nearby state park, and farms and orchards where you pick your own fruit.

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We have definitely cut back on family entertainment but haven't cut it out completely. We are just very selective on what we are spending our money on and usually won't splurge on it unless we can take advantage of some kind of special deal. Since you are in Vegas, you may want to check out the website for Groupon if you haven't already. They offer daily deals at really great prices. We were able to purchase 4 rounds of miniture golf at Putt Putt Miniture Golf for only $15 recently. Normally it would have cost double that amount if not more.

Hope this helps.

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i may not go b/c of how abusive they are to their animals..i don't want to support that..and grandma bought tickets to Walking with Dinosaurs so i'm off the hook..but i will take my son to Disneyland..now here's the trick on saving $$...go to ebay and buy Disney tix there..make sure they get good reviews...u can get tickets way cheaper on there..i bet for everything else too. :)

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My son isn't old enough for that yet, but if he were I would just tell him it's his choice and he can pick one thing. If you go to the circus this year, then maybe next year you do Disney. There are plenty of things to do otherwise that are free or don't cost nearly as much as big outings like those you mention. Do you have a parks district in your area? Many times they have a schedule of concerts, plays, and other fun events that are low cost or free to attend. If you keep the kids busy with those things they won't think they're missing out.

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I don't like the circus. The clowns freak me out and I don't like animal shows. Yeah, I'm a downer. What we did was buy a family membership to the local rescue zoo. Other families are doing the same with children's museums.

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We did the circus and walking with Dinosaurs this year. We don't do these things every year, but the timing was right this year.

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Our daughter is older now and we have not been to the circus in a few years but we did go every year for years. She and we LOVED it. We didn't go cheap, we got the seats up front and had a blast. We always went an hour early to get upfront and see the action.

We did the Disney thing too, 8 times, all first class and enjoyed every minute.

This summer we've been to musicals at Fair park and Winspear Opera House and had a great time.

Harlem Globetrotters is another one we really enjoyed several times. She got her basketball autographed by each player.

You just choose whhich things you want to participate in when times are tight.

1 mom found this helpful

I truly despise the circus, but it comes to our area every year. When my kids were younger my husband took them, since he loves that kind of thing. Was a nice Dad's night out with the kids. Took the kids to Disney in Fla once, which was plenty! Mostly we do cheap stuff too. But even the kids now can't stand going to see the circus either!

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Tighter times have been around for a lot of people for a very long time. People seem to treat Disneyland, Circus, Sea World as if they need to do these things yearly or they just aren't being good parents. Let's see my son in now 10, the first time he got to go to Disneyland he was 8. He lucked out that year because we planned it as a family in Spring and then during Christmas my husband's work gave a day at Disneyland or California Adventure for their Christmas gift. We did not go before he was 8 and we have not been since. It's a privilege to be able to go to these places and it takes a lot of hard earned money on my husband's part too. I work part time myself and my husband makes an excellent living, it's just too indulgent. Pick one a year if you must, but my children do not expect visits or vacations that pack the big buck items such as these. We like to spend time together camping and playing games together or bike riding. Those might seem "old ways", but it sure worked for us as kids. I don't believe we ever had expectations of going to Disneyland or Sea World each year or more often. Something to think about...

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If possible, we still plan these fun things. We try to figure out the cheapest way possible.

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My son's two. But no, I would not go to the circus probably. We like to get movies for free at the library. Pop popcorn at home. We go to the pet store and library for 'fun' during the week.

If I had kids telling me they wanted to do all three. Either I'd tell them that THEY need to raise the money to go (lemonade stand, chores for neighbors, etc) or else we can only go on 1 or 2 trips. Parents choose one trip, kids pick the other, or put all three trips in a hat and draw. Or for every chore you do, your pick goes on a piece of paper and into a jar. At the end of a certain time, one gets drawn from the jar. (this would teach the kids about 'chance' with math, ratio, etc).

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The best family outing we've had all year was the circus in February! It was fabulous! We may not go every year, but we're definitely going back soon. They both loved it. I'm also excited to take them to the GA State Fair in a few weeks. I used to love the fair when I was a kid. We're definitely doing Walking With Dinosaurs the next time it comes to Atlanta as well. We do a lot of puppetry arts center and are also planning a visit to a monster truck rally because my boys love trucks! However, if we were taking a vacation to Disney, I would probably nix a few things and let them know we couldn't do all of that. We go to Six Flags or White Water as well, but if we were doing the Disney vacation, we wouldn't do those too.

sure i'd go to the circus, it's good entertainment for parents and kids.

be realistic and give them a budget. Don't know how old your kids are, but with my 8 yr old, she wants to do ALL kinds of things for her birthday party, so I gave her a budget she must adhere to, and she will make the decision what to keep and what to cut. Ice cream cake for $65? or cupcakes for $2.25 hmmm. we are going with cupcakes so she can get some decorations.

how enlightening it was to read this post and to learn that so many moms are wise to the horrors of the circus. i sent you all flowers .. there are so many fun things to do .. i just went to zuma (free) beach yesterday and all it cost was the gas in getting there .. and as far as vegas goes, the liars childrens museum was a nice experience when we there. there are actually websites of all the free things to do in vegas (and other cities) .. one website is: http://vegas4locals.com/free.html .. hope this helps .. -- L.