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Message: <blockquote data-quote="mikfoz" data-source="post: 1379519" data-attributes="member: 72221">I totally agree. It's an impressive looking building from outside but it's useless to sit in and full of kids running about and banging on the windows.It'd be a fabulous one to take a party of kids to on a visit but for serious watching it's annoying and there are not actually all that many places to sit.I'm with you on all the ones you mentioned but I also like the United Utilities hide for its views of the farmland while still giving you good views of the mere.On the subject of kids I have to echo both sentiments expressed in the thread. Parents who are ineffective are the problem for both reasons. The ones who don't give a damn and let their kids bicker and run around while almost zoning them out are a pain in the neck but equally so are the ones who just plain don't realise that some kids hate being in hides because they find them utterly lifeless and boring. If you have such a child then what on Earth are you doing dragging them in there in the first place!I have children of both types:<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul"> Child 1 will spend all day with me tramping through woods and fields competing to spot things flitting/crawling/slithering about and poking about in muddy puddles. Take him in a hide and he starts fretting and fussing because he can't access the experience in a tactile way. Go bug hunting in a wood and chatter on to him about this and that rather than being a parent-shaped statue glued to binoculars and he's a happy little boy.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Child 2, on the other hand, will gladly sit in a hide watching for a distant Barn Owl through a scope or binoculars and track it around. He's genuinely pleased if he's the first to call a distant bird of prey and wants to know what they are. He's happy tramping through the woods as well but is less observant while walking about than if we've picked a spot.</li> </ul>Both will start picking fights with each other and playing tag if ignored at any point. You have to actively involve your kids if you're going to take them anywhere. It's the same in a supermarket as it is on a nature reserve.Kids also have a shorter attention span and woe betide the parent who doesn't realise it's time to move on.</blockquote>

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