DC area parents are better educated than the parent population in other cities and a lot of them parent competitively, plus they have more readily available disposable income. These things add up to tons of parents seeking “enrichment” experiences for their kids.

Combine that with the DC area not having adequate resources to meet this demand.

Our kids are teens now and we have dragged them all over the US and Europe to every kind of “enrichment” activity you can imagine, all seasons, all times of day, all days of the week. I can, hands down, say that the DC area activities are the most over subscribed, crowded, and unpleasant.

That being said, there are a ton of good art museums in DC with light crowds, so maybe try that.

Move away to your own island OP

Same reason the roads are crowded.

"You are not stuck in traffic. You are traffic."

Anonymous wrote:OP I have noticed this as well! It is so unpleasant and so we basically don't do any of that stuff. We do more parks, hiking, biking, uncrowded playgrounds. Good thing about moco is that there are a lot of parks so we take advantage of that for fresh air and getting away from people.

As for reason, I think it is a mix of dual working households, high income, but more importantly, neurotic parents who can't stand the though wasting a moment of their kids lives without some activity or enrichment.

Shut up

Anonymous wrote:Some parents are literally terrified at the thought of an entire weekend day with their kids and no external activity. Terrified. And I know this because they straight up say so. So they sign up for lessons and book paid outings because they are afraid to spend 12 hours home alone with their children.

I’m the opposite of a homebody. I love to go out and on outings.

When my kids were younger and I worked, we would go on an outing on the weekends. I am not terrified to stay home. We just couldn’t go during the week because I had to work so we would go on the weekends to the zoo, museum, etc.

I now don’t work and my kids are too old or don’t want to go. We are busy with sports and parties. We attend those places as birthday party guests.

OP I have noticed this as well! It is so unpleasant and so we basically don't do any of that stuff. We do more parks, hiking, biking, uncrowded playgrounds. Good thing about moco is that there are a lot of parks so we take advantage of that for fresh air and getting away from people.

As for reason, I think it is a mix of dual working households, high income, but more importantly, neurotic parents who can't stand the though wasting a moment of their kids lives without some activity or enrichment.

I'm not sure how old your kids are, but we just take ours to the various local parks on the weekends. They need time to decompress and play. In these cases, the younger kids are on the playgrounds, and the older kids are playing basketball or soccer or lacrosse. Sometimes we call a neighbor to see if their kids want to meet us over there and the adults can chat while the kids run around- for hours.

I agree with the PPs say most families have 2 income parents, plus they feel the need to schedule all their time and maybe even "take advantage" of all that DC has to offer. I personally think the kids need to relax most weekends and have time to play.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:People in this area have a ton of money and no ability to entertain their kids at home. We stick to unknown local playgrounds, our backyard, and activities around our house.

Would add that housing prices mean a lot of people don't have room for kids to run around inside or in a big yard, so looking for places to go. Those same people have enough $ to pay for play spaces etc though.

These are pretty standard replies for a lot of posts. People here have a lot of money and are highly educated and they have small houses so they have to go to play spaces. That’s not why play places and museums are crowded.

It’s a densely populated area with houses very close together. Condos, apartment buildings with thousands of people. The more housing the more families, the more children, the big crowds on the weekend. OP you couldn’t use logic to figure that out?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, why don’t you take the kids on a Tuesday? I’m assuming it’s because they are in school, you work, or both.

Same with all the other families.

I guess you missed the point? This seems to be a specific problem to this area. I have lived in other places with my kids. As well as gone on vacation to other places and they weren’t like this on weekends. They have people-but not like this. This is crazy. And for the places that you pay for like a specific period (60 minutes, 90 minutes, 2 hours etc…) you are spending so much of that time waiting. It just doesn’t seem worth it. So what does everyone do? Just take their kids out of school when they went to go to one of these places? Or simply not go to any places with your kids?

Apparently you’ve never lived in NYC. When the schools have early days I take them to the various museums and kid venues.

Besides Boston and Chicago I can’t think of too many other big cities that would be just as crowded.


If you don’t have occasional flexible hours maybe try as soon as they open or the last couple of hours before closing.

If you go when there’s a special event, things tend to be crowded, and there are high tourism periods that can make things extra crazy, but generally I don’t agree. We went to the National Gallery this morning, and there were some other families there, but it was really pretty calm. At MLK Library yesterday, same thing. I think going to free activities close to other activities can help — if something does happen to feel too crowded or your kids aren’t interested that day, you can leave and do something else.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:People in this area have a ton of money and no ability to entertain their kids at home. We stick to unknown local playgrounds, our backyard, and activities around our house.

Agree. We typically avoid all these places on weekends, unless my kids are invited to a birthday party at one of them.

I think it’s a mix of disposable income, inability to entertain kids/teach them to entertain themselves, and some weird kind of consumerist FOMO.

Also agree. Most of the items on that list sound hellish to me and I'd only go if obligated. We also avoid overloading weekends with classes or sports leagues for kids.

We like hanging out at home on the weekends. We'll go for a hike, run some errands, maybe invite another family over for an early dinner where the kids entertain each other and the adults get to talk. Occasionally we'll do a museum, but we like the less crowded ones-- National Gallery or Udvar Hazy. We also sometimes hit up the library or a bookstore, maybe stop in a cafe for a treat before heading home to read our new books.

Some parents are literally terrified at the thought of an entire weekend day with their kids and no external activity. Terrified. And I know this because they straight up say so. So they sign up for lessons and book paid outings because they are afraid to spend 12 hours home alone with their children.

This problem is not exclusive to DC, but yes— this area is very crowded. You need to be strategic & plan ahead. We don’t go to kiddie places like trampoline parks, etc, but there are tons of other things to do with kids around here.

Vistit the Freer/Sackler, Portrait Gallery, or postal museum. If you want to visit popular museums, arrive right when they open. Take your kids on outings on random days off from school, like grade prep days. Go to a local nature center or hiking trail, go to the library, visit a battlefield or other historical site, go to your local indoor pool/rec center, visit a new playground, go to Frying Pan Farm, etc etc. Tons of stuff to do around here, and much of it is not crowded.

So don't go to those places! I don't mean this snarkily. Go on easy kid-friendly hikes and to outdoor playgrounds on nice days. On rainy days there are less-known museums (the college park aviation museum, the building museum are good kid friendly ones). There are always interesting festivals and kids' theater programs and ranger programs in county parks. Try the kid-friendly DC blog for ideas, I used to read it religiously when my now-middle schooler was younger. The upside to a big area like this is that there are a million things to do. Sometimes they're packed but mostly not

I sort of agree with you but there are places you can go that are less busy. The MD science center in Baltimore is rarely crowded and my kid loves it. The Baltimore zoo is also much nicer and less crowded than the DC zoo.
Bundle up and go for fun hikes or to playgrounds.
We went snow tubing today in Harpers Ferry and it was awesome. Not crowded at all. You have to buy tickets ahead online but they limit them. Totally worth it.