About 6 months ago I visited Crayola experience to get more information about what “the experience” was. A gentlemen gave me tons of information and even said they offer military and first responders free entry to include nurses. I never asked for this information, it was offered up to me but I thought this was a great perk and a huge thanks to nurses!

A couple months later I took my toddler to the Crayola experience. We were allowed in with my nursing badge, this was also a different staff member than before, who gave me the information and they did not question me so I did not think much of it. We had an amazing time. She loved rolling her own crayons and playing with the melted crayon spin art!

We had so much fun we came back a couple weeks later! When we came back and were at the ticket/ sales desk, I told the front desk representative that I was a nurse and showed her my badge. She looked at me confused by this information and I said I was told by other staff members nurses are considered first responders and can get in by showing their badge along with military members. She looked at me and said “nurses are not first responders, I have been here for 5 years and they are not”. I said that comment is rude and offensive to the cashier. By definition a “first responder” is “someone designated or trained to respond to an emergency” so by definition a nurse can be defined as a first responder. I said okay well military members are okay right? Her response was “yes” never saying only the active military member not families. I showed her my spouse ID and her response was “oh you’re just a spouse that doesn’t count”. This comment just oozes ignorance “just a spouse”. In less than a three minute conversation, the Crayola experience employee had offended ALL nurses and ALL military families.

I told the cashier I needed to speak to a manager and that now she had offended me not once but twice. She did not seem regretful or even apologetic for her comments but seemed more annoyed she had to get a manager, which infuriated me even more. The manager I spoke with was very kind and apologized about the whole situation and gave clear guidelines of what they consider for each free entrance. I appreciated him speaking to me about the situation.

I had no problem buying a pass or ticket for entrance but the comments and remarks from the employee who enjoyed reminding me she has been with the company for 5 years, were so offense that I would expect more from someone with that much “training”. Even though the manager did diffuse the situation, I’m not sure if I would be able to promote the Crayola experience to other nurse friends/ co-workers or other military families. This was the absolute worst interaction I have had with a cashier ever and very disheartening since the whole experience is meant for kids and families.