Children's Museum Chesterfield — Attraction in Midlothian

Wow...the "manager" working at 2pm on 3 June 2018 about got your business in some trouble. As she argued with me in front of the whole facility that my PTSD service dog was REQUIRED to have certification papers or a service vest with patches. I I formed her of her mistake and advised she look at the ADA federal website as well as call her supervisor. As a courtesy I waited at the front door while my family went inside to play. I waited for 15 minutes before I grew tired of her game and just walked in. After another 10 minutes she came back to me and tried her nonsense again. This time saying she spoke to the manager (she said she was at first) and the manager gave her an ok to make an exception. I responded "no, the federal law is allowing me in here" she said we as a business have a right to deny anybody we want to...at this point my anxiety and frustration were starting to win over (it's why I have a PTSD service dog) and I explained to her that she better "close her lips and go educate herself on what the actual ADA laws are" she started to twitch her eye and say something else but I cut her off and told her if she didn't like me there to call the police...which she did and they sat outside and waites...wished me a good day and left. I understand her being ignorant to the law, it's not common that someone visits a playplace with a service dog, but when presented with the facts and given an opportunity to correct herself she continued to argue with a paying customer. Her asking for my papers, her asking how I was injured and asking for my ID is absolutely in violation of federal regulaton and leaves the establishment open for some very nasty litigation and some even nastier public attention via social media and local news. I suggest the employee reaposible be given a coarse in the ACTUAT A.D.A LAWS to prevent this happening to someone less concerned with the affect of the situation on their children. Her unprofessionalism, pride and ignorance are a dangerous combination for your company given the possible avenues available as she discriminated against me due to my disabilities...

We've been coming here for years but try to go to the Richmond one because it's much bigger. We went today after paying full admission and weren't allowed into a certain section because apparently three years old is too old for the area but when my child was one or two no one seemed to care about the 6 and 7 year Olds in there terrorizing the smaller children. I would have been much more understanding had there even been one child in the area and/or I had a wild type of child (he only wanted to slide down the little slide). And no one stopped much older children on the bigger slide from climbing up the slide constantly and screaming and not allowing for other children to go down the slide as it's intended use. Why aren't parents made to watch their children? These children's parents weren't anywhere in site but instead reading books or playing on their phone in a location where they can't even see their child. In what area can I bring my 3 year old if the older children terrorize the main areas and aren't stopped by staff when children use the play equipment inappropriately and he can't go into the younger area with no children in it? It is very unfair to children who want to play with the equipment appropriately; especially when the same staff person who told us we couldn't go into a certain area didn't say anything to the children screeching and using the play equipment...

We haven’t gone to this location in roughly two years (since Covid). I took my almost 7 year old (& my older girls) today & although my youngest had fun, I found the museum to be lacking in some areas. I feel there could be way more hands-on activities, more directions posted at the different play areas & more things to help engage learning.

In the pet area, there were no real cats, but there was a sign saying please don’t tap the glass, but the pets were stuffed animals. My daughter was sad because she wanted to see real cats. The bus had no upgrades since the last time we were there & nothing to really spark interest or learning. Outside the bus was an area where you could build your own car, but there were not a lot of blocks to do that. My daughter wanted to play in the water area, but they were doing repairs, so she couldn’t.

My girls did like the new tire activity & the slide area. My youngest loved being a cashier & shopping using the grocery list. We miss when they had all the shelves so the kids could really feel like they were in a store shopping. There was only one shelf with little grocery options (jars, can goods, milk, juice etc). The room next to the store was a restaurant & all the food was placed in a bucket & the kids just dug to find the items they wanted. My youngest loved the food because it looked...