Children's Museum of Phoenix- The Response

Last weekend I posted a letter I wrote to the Children's Museum of Phoenix after an incident that had occurred while I was there with The Superhero and The Princess.

I did actually send the letter via email to the President/CEO of the company. And before I even came home from the museum, my husband had already posted on their Facebook page, posted on Twitter, and left voice-mail for a few people at the museum.

The Director of Education tried to get a hold of rod a couple of times this week, but he was really busy and did not get back to her. So on Thursday (yesterday) when I had not received a response from my email, I called and left a message for the CEO myself. She called me back a while later and was very nice on the phone. She assured me they were taking this seriously and wanted to make sure they learned from this experience. She stated that there were a few staff members with Diabetes and they would make sure they learned.

I explained to her that I do not expect them to all know everything about the disease, but more about customer service. I told her I would have appreciated hearing "Oh, I am sorry to hear that, can I help you with anything?" Or "Thanks for clarifying, please make sure you throw away your trash."

She agreed and let me know that the gentleman who spoke to me did ask her what he could have done differently.

She also mentioned that when the docent came over he thought it was odd because I had said my son had Diabetes and yet my daughter was sitting there holding her snack too. I explained to her that yes, my son does have Diabetes and he was the one who was low. But, also that when he goes low, The Princess thinks she needs something too. And rather than dealing with a low and a temper tantrum I chose to pick my battles and give her the same snack and juice I was giving to The Superhero. She agreed that this made sense. :-)

Anyway, it went well and I truly believe they will make an effort to learn from this.



Then, later last night I received an email from the Director of Education for the museum. I will paste it exactly as was sent to me below.

Dear Ms. Ripley,

 

Please know that many of the managers, directors, and CEO have investigated your unfortunate situation, and know that we always follow up on any visitor concerns. This is an unfortunate situation and will be rectified. I would also like to talk to you as some point as well to hear your input and suggestions.  Please know we are a new institution, who values all visitors and staff with all abilities.  In addition, I oversee the floor staff, interns, and volunteers.  Please know  I am highly sensitive especially to the issue at hand.  There is no excuse in regards to the lack of understanding and unfortunate insensitivity you and your children experienced. Please know that I called your husband twice, leaving my email address as well for follow up.  

 

Please know on our end we have morning huddled every day, provide information internally to all staff with our eblast, and have had many trainings throughout the year.  I will provide a general FAQ sheet for our staff regarding juvenile diabetes from the ADA and any other suggestions would be much appreciated.

 

On a personally note, I have been a diabetic, and unfortunately inherit the from my father, and my paternal grandfather.  I also have other varied abilities, so it is crucial that our staff is educated in unstinting ones essential needs, such as your sons.  I do have  a very large department who are here on various days.  Please know a memo will also go out to staff in understanding and sensitivity to children and adults with varied needs and abilities.

 

Once again, I am apologetic this occurred and know that we are listening.

 

Best-

 

Rosina Guardino, M.Ed. 

Education Director

And with that, I will plan to visit the museum again soon, and I will do my best to avoid the lows.


*Disclaimer: I am a mom of a T1 Diabetic child. I am NOT a doctor. I just play one in real life. Please do not take anything in this post or any other post on this blog as medical advice. If you have questions or concerns of your own, please seek advice from your doctor.*

Dear Children's Museum of Phoenix,

Dear Children’s Museum of Phoenix,

I would like to take a minute to share my experiences with your museum. A couple of months ago I took my 2 and 4 year old to your museum for the first time. The three of us had such a great time, so when we went back with friends a few weeks later we chose to buy an annual membership. I knew this was a place I could bring the kids, out of the heat, to have a great time year round. Our first two experiences were amazing. The kids had a blast and loved every minute of our time there.

When this weekend was approaching and I was figuring out what I wanted to do with the kids, the children’s museum was the first place that came to mind. I wish I could say our experience today was as good as the last two times. Unfortunately, it was a terrible experience. You see, my 4-year-old son has Type One Diabetes. This means his body does not make insulin on its own and I must balance his food, insulin, activity levels, etc to make sure his blood sugar stays as stable as possible. This requires a lot of hard work on my part. And even with all the work I put into managing this disease we still have times when his blood sugar goes too high or too low.

Today at the museum, my son ended up having a low blood sugar. Low blood sugar can cause a person with Diabetes to pass out, have a seizure, or even cause death. It is important for the person to be treated immediately. This is what I did when in the museum today. I was sitting on the third floor with both of my children. My son told me he felt really low, really really low. So I checked his blood sugar and he was right. He was very low at that moment. I sat on the couch with him and gave him some fruit snacks and applesauce to eat. While I was waiting for his blood sugar to come back up to a normal range a docent came over to me and told me that we were not allowed to have food in the museum unless we were in the 2^nd floor café. I explained to him how I understood but that my son had Diabetes and a low blood sugar, which needed to be taken care of immediately. He told me I should have taken my son down to the 2^nd floor to treat the low and give him the snack. I then explained how my son could have passed out on the way if I had done that with him. I was then told something to the effect of “Well, you should plan that out better…” As if the low blood sugar was something I had planned. I have to say I am very disappointed and upset about this situation. I feel as though we were singled out because another parent complained. I feel as though after I cleaned up our garbage we were being watched by the museum staff and were unable to really enjoy the rest of our time there. I ended up taking the kids home earlier than I had planned because I was so upset.

At this time I am unsure if I even want to return to the museum with my children. I truly think the experiences provided are great for my small children to grow and learn, but I do not want to feel discriminated against if I need to treat my son with some fruit snacks or a juice. I feel your museum staff should be educated about disabilities, which may affect your patrons. Some disabilities, such as Diabetes, are invisible, but are certainly life threatening and need to be attended to constantly.

Please let me know what action you plan to take to ensure this situation is not repeated when we, or another family with a type one diabetic child visits your museum.

Sincerely,

Tracy Ripley

Member of The Children’s Museum of Phoenix

ETA: I did actually send this in an email to the CEO. I posted about the response HERE.


*Disclaimer: I am a mom of a T1 Diabetic child. I am NOT a doctor. I just play one in real life. Please do not take anything in this post or any other post on this blog as medical advice. If you have questions or concerns of your own, please seek advice from your doctor.*