What did your family make of Canberra?

[Janet]

My children didn't go to the rally although they loved the JB dinner. They loved the dinosaur museum too. :lol

Anyone's children have any revelations to share on the political issues or the environs? I'd love to hear. :)

[Ceres]

We didn't take our kids to the rally either. The weather was just too shite to stand in the rain with them for hours. They enjoyed the dinner (especially Twit the clown :lol ) and they LOVED the questacon. I wish we'd had more time there.
They're pretty used to being dragged around to political rallies so it was just a bit more same-same for them I think. They were surprisingly amazing on the 2 day drive to get there!

[Aurora]

I only took my daughter, who's 15 months old, and she had a great time at the hotel. She's never stayed in one before, and oooohhh all the stairs! (she's a climber lol). And she loved the lift too.

As for Canberra, yeah she seemed impressed! We went to the markets on Saturday, along the foreshore, and she tasted some goodies, checked out some handmade toys, and met some other lovely toddlers whilst we picnicked on the grass afterwards. The rally she handled really well, surprisingly, as she can be funny in crowds. Despite the rain, I hardy heard a peep from her all day, she spent most of the time in the Ergo just checking it all out with wide eyes. She even had a big snooze mid rally.

[homebirthmum]

We LOVED questacon, especially the 0-6 area.
We talked a lot about what happens in canberra ( as in politics) in pretty basic terms.
It was amazing what they took in of the rally itself and the message. On the night of the rally the girls both drew pictures... Ivy 5, of a big pregnanat bellied woman with a cute baby floating in her roundness. April, 7, drew a mama carrying her tiny baby withhair flowing and gorgeous colors... with 'what do we want? Homebirth. When do we want it? Now!"
I was really... i don't know, proud I guess, that they had taken so much in. April said later that she really enjoyed the speakers and what they had to say. Bless.

[Mud]

My children were too tired to make it to the dinner, and I didn't stay long with one sleeping in the car and DP waiting, but they would have loved it. It fitted right in with the circus workshop we went to on Saturday (thanks to Beatrice for posting details) -- it was great. We also had a fun time at Questacon.

Our other highlight was Tidbinbilla -- a wildlife park (also with awesome adventure playground), south of Canberra. We saw brolgas and platypus on a lake, as well as black swans. Not to mention stacks of roos and emus.

The food coop at ANU is also pretty good (hooray for carob pod chunks).

The rally was a bit disappointing for my 6yo. (I think she envisaged a more personal confrontation with our nation's leaders, and I had neglected to mention that the rally might involve hours of standing in the rain, not being able to see or hear much -- thank goodness for snacks from the food coop.) Sadly, she was too shy to say hello to some JB girls she recognised from a Youtube video. I probably should have intervened! At least she got to sing along with the Song for Nicola Roxon, which she loves. A bunch of my cousins had turned up, which was a lovely surprise and made it more fun.

We were staying with friends near bushland, which is one of the best things about Canberra, I reckon (friends and the bush). We'll have to go back soonish and check out some other stuff -- and see more Questacon. Shame they closed the predator room.

[Asrathiel]

Mine loved Questacon too, especially the ball thingo in the front lobby bit (the perpetual motion thing) Malachi was quite enthralled by it, along with Ceres' and GreenGully's DSs when we saw them there :D Also Mini Q was very cool.
Malachi really likes going up Black Mountain Tower too, and he loved the one big shark in the little aquarium bit at the zoo.
Mine are both too young (4 and 17 months) to really appreciate the rally, though I had talked about it a fair bit with Malachi beforehand.
For Malachi the most exciting thing was talking about all the things we're going to do when we move to Canberra, he's quite excited about that :D

[Mud]

Revisiting the rally on Youtube has proved to be popular -- we spotted the cousins, and sang the favourite song. My 2yo kept saying "More homebirth! More homebirth!"

[cgull]

My three sisters live in Canberra and two of them made it to the rally. (Unfortunately the pregnant one was stuck at home with sick kids :( ). They felt a bit uncomfortable because they were the only ones there without babies and placards. It was their first political rally, so an education for them. I was very grateful/proud that they were willing to stand there for a couple of hours in the rain. And my youngest sister, who's always said she could never have a homebirth, may be having a change of heart, after seeing a poster that said, "Homebirth: Safe after 3 caesareans" :-)

[SamanthaW]

Cipher was at the rally, boobing and napping on and off. Atticus tired of the rally before it even began and so spent the morning in the general vicinity with his dad. Atti was quite a fan of the tearooms at Old Parliament House, where he enjoyed a poopyseed muffin, and spent a long time going up and down the stairs to Parliament House's carpark, entertaining a busload of foreign visitors who serenaded him with 'Climb Every Mountain'. :lol

We left Canberra straight from the rally, so didn't see anything outside of the campsite and PH. Would love to go back one day!

[Beatrice]

I didn't have babies or a placard either. No babies because I had someone to leave them with, no placard because I am a slack tart and didn't get around to making anything :lol I did take my 12yo, so will have to ask her what she thought about it all.