I
t’s easy to sink back into complain mode about how hard parenting is. There’s no doubt about it; it’s tough as shit. It’s a lot of work and your kids end up hating you anyway, at least through the teen years but oh, there are those moments. Even though I had to bribe her to go to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art with the offer of buying her a new sketch book and pencil, it was fun using our free membership to the museum. LACMA has made it their mission to interest kids in art. So much so that they offer a program that gives any kid that goes to the museum a free pass until they’re 18. They get to bring one adult along. So today, for free, we checked out the new Flavin exhibit. The museum is undergoing renovation so there was no modern art to check out except Flavin.

Emma had a great time looking at how the light coming off of his florescent light installations made the atmosphere change from room to room. It was a magnificent experience to walk around with her, all of nine years old, and be there at the moment when going to a museum becomes an actual experience for her. She wasn’t just being dragged along by me – she was looking at it with appreciation and awe. It’s like the first time they take a step, make a joke, laugh at one of your jokes. It makes it oddly worth it, even when they whine about being hungry and tired twenty minutes later.

Oh, and don’t bother taking pictures. It’s apparently disrespectful to do so and not allowed. A museum volunteer was hovering and pointing moments after these photos were snapped.