entertaining a kid in Manhattan?

[Mistress_Spouzic]

Posted: 8/4/07 at 4:13am

this week im bringing a 12 yr old to the city and I was hoping some of you might be able to throw some ideas at me that I may not have thought of. Shes sort of an odd girl, and its hard to get her excited about anything. I figured Id take her to the Hershey Store & M&M stores, maybe get her makeup done at Macys... I just want to take her to do things she wouldnt do with anyone else so im trying to stay away from things like museums and such.
Updated On: 8/4/07 at 04:13 AM

[Anakela]

Posted: 8/4/07 at 1:28pm

I think my sister was 11 the last time she visited NYC. I don't know what you mean by 'odd girl' (?), but this is what we did:
- boat tour around southern Manhattan (after sunset- it's pretty cool to see everything all lit up)
- top of the Empire State Building
- visit Toys R Us Times Square
- visit the Disney Store on 5th Avenue
- visit the Barnes & Noble and Strand Books in Union Square (she loved how big all the stores were, and she's a total book geek like me :))
- Natural History Museum
- Central Park/ Central Park Zoo (total animal lover)
- Dylan's Candy Shop
- boat to Statue of Liberty
- rode the subway everywhere- by day 2 she was planning our route on the map herself
- went to see Wicked
- walked through Times Square, where her favorite part was seeing the MTV building where they film "the real TRL." :)
- ate at john's Pizzeria

And we also went to the Thanksgiving parade, and watched the blowing up of the balloons the night before- but that doesn't help you if your kid is going to be in the city next week. :)

[AnnaK<3LMIP]

Posted: 8/4/07 at 1:29pm

And that Build a Bear they have is intense.

[misschung]

Posted: 8/4/07 at 2:02pm

Shes sort of an odd girl, and its hard to get her excited about anything.

I'm sorry, but this made me laugh.

"He was born in NY, so nothing really interests him..." heh

Anyway, Anakela's suggestions are great. Also, Jekyl and Hyde restaurant is fun - I still went there when I was 12 and always had fun. And Ricky's is cool if she's into makeup and other "odd" stuff

[Caroline-Q-or-TBoo]

Posted: 8/4/07 at 2:04pm

if you go to The Strand (woodang I dun lost my mind in there!) take her around the rest of the lower manhattan. Soho is cool because of all the shops, and maybe Washington Square Park?

[Anakela]

Posted: 8/4/07 at 2:12pm

oh, we also did the NBC studio tour, which bored me out of my mind and I wouldn't have done except for the fact that we got comps, but which my sister *loved*- she was very big on her first visit on being able to see "the real ____" while in NYC of anything she'd seen on tv/ in books/ etc. So be it the set of SNL, or the windows on the MTV building where you can see TRL happening, or the Statue of Liberty, anything that was "the real" one of something she knew was her favorite at that age.

[AbbaRabbit]

Posted: 8/4/07 at 2:27pm

well since you want to do things she can't so anywhere else, getting her makeup done at macys can pretty much be done anywhere now that macys replaced filenes in just about every mall.

when i was in nyc a few summers ago, i loved going to the piers. i dont remember any of the numbers but one of them had alot of cool stores and you could watch the boats, and one of them had a big sports complex.
i also liked going around central park in a horse drawn carrige. the guy driving it told us all kinds of cool trivia about central park and pointed out where movies had been filmed.

[scott68]

Posted: 8/4/07 at 2:36pm

How about hitting Zabar's on 80th and Broadway for supplies, then having a picnic in Central Park?

[TheatreDiva90016]

Posted: 8/4/07 at 3:07pm

You can never go wrong with a stripper.

[Gothampc]

Posted: 8/4/07 at 9:13pm

Sony Wonder Tech Lab. It's hands on, self-paced and free.


Sony Wonder Tech Lab

[misschung]

Posted: 8/5/07 at 12:17am

but it's hard to get her excited over anything, theatrediva

[Wanna Be A Foster]

Posted: 8/5/07 at 7:15am

was very big on her first visit on being able to see "the real ____"

That got me laughing. Silleh cUntreh keds.

Updated On: 8/5/07 at 07:15 AM

[Anakela]

Posted: 8/5/07 at 2:06pm

It was pretty cute, actually-
"...and then tomorrow we'll go to the Statue of Liberty..."
"The *real* one?"
"Um, yeah, the real one."

:)

[Mistress_Spouzic]

Posted: 8/5/07 at 2:55pm

its not that I want to take her to do things she cant do elsewhere- I want to take her to do things other people wont take her to do. I want less touristy and more unusual things... the only reason I think getting her makeup done qualifies as something other people wont take her to do is cuz her mom probably thinks shes too young for it.
Updated On: 8/5/07 at 02:55 PM

[JerseyGirl2]

Posted: 8/6/07 at 2:20am

I second Dylan's Candy Bar. It's cute and if the sundaes are anything like the hot cocoa, it should be a fun way to cool off. When it was cold, the King Kong hot cocoa was heaven in a cup.

[bwaylvsong]

Posted: 8/6/07 at 9:05am

I can't believe noone has stated the obvious- see a show!
Hairspray, Wicked, Lion King, Mary Poppins, Mamma Mia?

Oops, I didn't see the "unusual" part. How about Serendipity? The Human Bodies Museum? ABT at Lincoln Center? A concert at Carnegie Hall, City Center, Town Hall, etc?

[Mistress_Spouzic]

Posted: 8/6/07 at 12:04pm

I would totally take her to a show, but her track record involves hating Hairspray and loving Tarzan so Im not sure where to even go from there... the only assumption I can reasonably make is that she enjoyed the spectacle and im not even sure if im right. And in terms of spectacle I could only picture her enjoying Mary Poppins or Wicked.

[Mistress_Spouzic]

Posted: 8/6/07 at 1:38pm

thanks for all the suggestions but i just spent 20 mins on the phone with her throwing out ideas, with her essentially saying i dont knooowwwww ughhhhhhhhhh. so i told her to give me 5 things she enjoys and she did the same thing. told her to call me when she thinks of something, got off the phone and she text me that she doesnt want to go and that she couldnt say so on the phone cuz she felt bad. Ive been crying for the past half hour. Its just so sad to me that she doesnt want to DO anything. Its not like my plan was to torture her for a day.

[Freckles1329]

Posted: 8/6/07 at 2:03pm

The M&M store in Times Square is cool.

[iflitifloat]

Posted: 8/6/07 at 2:12pm

She's the problem, not you, Mistress... But you're right...it IS sad. Even sadder is that there ARE a ton of kids out there who would LOVE to have the same opportunity.

[RobbO]

Posted: 8/6/07 at 2:19pm

damn, and my advice WAS going to be torture her for a day. damn!

[Anakela]

Posted: 8/6/07 at 2:51pm

She's the problem, not you, Mistress... But you're right...it IS sad. Even sadder is that there ARE a ton of kids out there who would LOVE to have the same opportunity.

I was just about to say, find some other kid who would be grateful to spend some time with you, doing anything in the city, and isn't some brat- but I thought that might sound rude. :)

[Mistress_Spouzic]

Posted: 8/6/07 at 3:15pm

oh believe me i have tons of other cousins, but this was the one that i think really needs to see that theres more to life and she just isnt interested.

[RobbO]

Posted: 8/6/07 at 3:28pm

send her on a blind date with cruel_sandwich!

[Gothampc]

Posted: 8/6/07 at 9:58pm

Different strokes for different folks I guess. When I was her age, you couldn't get me to New York City fast enough. I didn't care what I did as long as I was there. If it just meant walking around the streets, that would have been enough for me. So many sights, smells, people. It was a sensory overload.