Family-Friendly Mardi Gras - Possible? You Bet!

My Mardi Gras Experience is over and I have to say-- it was pretty awesome!

Before we left I had family members roll their eyes when I told them I was taking my family, including my 5 year old daughter, to Mardi Gras in New Orleans.

Having no prior experience with New Orleans or the festivities of Mardi Gras, I was apprehensive about what I was going to find once I got there. But guess what? We all made it back and my daughter isn't scarred for life. In fact, we had so much fun as a family we are planning a Mardi Gras visit next year!

I think if taking your family to Mardi Gras is on your "to-do" list, it can definitely be done safely and appropriately for a child to experience. After all, we did it, successfully.

When traveling with children to Mardi Gras there are 2 things you need to know-- Where to Go and When to Leave.

Where to Go - The misconceptions of Mardi Gras is mainly based on the media's focus of the debauchery on Bourbon Street. Knowing this, you would NOT bring a child to this area of New Orleans any time of day during Carnival season. We stayed away from Bourbon Street and had no less fun because of it. Simply put, Bourbon Street is an area not meant for a child.

With that being said, where to go? For the parades, we hung out with families on the edge of St. Charles Avenue. This was where, from morning to night, the majority of families tailgated and viewed the parades. We also took advantage of the grandstands on Canal St. which were made available through our hotel, Sheraton New Orleans.

Even from the grandstands of our first night parade, Endymion, I couldn't help but notice all the kids! Tons of children and their families. The floats threw out beads, cups and little stuffed animals. It was not the drunken "exposure fest" I thought it would be -- at all.

When to Leave - Even viewing parades from an area where mostly families congregate, it is also best to know when to leave. New Orleans is still a major city and when the parades were over we left. Normally this was around 10pm. I had no desire to see what happened once the last float passed us by, especially with such precious cargo in tow.

There is also the option of just doing day parades if you are concerned with having your children out late at night. On the weekends leading up to Fat Tuesday, parades run all day along St. Charles Avenue. This is where families get together with friends and do all day cookouts and socialize in between the different parades. This was where we were introduced to the ladders, which allow little ones to catch more beads and see the parades from off the ground. Very clever and effective!

Tips for bringing your family to Mardi Gras in New Orleans

• Book a hotel downtown (close to the action) with grandstands.  The grandstands will most likely be an additional charge, but it's a guarantee to have a nice viewing location. Since you will be a guest of the hotel, you will have access to restrooms...something NOT easily found without a fee elsewhere. This also gives you easy access to your hotel room for naps or breaks. There are hotels located on St. Charles Ave (farther away from downtown on the parade route) where many families tailgate on a grassy median in the middle of the street. {Note:  I'm not sure on the logistics of this as we enjoyed the parade with a local family who staked out their viewing area days prior to the parades. As a family just visiting, you may not be able to tailgate, but there is no reason you couldn't walk across the street and enjoy the parades as they come by.} The benefit of this would be access to a restroom and only a quick jaunt for naps.

• Don't bring small children. It would be my recommendation to not bring babies or small toddlers to Mardi Gras. My daughter is 5 and I think this was the perfect age to start (she understood what was going on and really could participate).  There are a lot of people (which equals a lot of noise), and I think it may be too overstimulating for a baby/toddler. If your children aren't happy, it's hard to have a good time yourself.

• Watch for Falling Beads. Something I wasn't prepared for was the actual throwing of the beads. Even with all the children, the bead throwers have a tendency to throw really hard, especially on the larger Super Krewe floats. This can seriously be a safety hazard, especially with little ones. I guess we were lucky in that the only one who got hurt was me. A set of larger beads hit the tips of my fingers in an awkward way. Needless to say, my hand was in pain for awhile, which was part due to the freezing temperatures that evening. I did see a few children get hit in the head with beads ... nothing too serious, but there were tears. For future planning, always bring gloves for everyone to catch the beads. Gloves really make a difference. This was only an issue at the nighttime parades, and there is a medic on-site to deal with injuries.

With the exception of my minor bead injury, our whole experience was without incident. I think my daughter enjoyed Mardi Gras as much as I did and has since shared her experience (and beads!) with her class.

I think we took all the necessary precautions one should take when traveling to New Orleans during Mardi Gras with their child. By doing this, I felt that she saw nothing inappropriate for a child of her age ... or we just got lucky 🙂

My trip was sponsored by the fine people at Tabasco, Zehnder, Sheraton New Orleans and was featured on MyMardiGrasExperience.com. Special thanks to Tom Martin and his family for sharing their Mardi Gras with us.