Last summer in Paris at the Louvre, my son Aaryaman cruised past the Mona Lisa without blinking an eye and made himself comfortable on a bench instead! After many frustrating outings to museums in India and abroad I have found that trying to impart art historical erudition to children has resulted in resentment or boredom. Whatever the age six or sixteen -- discussions about stylistic development and historical chronology don't work. I have now learnt not to be a stickler, and not to turn a pleasure into a discipline.

Many museums, especially in America and England, are increasingly trying to accommodate their family visitors with an array of special programmes and services. The National Gallery of Art in Washington DC, New York's Metropoliton Museum of Art, London's National Gallery now produce exhibition guides that are specially designed for those with children. Visitors to the Denver Art Museum can pick up a "Family Backpack" which contains kid-oriented gallery guides, games and activities.

The Getty Centre in Los Angeles boasts an 800 square feet Family Room with displays, hands-on activities and even a stage with costumes and backdrops where children can dress up and pose for such things as an imaginary 18th century family portrait. Even with museum guides and games and changing attitudes toward children visitors, the onus is still very much on the parents to make the visit work. A parent or some other loving adult is by far the best introducer of art for kids.

Many of us are too serious when we are in a museum with our children. These outings don't require a degree in art history or museum education, but call for a little planning, imagination and flexibility. I have realised that one of the biggest mistakes I have made is staying too long and trying to do too much. Making children feel that they are "dragged" around does not work. Going methodically from one work to another, dutifully reading each label, can make the experience a dreadfully laborious chore.

It is obviously helpful if one has picked things that are interesting for them to see. If not, then maybe children should be made to feel free to look at things that interest them and passover things that don't. This sense of empowerment is a key factor in successful museum going with children. They need to be given a chance to respond in their own way to a work of art through their own reality. Anything that they can relate to will sustain their interest longer. One just has to make it light or kids don't look and learn. If we want them to be serious about connoisseurship and art appreciation later, we need to make it fun at first. There is nothing wrong with making casual personal observations: "That landscape looks like the place we visited last summer." It gets them to look and puts them at their ease.

Being a little irreverent is often a good strategy with teenagers who may think being with their parents and elders in a museum is just so uncool. After all museums are not creations to the "manifestation of the glory of God, the confutation of atheism and its consequences, the use and improvement of physic and other arts and sciences and the benefit of mankind, open to all studious and curious persons".