I read another great article tonight about travel disasters. As usual, along with the middle seat dilemma, the baby scenario reared its ugly head (metaphorically speaking of course). You know the scene. Walk onto the plane, find your seat and lo and behold, there is stressed out mum with a distressed infant struggling to get settled in for the 12 hour flight. Thoughts of sleep and any relaxation on the flight are banished, and you prepare mentally for 12 of the longest hours of your life. Familiar? Well this may meet with howls of derision and mockery, but I want to stick up for the travelling mums, and say “give them a break.”
My experience started the same way as so many others. I got on the plane early, and as I had pleaded my way to a bulk head seat I was aware of the risk that any babies on the overnight trans-Atlantic flight might be heading my way. Sure enough, along came a woman around my age with a baby, not more than 6 months old. I couldn’t hide that look of dismay at my probably noisy overnight companion.
And then I did what I do with most people unfortunate enough to get a seat next to mine. I started chatting. It turns out the lady was a fellow ex-pat Brit returning to her family to show off the newborn. I knew the home town well. It also turns out we were both in the process of studying for our MBAs. We chatted away and she confided that she was terrified of taking the flight as she knew how unpopular she would be, armed with a loaded and dangerous baby. And she had noticed my grimace as she made her way to the seat. I felt bad for my initial reaction, and at one point did the unthinkable and even held the baby while she was sorting something out.
We said our goodbyes on arrival in Manchester, and I was pleased to have had a pleasant travel companion and even more so to have had a prejudice challenged in such a way. I have since talked to parents who have similarly dreaded the thought of flying because of the panic in the eyes of fellow travellers. One friend exprienced open hostility from a businessman who sat next to her for a short flight. And one set of friends whose baby did attempt to break the sound barrier for the entire duration of a flight from the UK to the eastern Med shared their total shame and embarrassment at their little one’s impact on their fellow travellers.
So while I will not choose to be the baby’s travelling companion, I have resolved to appreciate that the parent is probably more anxious about the baby’s behaviour than me, that we may have lots of things in common that only a good conversation will uncover, and that it will be a more pleasant journey all round if we get along.
Toddlers who repeatedly kick my seat from behind on the hand, is another matter. Don’t get me started!!
I can agree with you on the seat kickers thing, I had the misfortune of a Calgary to Manchester flight sat next to a couple and their six bored, fractious, mumping and moaning, up 'n' down biblically named toddler children taking up nine seats betwen the entire family at the back. My solution? 2mg of Valium in their orange juice.
Six of them? my sympathies. And when I've seen people ask the kids to stop, more than once I've heard the parents give an earful back in defence of their brat. Give em all valium!
I was really impressed with Lufthansa because of their (among other things) baby seating area. They have cradles for the babies, and lots of room for moms. And they can kinda sit together, which must be nice. They’re in the front of the section, by bathrooms, and there’s lots of legroom. They have great toys and activity packages for older kids (and great movies!), too. The best flight i’ve ever been on, and it cost the same as a US airline (actually less, because i didn’t have to pay for checked baggage, meals, and all the other crap they’re charging extra for now.
Mine is 8 now, but I remember flying to Belize when he was 2. It’s so hard to keep a little one occupied, still and quiet for even a short flight like Houston-Belize. I can’t imagine the trans-Atlantic. Wow.
Oh, thank you, thank you for sticking up for traveling moms everywhere. Most of us really do try to make it as painless as possible for our fellow passengers, including attempting to keep the seat kicking to a minimum. And the looks of dismay when you’re going to sit beside someone are truly daunting. If we could all just try to be a bit friendlier to our neighbors, empathetic instead of geared to judge and be angry, how much nicer would our world be??