Advice for airline travel with toddlers (1 Viewer)

[Ruz-El]

The OP isn't flying due to a crisis, he's planning a trip. Big difference. If he's not sure his Kid will be ok on the plain, he should change his vacation plans.

 

[Jason Charlton]

Originally Posted by Russell G
The OP isn't flying due to a crisis, he's planning a trip. Big difference. If he's not sure his Kid will be ok on the plain, he should change his vacation plans.

The nature of the trip is irrelevant to the discussion at hand. Families travel and some families have small kids. It's not yours or anyone else's place to say that small children are not to be allowed on airplanes based solely on how they may behave on one day versus any other. I'm sure there are days when you're in a bad mood - should you not be allowed to participated in anything social in such a case?


For the record, it's a family reunion that's taking place 2,862 miles away from my home. With all due respect to you, I'll fly instead of adding 10 days of road travel, thank you.


Also, Russell, if you had read MY posts carefully, my questions were more focused on the logistics of the travel itself - shipping luggage, direct vs. nonstop flights, the merits of taking carseats, etc. I am not too concerned about my children's behavior as I consider myself a firm, but good parent who won't hesitate to do the right thing in consideration of the other passengers.

Originally Posted by Carl Miller
I can sympathize Russell, but only to a certain degree. As a fairly frequent traveler for work, I've been bothered more than a few times by children....As a parent however, the plain and simple fact is that sometimes children have to go on planes and sometimes, things are going to happen.


No excuse for your situation, as a child kicking a seat is a preventable thing, provided the parents make the appropriate effort. But, there are times on a plane when there is nothing a parent can do to prevent a child from bothering someone....Like many years ago when my son, at age 3, wouldn't stop crying on an airplane because his ears were hurting him. I was public enemy #1 on that flight and initially mortified by what was happening....But after hearing enough nasty comments, I stopped caring. I was, in fact, on my way to my grandfather's funeral, for which my attendance was just a tad more important to me than the convenience of the other passengers. In other words, I wasn't going to miss the funeral.


Raising children is a funny thing...they have to actually be taken outside, in order to be taught how to behave in public, to get used to flying and so on and on.

Now that I've become a parent myself, when I see situations like yours, Carl, my sympathies lie with the parent. I know how maddening (and embarrassing) it can be to seem so helpless and completely at the mercy of the child, but discipline is necessary and something that both my wife and I are in complete agreement about.


I agree completely that children need to experience thing in order to learn, and that they won't always get things right the first time. As parents, the best we can do is prepare them the best we can beforehand, and be prepared to deal with the consequences should they arise.

 

[Ruz-El]

Originally Posted by Jason Charlton



I'm sure there are days when you're in a bad mood - should you not be allowed to participated in anything social in such a case?

Truth be told, if I'm in a bad mood, I pass on or remove myself from social activities that may cause additional stress to myself or others. So yeah, it's about choices.

 

[Jason Charlton]

Originally Posted by Russell G
So yeah, it's about choices.

But still it's YOUR choice - not others who do the choosing for you.

 

[Ruz-El]

Originally Posted by Jason Charlton



But still it's YOUR choice - not others who do the choosing for you.

Yeah it's my choice! To remove myself so as not to bother others! As opposed to being "Who cares if everyone paid $1200 a seat and my kids reaping havoc! To hell with them! I have a right as much as anyone to travel! I paid too! Screw them if an entire plane (movie house, restaurant) is annoyed with me! I HAVE A RIGHT! I'M SPECIAL! I'M A PARENT!"

I'm not actually this intolerable of kids, I'm intolerable of parents who think that kids give them a pass to allowing obnoxious behaviour. Every time some kid acts up you see the "Aw jeez, I'm sorry, what can you do?" face on the parent. You can choose to not put your kids in that situation or removing them, and having kids doesn't give you a pass to violate everyone else' right to a peaceful day within a 12 foot radius. You chose to have kids, at the very least you chose to raise them. At the very least you can chose to be aware of your surroundings when they act up.

And I'm not labeling anyone specific in this thread, as far as I know, you are all very responsible. As far as the norm though, I see countless parents who are not, and even act like martyrs for the parent cause with their unruly hell spawn.

Honestly, to get back to the best advice for airline travel with toddlers... don't put them in the situation unless you know they can occupy themselves for the allotted flight time. Or slip them a ruffie or something so they're knocked out. As long as they shut up, sit down and don't bother anyone I'm alright.


It's about being considerate to others instead of being selfish to your own needs.

 

[Jason Charlton]

Well, there's so much in your last post I'd love to respond to, but in the interests of keeping this on topic...


Thanks for the input, Russell.

 

[Jerry Almeida]

Originally Posted by Russell G You never know what's going to be "a hit" and what they won't want to be bothered with.

 

[Nathan*W]

Originally Posted by Russell G

It's about being considerate to others instead of being selfish to your own needs.

Isn't that the reason he started this thread, to try to be considerate of others?

 

[Carl Miller]

Originally Posted by Jason Charlton

Now that I've become a parent myself, when I see situations like yours, Carl, my sympathies lie with the parent. I know how maddening (and embarrassing) it can be to seem so helpless and completely at the mercy of the child, but discipline is necessary and something that both my wife and I are in complete agreement about.


I agree completely that children need to experience thing in order to learn, and that they won't always get things right the first time. As parents, the best we can do is prepare them the best we can beforehand, and be prepared to deal with the consequences should they arise.

Very well put Jason! Enjoy your travels, and have a great trip!

 

[nolesrule]

It seems us parents shouldn't be taking our kids out of the house, lest our children annoy someone. Like hell!

 

[Jason Charlton]

Well, we're back safe and sound.


All things considered, I think the boys did a great job on the trip and I think my wife and I were about as prepared as we could be, yet we still learned a few valuable lessons...

• I'm glad we opted for the direct flight instead of stopovers. Waiting around in the terminal for boarding to begin was one of the most difficult for us in terms of keeping the boys under control. The excitement that was building combined with a generally open area had the boys as antsy as ever to get out of their strollers.

• The seat harnesses worked great (much better than lugging a carseat around). Using them also left the boys a lot more room to shuffle around the seat during the flight (we just raised the arms between the seats and enjoyed a little extra room).

• Surprisingly, the seat arrangement on the way back (four seats across, spanning the aisle) I think worked better than on the way out (window and middle in back-to-back rows). On both flights, the boys wanted to switch between sitting with daddy and sitting with mommy. On the way out, we had to pass them over the seats (which wasn't too bad) but on the way back, I gave my wife a break for the first part of the trip by putting her on the lone seat across the aisle, I took the other aisle seat and the boys took window/middle. They enjoyed interacting together, and later the four of us shared the block of three seats (again, thanks to fold up armrests) and it worked quite well.

• In addition to having some new toys to play with, we were glad we packed lots of snacks. The descents were the worst, and having the boys constantly eat helped keep them from crying too much due to pressure changes. It was less effective on the return, since we were landing after midnight, and had just woken the boys from slumber to strap them in. One was quiet (nodding off the whole time) but the other cried pretty loudly for about 5-10 minutes.

• Getting through security wasn't as bad as we expected - though we did have to remove the boys' shoes and on the way back they had to "examine" the contents of a sippy cup that we forgot to empty. It was just water, but it was a kick to see the security officer hold the cup while I unscrewed the lid, then held a piece of litmus paper or something over the cup before putting a sample in the "sniff-o-matic" or whatever it was they had.

Shipping Luggage

The jury is still out on this one. First of all, we WERE able to use United's Door-To-Door luggage service. The customer service rep who told us you had to make reservations earlier than 10 days prior to departure was wrong. The problem, apparantly, was that the destination address I had entered was too rural for delivery. Why the website wouldn't indicate a REASON the order couldn't be placed is a problem that hopefully will be changed in the near future. So instead, we had the bags delivered to a FedEx center that was on the way to our final destination. Getting the bags out there went without a problem and the pickup was fast and painless.


However, the return did not go quite as smoothly. The bags were delayed an extra day for a yet-to-be-determined reason. Thankfully, we had nothing critical packed in the bags, and United has not yet responded to my claim request for a full or partial refund (they guarantee next day delivery). Clearly, this is a new service and the processes are not fully understood - depsite my constant mentioning that I used the D2D service, they have given me information about how to use my claim check number (which I don't have) to file the claim.


Overall, the trip was fun, exciting, and completely exhausting. It will be a while before we take the boys anywhere that requires flying again - though that decision is based solely on budget. A few years from now, maybe we'll fly to Orlando and take the boys to Disney...


Thanks again to all of you for your thoughts and suggestions!

 

[Paul D G]

Glad it all worked out for you.

One trick for future air travel - there are four of us so when we go to block our seats we do 3 and 1 with a seat open in between. The logic being if the flight isn't full hopefully someone won't grab that seat and we'd get the row to ourselves. If the seat does get taken we just explain it to the traveler and let them sit on the end. Doesn't always work but it's great when it does.