Traveling with Infants

[Littlegoo75]

After hearing about my husband's ordeal, I felt like posting this. He just returned yesterday, taking the red-eye flight from Las Vegas back to D.C. He had to return back West because his best friend was/is in a coma, and his Dad ( the friend's Dad, who was like a second Dad to my husband) passed away in the middle of all of that. He had the most horrible week.

Well, he described the flight from Hell. He had to sit next to a Mom and baby ( about 1 years old) . Okay, well being optimistic, maybe the baby would sleep, or behave. Well, first of all, the inconsiderate Mom put the baby in the middle seat, and took the window for herself. My husband said that the baby cried the entire flight when all he wanted to do was get a little bit of sleep after such a horrible week. ( the flight was full, so he couldn't change seats). Then he said that the baby took all of the magazines out of the seat pockets and threw them at him. After the third magazine, he asked the mom if she could please control her kid, and she said, " She's just a little baby, she can do whatever she wants."

WHAT???????? This is the kind of attitude that drives me crazy.

Okay, so with that, my husband went off and said something to the effect of " It's people like you that think that because you have a baby, the rest of the world has to cater to you, and nobody else matters".

The mom just had her mouth open and didn't know what to say.

 

Okay.... I know you can't always control when your kid is fussy, but did she have to put the kid in the middle seat? Also, my husband said that the Mom was traveling with her parents, couldn't she have handed the kid over to the grandparents to maybe calm the kid down? I mean, she was letting her kid throw magazines at somebody, and thought it was so cute, and did nothing about it. She was probably not used to having somebody speak up, that it threw her off.

 

The thing that really bothers me is that there are many parents out there that assume that everyone enjoys their babies as much as they do, and that everything they do is cute. Well, no. Some people really do not enjoy having things thrown at them and hearing blood curdling screams.

 

I have seen it with my sister and her new baby, I guess people lose sight of the people around them, and assume that everyone around them wants to experience their new baby.

 

I plead with people out there to understand that you need to respect those around you and when your baby is fussy, please go somewhere else and calm them down, and if they are throwing things at people, do something about it, please.

 

I have seen posts here from parents who are looking for advice and who say that they will sit on the aisle during the shows so they can leave if their kid starts to cry, and they if/when they eat in the dining room, they will take their kids out when they start to cry.

For those of you, I thank you for your consideration for your fellow human beings out there, for those who don't give a damn, you really need to start.

 

* This is not a child bashing thread, it is just a plea from those of us who have had enough!

[tef43]

" It's people like you that think that because you have a baby, the rest of the world has to cater to you, and nobody else matters"

Bravo! ^5 !!! I doubt that I would have been so nice and politically correct.

 

A little benadryl in the bottle, or a jar of strained turkey (with fortified tryptophan) would have been quite useful in this situation.

[hstrybuf]

Your DH certainly did have a horrible week. In the same situation, I probably would have been less tolerant of many things including a baby screaming and throwing magazines.

 

I remember when my girls were young. They were and still are the joys of my life and I was very proud to "show them off" to anyone and everyone. They were the center of my existence. Now that they are grown, I still enjoy playing with babies and have even complemented perfect strangers on well behaved children. They are pleasantly surprised that a stranger would do that.

 

However, I have little tolerance for parents who are oblivious to the fact that their children are not the center of the world to everyone else. If I can remove myself from a situation, I do. If not, I politely ask the parents to resolve the problem.

 

In all things, if we are tolerant and respectful of others, then we'll all be much happier. ;)

[DebBrown]

Bravo! ^5 !!! I doubt that I would have been so nice and politically correct.

 

A little benadryl in the bottle, or a jar of strained turkey (with fortified tryptophan) would have been quite useful in this situation.

A little benadryl goes a LONG way ;)

[tef43]

A little benadryl goes a LONG way ;)

At least until Pfizer starts marketing "Children's Ambien."

[L2J]

At least until Pfizer starts marketing "Children's Ambien."

The mini-bottles are much cheaper ;)

[Littlegoo75]

Tef43-

You are SO funny! I figured you would add some humor to this thread. Historybuff - you always sound so practical, you sound like you are the type of parent that really is an example of how parents should be, along with several others that I have seen on these posts that sound genuinely concerned about making sure they do they right thing when they take their babies on cruises with them.

I honestly never understood why people went on cruises with babies until I saw how my sister is with her 8 month old ( my first and only niece). She takes that kid everywhere because she loves her so much and gets separation anxiety.

She says she won't go on a cruise with her until she is older, and when that happens, it will be a whole family affair so parents will help out.

[BDL]

I would have asked the Grandmother to change seats with me. If the kid was going free and they didn't actually pay for the center seat, the Grandfather could have joined the fun. Then they could have held the kid all night.

[triplelutz]

Small PSA: be careful with Benedryl - it can cause the opposite behavior and you'll have an over-hyper child! It happened to a friend and it was terrible, so do a test run before you get on the plane and make sure you'll get the desired results!;)

[CruiseReg]

I'm confused over something in the original poster's story about her husband's plane ride:

 

* Flight was full but the 1 yr old had a seat

 

This means that the kid was a ticketed passenger with an assigned seat. In order for a 1 yr old to have an assigned seat, they need to be in an FAA approved car seat. If they are in a car seat, they MUST be in the window seat. I know this, because I travel with my daughter who will turn 2 years old on her 2nd cruise this coming December :)

 

I totally agree that people need to be respectful of others, with and without children. The mother in the story seriously sounded clueless and clearly had no idea how to even keep her child safe - assuming the above inconsistency is a misunderstanding of what really went down (since there's no way a kid in a car seat could reach anything in the seatback pockets while in a car seat).

[Bunkie103]

Whatever the seat situation, there are some seriously clueless parents out there. I work in a Pediatric office and last week a Mom with three kids sat and watched her kids destroy bulletin boards in the office. When the Nurse Practitioner asked her if she had any "behavior concerns" she just laughed and said "no". Everyone in the office was looking at these children and the Mom, who happens to be a nurse, just smiled at everyone. Wouldn't you feel terrible if your kids tore down items that had been posted on bulletin boards for parents to read, including pictures of kids from our practice that were in the local newspaper. Someone spent hours cutting out the pics and posting them.

 

Sometimes I think you should have to have a license to procreate. In PA you can't cut hair, do nails or sell a car without one. :eek: JMHO no offense to anyone intended.

[Littlegoo75]

I didn't ask my husband about the specifics. From how he described the Mom's attitude, I wouldn't be surprized if she handed her kid the magazines out of the seatback. Personally, if a kid is going to take a whole seat, regardless of it's age, they need to pay full price, if Southwest makes people "of size" buy an extra seat, then babies sitting in their own seat need to pay full price, if the parent is going to hold them in their lap, then that's fine, they should ride free or discounted. Heck, when I bring my dog ( my child) with me, she fit under the seat in front of me in a carrier and I still had to pay $50. I also was considerate and tranquilized her and nobody even realized there was a dog in there ( it was one of those carriers that look like a normal duffle bag, people were looking at me wierd when I was putting ice-cubes in my bag until they saw a little nose pop out!

But anyway, it just drives me crazy when there are clueless parents out there who give their kids carte blanche to do whatever they want, and expect everyone else to cater to their them. About the nurse who wrote about the bulletin board incident, that is terrible! I would have made those kids fix their mess, and if they didn't than I would have given the Mom a bill for the price of new bulletin boards and a couple of hours worth of wages for the poor folks that spend their time to cut out the clippings. This is a big slap in the face for those parents out there that do their best to be good, aware parents who are at their wits end doing a good job to raise their kids well. If I would have pulled something like that at a Dr.'s office, my Mom would have made me apologize and then fix what I did, but then again, I would have never been able to get to that point because I would have gotten a spanking as soon as I tore down the first thing off of the board. Stop the world, I want to get off!

[triplelutz]

We always buy a seat for the little one and she stays in her car seat. I think she's much more comfy in her seat anyways - it's familiar and has Goldfish crumbs that she can dig for and entertain herself with!;) I've read many studies stating that small children are safer in their car seats in cases of turbulence or accidents. It makes sense...

[madelinerose]

WAY TO GO, Littlegoo!!! :D :D :D