...Jiggety Jig. So glad to be home! It was very nice spending time visiting with my brother and his family, but I am always so glad to come home. I love my home. I love my beddy-bye, and my own bathroom, and my cats and our fireplace, and our yard, and New Mexico. I especially love having a day of flying when my fear seems to be no where in sight. This does happen from time to time, and it's always such a nice change of traveling pace for me. I must admit my kids are a joy to travel with. They are really pros. We started flying with them when they were 6 months old, and by now they know the drill. They help with security bins, they don't have any inclination to wander off, they can figure out their own entertainment on the planes, and they were never "screamers." When our kids were babies, I had a "flight kit" in the diaper bag. It consisted of two bottles, separate from regular drinking or feeding- at the ready for just take-off and landing. I had small amounts of baby cough syrup (yes, I did do this) so they would be just drowsy enough not to have fits. I had toys, coloring stuff, movies and games on both an ipod and iphone. I had snacks, diapers, wipes, changes of clothes, books, gripe water for gas, anything I could think of to handle whatever situation might potentially arise. And yes, sometimes there were flights when I would have to walk up and down the aisle with each one in turn, doing the "football hold" while they cried- but not very often.
On our first flight today, there was a young mom with her almost
two-year old right behind us. She'd obviously never flown with this
child before- she was very ill-prepared. She did not seem to have any kind of anything to entertain, distract, or feed this child. Especially during take off and landing, when his ears must have been hurting. And so- this child would let out the most unbelievable ear-drum piercing shrieks every- oh, 2 or 3 minutes. I kept trying to doze off, then "RRRAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!" And she would just oh-so-quietly go "shhhhh, honey." I wanted to smack her. I really couldn't believe it when I heard her saying to the poor man sitting next to the two of them, "oh- he's being so good!" Jeez- if that was him being GOOD, I'd hate to see him being BAD!
So here's what I don't understand about this: Why don't people discipline their children in public situations like this? What are young parents afraid of? I would never have tolerated that kind of shrieking from my kids. For a second. That doesn't make me a hard-ass parent. It just makes me THE PARENT. So what's up with this new theory of non-disciplining? Any thoughts?
i'm also super annoyed by crazy airplane kids. i'm spoiled with julia's even tempered nature.. as an infant doing hours of airline "lap travel" she was never a problem, and when she was older she handled motion sickness far better than i would have at her age (i was a VERY nervous plane traveler). i didn't over due the activity thing (like you're describing :p) but i had stuff for her to do, or rather for me to do with her.
ReplyDeletei have a hard time watching other parents struggle to manage their kids, especially in such close quarters as an airplane..but a child's fear or discomfort during a long trip of any kind (especially on an airplane) is not bad behavior that needs discipline or punishment. if the kid were climbing the seats, throwing things, being unruly or running the cabin THAT'S bad behavior. being compassionate and keeping a positive outlook (when you know that mom was embarrassed and probably super irritated inside) doesn't make you a bad parent.
if that kid was kicking the back of your seat for the whole ride i'd be all in with you, but it sounds like it was just uncomfortable. that's where i'd offer something to help..like gum or whatever.
as for the non-discipline issue, you don't even have enough time to hear my rant on that topic!! LOL it's everywhere and I don't get it.