Saturday, July 10, 2010

Yes, i'm travelling with my baby - a Mama rant

We just got back from a two week vacation visiting relatives and friends on the other side of the country.  To get there we take 2 planes, and of course 2 planes to get home.  Usually the airline we fly (Westjet) does its best to fly families with small children close together.  And that held true on 3 of the 4 flights.  But on the 4th flight we were the only family flying with a baby.  My husband sat on one side with the 2 boys and I was on the aisle of the other with my baby girl in my lap.  As the other passengers were boarding I could see the fear in the eyes as they approached.  The look that said, "Please, don't let me be sitting next to that baby!" 
The first girl who was in the same section of seats was visibly pissed off that she was the chosen one.  The second girl (the one next to me) appeared to like kids and started cooing at our little darling.  Once the plane was filled, the flight attendant came up to the one in the middle (the one who likes kids) and offered to move her so that I could use the extra seat for baby room.  (Good on ya Westjet!).  It did piss off the other girl even more.  She clearly had the look of, "why couldn't I be moved?" on her face.  It got even worse when the gentleman in front of her fully reclined his seat and proceeded to fall asleep.
There are 2 ways of looking at this situation.  One, feel badly for the girl who didn't ask to sit next to a baby (who slept most of the flight BTW).  Or two, feel badly for the mother flying with the baby who didn't ask to be seated next to someone who clearly doesn't like small children.    Babies travel too.  And yes they cry on the plane.  They don't like being cooped up for hours at a time.  They don't understand why they have to stay in Mom's arms for that long.  They don't know about flight pressure on their ears.  They really don't like announcements waking them up just as they are drifting off to sleep.  They would rather be exploring.  They would rather play.  They'd rather have a smile back at them instead of a scowl.  And trust me, when my baby is crying on board, I know how terribly annoying that can be for you.  And yes, I'm doing everything I can to get her to settle and be happy!

4 comments:

  1. Ug, that is so frustrating! I just travelled with Emma (not as long a flight as yours) and I lucked out and got all people who were super happy to have babies next to them.

    I have had the same kind of thing happen to me -- one time someone actually asked to be moved before the plane even took off, and the other time, it was near the end of the flight and my baby was climbing up on my lap and pulling himself over the seat (yeah, that would be Aaron) and the girl behind me said, "Um, excuse me. You baby is STARING at me. Can you stop him?". What? So no more playing with my son during the flight. sigh.

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  2. That sounds very frustrating.Luckily I've not had this experience yet. I think it also helped that for 3 out of the four flights he basically slept them. Fussing only at takeoff and then falling asleep until we landed. And fortunately the last one we were on we were sitting beside a Dad would didn't mind the fact that (because our flight was delayed) Thomas was getting a bit cranky. It sucks when in my case you are on a tiny plane and it's completely full so they can't move the person next to you though. Esp when you're nursing. I probably could have pumped and had bottles but I didn't want to bother going through that extra hassle. I did get some pretty interesting stares in the airport mind you while I nursed him.

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  3. I think only people who had children can truly understand the pleasure and misery to travel with young children. My children are now 10 and 9 but I've had days when I traveled with them and the seatbelt was on and my daughter had a diaper full of liquid #2 that stains her sleeper and was really stinking. All the stares were on me and my daughter. What was I supposed to do? I just suck it up but it wasn't easy, believe me. So I understand how you felt in the plane.

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  4. This was one my biggest all time worries when we packed up and took Ben on his first airplane adventure. I kept reminding myself that I will never see these people again and would just smile and try and look relaxed. I wish I could go back and tell my pre baby self to be kinder with people traveling with children. I just really had no understanding about it all before I was a mum.

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