We took only car trips until my youngest was 8, and when we started flying we made sure that their Nintendo DS systems were fully charged On the flight to Kauai four days ago my youngest read half of The Catcher in the Rye
I remember taking a flight to Jamaica and my 1 year old cried the whole 4 hours. The cabin pressure fucked with him was our guess.
I'm not looking for it. My stress and survival over 3.5hrs is much more drastic than a BP on your seat
Entitlement is strong in here: If you are flying in coach, youd have to be rather fragile to come on the internet to complain about a crying child on a plane. Unless they are touching/kicking/throwing stuff at you (their parents should be very capable of stopping that), it just goes with the territory.
Don’t think he’s talking about a toddler. More like an older spoiled brat type where the parents don’t give a flying fuck.
Crying and screaming kid? Understandable. I know that's something you can't stop. Thankful for noise canceling headphones. The back of my seat being repeatedly kicked/pushed/bumped, regardless of time of day, is going to be an issue. You can physically stop a child from that. Shoot. Forget coach. It happens everywhere. I treated myself to Qatar Airways Q Suite earlier this year flying home. A lady across the aisle from me had her two kids. The middle suite divider goes down to create a large bed. Her one daughter cried 80% of the flight. Not ideal, especially because you had to use the headphones they provided, which aren't noise canceling.
The premise of your post is that you have to go to Costa Rica, Turks, and Mexico in a 9 month span with an infant. Explain why you had no other options? There is plenty of water to stare at within driving distance of you. If my child was slamming tray tables, Id probably not lower the tray table. Seems compassionate enough. But Id imagine that is not the entire extent of misbehavior.
Fly with my kids all the time. We bring ipads, Nintendo Switch, coloring books, books, games, anything we can think of. Sometimes the young one just isn't have it but that's largely an issue when my wife flies alone with them. I can usually give him the dad look into submission but sometimes they just flip out. If he's being ridiculous I'm way more stressed out than anyone around us about it.
This guy in front of me held his kid's hand the entire takeoff. Problem is that he was sitting in front of me and his kid was behind me. He was a weird dude. Saw him at the grocery store a week later and was like "this fuckin guy again"
Not planning to take my future kids anywhere cool until they are old enough to remember / appreciate (~8 y/o). We're getting all our crazy travel in the next 12 months or so before we are vacationing to Florida for a few years
When our girls were 3 and 5, we took them to Disney on a charter flight that was all families flying to Disney. It was a normal plane, three seats on both sides, and total chaos from Ohio to Florida for everyone on board.
sometimes you need to get on a plane with them to see grandparents/family who lives in other states and countries, sometimes fun has nothing to do with it
To each their own of course, but even if they don’t ‘remember’ it explicitly, new experiences will certainly shape who those kids become.
Nicaragua. Not costa rica. Why would I drive 5 hours for horrible expensive US beaches that suck? The gulf sucks. GA coast sucks. Fuck south Carolina beaches. I'm not going to end my life bc my child might be slightly disruptive at times over 4 hours. This is the travel thread ffs. I put the tray table up when he's doing it and tell him to stop. He's 2 and doesn't understand. He has a 15 minute attention span. You're constantly going from one activity to another.
Sounds miserable. At 2 it was much better than 17mo and 20mo I'd love to drop my kid off at grand parents. But it's not an option for us.
Props to you all. I use grandparents as a crutch and it keeps me from including my toddler in things he probably should experience. Trying not to do that.
I helped a father out by switching an aisle seat for an aisle so his wife and two kids could sit together. He then asks me if I want to trade seats with him. “It’s towards the front, row 31,” as he shows me his boarding pass. I see that it says middle seat. I responded with a chuckle and, “No way. That’s middle seat. I’ve been there before.” Mind you this was a 15.5 hour flight.
I also once flew to Puerto Rico without kids, but got stuck on a flight with three different pre-teen competitive cheerleading teams from Chicagoland going there for a competition. They all started an impromptu Bring It On game where they clapped out their cheers against each other for almost the whole flight.
It's definitely bitter sweet type thing. He loves the ocean so it's fun to see him excited and play and get i to the waves. But fuck I want a solo trip. This is our 10th anniversary trip. My parents were going watch him and we were going to Portugal, but my mom had back surgery and my dad died earlier this year after getting covid/body weak from chemo.
Basically, they performed their programs for each other as the cheer parents encouraged them. Other passengers went from okay cute, to that’s enough pretty quickly, except there was never enough.
If you can’t control your kid kicking seats and/or slamming tray tables, you don’t need to fly with your kid.
Yes, there are definitely plenty of reasons where I wouldn’t consider switching seats, but there are also exceptions that can be made. I would’ve done the exact same thing in that spot
To some extent, sure. But a 2 year old doesn't understand he's bothering some else. I can limit it, tell him to stop, etc.
Are we allowed to bitch about how expensive flights are here? Well I am, it’s $1200 for comfort plus to go from Orange County to Atlanta in 6 weeks. Comfort plus on a similar route from LAX is just over $1k. I guess comfort plus is the new first class. I made a multi city schedule in June on first class and it was cheaper than that. Edit: forgot to add LAX
I was hoping to make the London trip for the Saint's game in week 4 and it's basically the same cost for me to charter a jet as it is to fly business class for 3 people. Edit: To clarify - it was basically the same cost to get 3 seats on a private jet as it was going to be to get 3 business class seats.
I’m flying ( in November mind you ) Montreal/Gatwick/Athens then three days later to Doha thru Beruit. Return Doha direct to Dublin for three days and home to Ottawa with a layover in Toronto. All for around $2100. Seems like a decent dollar amount.
Yeah I committed to an airbnb in December before looking at flights. Same time last year they were 600. Now they are 1100. Not happy. Sorry if this post triggers Fran Tarkenton wrt a child going on another flight to Central America in December. I should have just driven to Charleston and sat on the beach in 40* weather
This started because you were talking shit about a guy in front of your son being irritated his seat was being kicked. If youre just traveling continents for vacation with a small child it’s ok for people to be annoyed at said child. I have no problem with you taking your kid places but don’t act like we have to pay for a tiny economy seat and then not by at all annoyed by an annoying toddler.
No one was talking shit. I apologized to the guy in flight and continued to shift my sons attention to things less destructive Lmao attacking me over this when other outright saying you should never fly with a young child
=/= Seems like you were talking shit about a guy being harrassed by you on a flight. Yea, he has a reasonable expectation that you control your child's behavior; or your child's behavior be controllable before flying. Sorry you did not find an audience in this thread that saw things the same as you.
Eh, it's not really talking shit. Just I was in that situation If you think a 2 year old listens and can fully comprehend the world around him you're ridiculous or don't have kids. I do nothing but shift his attention every 15min for 4 hours. Everyone was that old at that age. As long as the parent is constantly doing all they can, I promise you it's infinitely more stressful on them than a tray table closing 2 or 3 times.
as someone without kids, I can confidently express my expert opinion that this seems like a parenting issue
But you chose that stress by bringing your kid who can’t be contained on the flight. The person sitting in front of you has a reasonable expectation to not be disturbed by a kid that won’t behave.
Yes, I'm going to live my life to my fullest and attempt to have a child be the least annoying self all children are. I guess I shouldn't go to a restaurant ever and just eat at home and be a recluse the off chance my child might cry once, right?