“Those Parents” take 2

Posted by on October 24, 2009 6 Comments

Thank you to the passenger on the Enterprise bus who smiled warmly at my tantruming toddler and handed him a sticker with a train on it.

Thank you to the Enterprise bus driver who was so kind and helpful with our bags and stroller and who, after we began to profusely apologize for forgetting to replenish the cash in our wallets for tipping, stopped us mid apology and insisted that we not worry about it, then pointed out the free SmarteCarte next to the curb to use in the airport.

Thank you to all the people in the security line who gave us knowing “we’ve so been there” looks and who were so incredibly patient as we loaded our 10 million plastic bins onto the security belt.

Thank you to the girls behind us in line who played peek a boo with my flirting son long enough for me to get both of our shoes off.

Thank you to the man at the table next to us in Chipotle who acknowledged how good Kendall was being at dinner. And, when Kendall began screeching moments later just to prove this man wrong, he simply smiled and said he “understood”.

Thank you to the wonderfully kind and helpful American Airlines gate agent who not only hooked us up with an extra seat, but also took our carseat, which we had intended to gate check, and installed it in a window seat for us before we even boarded.

Thank you to the man seated in the row in front of us who greeted us with a smile and turned to talk to Kendall. He was so understanding, even when Kendall, desperate to fight off sleep, slammed his feet into the back of his chair and screamed minutes before finally drifting off.

Our flight earlier this week was pretty nightmarish, but the flight home was so much better. Partly, I think it was because of the timing. We were scheduled to fly out at 7 p.m. but were delayed and didn’t leave until 8:30, well past Kendall’s bedtime.  It wasn’t a full flight, allowing us the luxury of an extra seat for Kendall, which also made a big difference. But, I really think one of the best things about our flight home, from beginning to end, was the people we encountered. It was such a 180 from our flight at the beginning of the week.

Granted, we are still hoping they locate one of our bags, which seems to have been the victim of mistaken identity at baggage claim before we could get there, and the stroller we gate checked at Dulles didn’t make it on the plane, but luggage was the least of my worries. Kendall slept 90% of the flight and the whole experience was about 90% less stressful.

Kendall is quickly approaching 18 months old

Photobucket
Filed Under: Headed to Toddlerhood |Tagged With: , , , |6 Comments

A little insight on “those parents”

Posted by on October 20, 2009 27 Comments

You know, *those* parents? The ones with the kid on the plane that everyone is annoyed by? Yeah… that would be us last Sunday. It was absolutely us.

Scott has some business to take care of this week back in our old stomping grounds, so we took off on a 2.5 hour flight to DC from Dallas at 8:30 in the morning. I’m not even going to go into detail about how hellacious it was to actually get there, or tell you more than we got there just in time, but our baggage was delayed by a couple hours. No biggie, if that had been the worst of it, I would have been fine. But, of course, it wasn’t.

Unlike my last flight with Kendall, this one was actually terrible. Granted, it was longer, and he’s stronger, but it also seemed like a much more hostile, tense environment. Very judgy. I was edgy from the moment we walked on after we were greeted by a chorus of sighs and groans and eye rolls when they saw my HAPPY child come aboard. We didn’t opt to buy the extra seat for him because, well, we’re cheap like that (even though I did struggle with the safety issue of it). And, honestly, I think the only person who would have benefited from the extra seat would have been Scott because it just would have meant that his lap would have been freed up, not that the noise Kendall was making would have stopped. In fact, had we brought his car seat on board for that extra seat and strapped him in, I’m pretty sure it would have been worse.

Here’s the thing, though, it’s not like Kendall screamed and cried the entire flight. Not at all. Sure, there were a few moments of frustration that came to a boiling point, followed by brief outbursts, but this was certainly not how he behaved even 20% of the flight. I knew it was going to be a long ride when, after only 10 minutes, the frat boy in front of us started huffing and puffing and audibly rolling his eyes every time Kendall would say, “Uh Oh!” and laugh. Sure, he was loud. My kid does not have volume control… or at least I’ve yet to find it, but he wasn’t screaming in this guys ear either. I finally leaned forward and said, “Yeah.. we get it… Uh huh… we gotcha… you’re annoyed.. point made.” He looked shocked that I would even say anything, turned around and said, “Well… it’s not that… it’s just… he keeps waking me up!” To which I replied, “We are doing our very best to keep him quiet,” and not another word or glance was exchanged between us from that point on.  It was going to be too long of a flight to put up with his passive aggressive bull shit, so I’m glad I said something early on. And we were trying very hard.

We had a bag of tricks. It was full of all sorts of new toys and books and snacks galore. Each time Kendall got loud about something, we did our best to distract him. I’d say this worked pretty well for the first hour and a half. Well, what worked the best was the snacks. We just kept feeding him, which of course made the judgy woman to my left give me all sorts of snide looks. Yeah, that’s right. I’m stuffing my kids face to keep him quiet. Judge me. I even gave him two lollipops while on board. Sure, you think I’m that parent that over indulges my child and gives in to his every whim. How wrong you are. The thing is, *I’m* fine with hearing him scream and whine. *I* listen to it ALL DAY LONG. I have no problem telling him NO, but something tells me *now* is not the time to discipline a toddler.

It was exhausting, literally. We busted our asses to keep him entertained and as quiet as possible. And you know what? I am proud of him. I am SO proud of him for the way he behaved. My nearly 18 month old, who is used to tearing around my house and Gymboree and the park from 8:30 to 11 every day, sat on his father’s lap and didn’t even have an all out tantrum.  And if he had, I would totally understand. That’s what was killing me. All these people and their sighs and their eye rolls, they had no idea how GOOD he was being.  And since when does a Sunday morning flight = right to complete silence? It is unreasonable to expect a toddler to be silent or even quiet for two hours, and it’s unreasonable to expect that you will be on a plane with no toddlers.

So, yeah, I guess we were “those parents”, but I really don’t know how we could have avoided it, short of tranquilizing him, which, TRUST ME, the thought crossed my mind many times. We are already dreading the flight back home, and wondering what on earth we can do to make it easier on all of us.

Kendall is 17 and a half months old

Photobucket
Filed Under: Headed to Toddlerhood |Tagged With: , , , , |27 Comments