I've flown a lot. Prior to having kids I always found flying to be annoying; the whole being crowded with strangers, people and their inconsiderateness, having to wait, recycled air, etc. Now as a parent I wishfully think back on the pre-kid flying times as the glory days of air travel. Oh if I could go back and tell myself that it really wasn't that bad.
Flying is a form of hell, don't get me wrong. Flying with toddlers? That is the 7th circle of hell. I can't blame the little people - thinking of how miserable it is as a grown up to fly, it's only multiplied many times over for a small child. They are trapped. They are in an unfamiliar place. Again, they are trapped. I've learned that no amount of preparedness can really make a flight with kids perfect, you win some you lose some.
Our kids have flown an insane amount of times, but that just goes with the territory of having most of our family too far away to drive in a reasonable amount of time to visit. M2 has been on 22 round trip flights. P5 has been on 8 round trip flights. Sometimes they travel well and people compliment us on how "good" they were. Other times we have been "those people" where no matter what we do they just aren't happy and we walk off the plane with everyone in a 10 row radius wanting to stab us to death.
In the past month I've gone on 3 separate trips with P5 riding shotgun on my lap. Luckily for two of those trips, Mr.P and M2 were along, so Mr.P and I were able to trade off kid duty. For the most recent trip, it was just P5 and I flying solo to California on an emergency trip to help out my terminally ill father. Neither the flight there or back was very fun, and flying solo with a toddler in your lap (a giant 25 lb) kicking screaming toddler is pure hell. A week later, I still have bruises from where he kicked and punched me.
All I can say is that you must be a saint :)
ReplyDelete