Kids on a Plane!

With both of my kids in college, my husband and I find ourselves doing a little more air travel. I spent the weekend with family at Lake Natoma in Sacramento, watching the Pac 12 rowing championships. The weekend was fabulous and we hated to go home.

Plane travel can be painful with long security lines and full body scans but we moved to the gate with ease. The flight was on time; passengers loaded their bags and took their seats. Seats 8A and B were perfect; close to the front, a great view, and no screaming children…then… the screams began.

In unison we both looked at each other and said; “I’m glad we aren’t sitting next to THAT family!”

He went back to his paper and I to my book.

In the back of my mind I remembered how difficult it was to travel with kids and how forgiving one man was in particular.

My son was just over a year old. We packed a rather large bag with cheerios, toys, pacifiers and books. His favorite toys at that time were small dinosaur figures. Like any boy, there were many battles between the Tyrannosaurus Rex and the flying Raptor.  The flight was going well and we let our son stand up and hold on to the head rest behind us.  

What passenger on this plane wouldn’t think our son was the cutest thing ever! The man in the center seat behind us probably didn’t think so.

There is nothing worse than your smiling one year old launching his toy raptor made of cheap hard plastic straight into the forehead of the man seated in 14 B behind you.  

We were horrified, embarrassed and quickly apologized to the man behind us. As we looked at the damage, the man with his reading glasses knocked off center had a smile on his face. He adjusted his glasses, waved at my son and went back to reading. In shock, were extremely grateful for the patience of the man sitting behind the family with the obnoxious boy.

I think I’ll be a little more tolerant of screaming children on a plane!!!