On our flight home from Canada last week, three people rolled their eyes and said out loud (so that everyone near us could hear), “ugh, another baby is on this flight”. It was hard to keep quiet and not say something back to them. It was like they were public shaming me for traveling with a kid. How dare I introduce her to new cultures and new people??
The thing is, I get it. Crying babies are hard to ignore, even with the best noise cancelling headphones. I even have a child and I don’t like to hear her cry. But people with babies and children shouldn’t stop traveling just because there could be an issue up in the air. In fact, Bob and I preach the exact opposite. Get your babies on flights as soon as you feel comfortable and they’ll be more comfortable too.
As you all know, we fly a lot. In 18 months, KidAugustine has been on over 50 flights, four countries and countless hours in the car seat on road trips. Since she’s basically grown up on airplanes she is really accustomed to the operations of the entire airport and flight experience. She has cried for maybe a total of 15 minutes in all of our trips and believe me that 15 minutes was torturous. I felt so badly for her – maybe her ears weren’t popping or maybe she was teething and the pressure was too much or maybe she was hungry or thirsty or just uncomfortable like everyone else is in those tiny seats. (I truly don’t think non-baby people think about why the baby is crying, only that it’s annoying) But most of the time, she goes right to sleep as the plane takes off and people are surprised with how silent she is or they tell me they didn’t even know I had a baby with me! I know we are lucky and I’m sure there will be days and flights that she isn’t the model baby.
I’m apart of many Facebook groups and other online social networks for family travels and adventure travelers and without fail, every week and sometimes every day, someone mentions how they had an annoying crying baby on their recent flight. As if the only annoying thing about traveling these days is a crying baby.
Get over it! There are many much more foul offenses one can do than traveling with a crying baby.
As I was telling Bob about how another annoying social thread about crying babies popped in my newsfeed, he said, you sound like you need to really rant about this to people who care. So I did. I signed up for the rant/rave site, Squash the Beef, to let out my frustrations. I put it out there and expressed my thoughts in a very GET OVER IT way and can’t wait to see if people agree with me or not. You can check out my rant on Squash the Beef. I’d love to see what you think, too.
Having said all of that, I’m curious what you hate most about flying? Is it TSA? Is it a smelly person or someone who brings odd food items onboard? I once had someone paint their finger nails sitting next to me. All I could think about was the air quality on the plane and now we were smelling nail polish for the next two hours. Let us know in the comments or on Squash the Beef’s site. I’m so curious if I’m in the minority here or if people agree with me!
*I filled this post with adorable shots of #KidAugustine’s first flight and all the adventures she’s been on so far. Fun times!
**Squash the Beef is a partner of Vagabond3. Thanks for supporting the brands that make this blog possible. All opinions are our own.
