sms9cjc

My daughter has had as many flights as she is months old, potentially more, and now she's 2yrs old, so she's pretty used to it and also has her own routines. At Xmas we're popping back to the UK to see her grandparents and for the first time she'll have to sit in her own seat, she's so used to sitting on our laps during takeoff and landing (and the rest of the time despite often having a free b or e seat) we're not sure how she'll react to having to sit in her own seat. Does anyone have any tips about how to handle this transition? We're worried about her trying to escape her seat to our laps when she has to be strapped in. We'll hire a Cares for the trip and buy after if convinced, this may help as she's very concerned about her seatbelt being on in the car.
Obviously we have the normal plethora of snacks, distractions etc.

CDTraveler

Look for some pictures of small kids sitting in their own seats on planes and review them regularly with her before the flight. It may be rather difficult making the transition because you've set the precedent that she sits in your lap and two year olds can be creatures of habit. So start well before the flight to teach her the new system.

Erasmus

A Cares will be of little use if she's intent on getting out of the seat. A car seat, on the other hand, is likely to keep her strapped in when she needs to be. Of course, ideally you're able to talk her through the situation enough before the flight that she's comfortable sitting next to you.

GUWonder

The CARES system can indeed be escaped by some 2 years old. But there are also ways to frustrate the escape attempts.

Car seats also face escaping 2 year olds, but people tend to be more familiar with how to frustrate the escape attempts of a child with or without an escaping history from the car seats.

In flight the the children's greater familiarity with the car seat can help to set expectations that are harder to pull off with CARES.

Big4Flyer

I know this may not solve everything, but for each of our two kids who moved from lap-child to their own seat, we talked it up about how big it was that she gets her own seat. If flying an airline (not WN), that allows early boarding for families, we'd go down the row and let them find their number and then show them where its at.

I found that works better than just saying, "here's your seat and you're going to have to sit here now." I know each kids different, but that's what's worked for us.

Vaucluse

Cathay allowed me to let my 2 yo sat on my lap last summer on some duration of the trip or during take off or landing. She has her own seat at that time. I assume they think it's better to have a non-fuzzy kid on my lap than a fuzzy one on her own seat.

sms9cjc

Just realised i never said what we did and how this went:
We found a book with one of her favourite characters in his own seat on a plane, that seemed to help together with talking it up. However we didn't get away from the gate before we (to the relief of the passengers around!) requested a lap belt - she wasn't having any of it and let the rest of the plane know! - I assume the same thinking from the FA's here as Vaucluse mentions!
but on the way home it was a totaly different story, for no apparent reason it was fine with her own seat and since then, although she'll come and sit on our laps during the flight, especially if tired, there hasn't been any problem getting her strapped in (we tested and bought the Cares and are vey happy with it!) for take off and landing.
The reason we don' t use the car seat is that it was hard to get hold of one that was approved for inflight use and we liked the idea of cares better than lugging the seat to the gate, but i can absolutly see the advantages of having the normal seat to hep them relax.

BCH

Hi there, sms9cjc. We were in the same place when our 2-y.o. needed to transition to her own seat. (She's nearly 8 now and has been on nearly 100 flights.)

So before the first flight where she had to sit on her own, we played out the experience at home. One dad played her fellow passenger, where they had to board nicely, put away luggage, choose one stuffed toy to share our daughter's seat, and buckle up (using belts as seatbelts). The other dad (me) played flight attendant who offered pre-departure water, checked the cabin for safety, and then sat in the imaginary jump seat during 10 minutes of imaginary taxiing. My two passengers passed the time by eating a banana, playing thumb wars, making an origami plane fleet, etc. We then replicated the whole thing on the real plane. It was quite fun, and she never actually asked to sit on the lap again.

Happy travels.

Big4Flyer

I recommend GorillaGlue. It holds the child's clothes firmly, yet gently, against the fabric of the CARES harness. If the child manages to escape their shirt, the glue can always be applied between the skin and the shirt, but please remember this can only be done once.