mia_marlin

To the quote in the box and everything in between...you get:

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gretchendz

It is possible to travel with young children and not bother anyone, but it takes a great deal of parental hard work.....

My oldest son (now 19) took his first flight at 4 months and had his first 20k mile certificate as a frequent flier by age 2.

I traveled extensively with both my sons.

I am proud to say thjat invariably after EVERY flight, other passengers would stop and compliment me on the conduct of my children.

My secret? I prepared like I was a taking an army to war....we had snacks, juice, pacifiers...and best of all, a bag of "prizes" (ok...bribes...)

Both boys learned from an incredibly young age if they were quiet and well behaved, a new prize would appear every 30-60 minutes or so...it might be a coloring book, a little hand-held game, a beanie baby, a new book, whatever....

When they were a bit older, Gameboys and walkmen with headphones became the big deal.

If the parents are willing to work at it, children do not need to be a nuisance to other passengers...they are amazingly trainable (the children, not the parents *grins*).

J-M

It's hard to make a generalization like "don't ever bring kids on airplanes", but it is very important to realize that travelling with young kids needs to be a 2-step process...

Step 1: Learn how to control your child so they will not run around the airplane, scream, or bother other passengers.

Step 2: After completing Step 1, THEN fly with your kids.

FWAAA

You were sitting in coach? In a window seat adjacent to two people, each holding a 20 month old? Aren't you a frequent flyer? Couldn't you snag an upgrade? Couldn't you get an exit row seat? You sat in the back with the unwashed masses, and you got what you paid for.


Now that's a shocker! They didn't like your lament? I'm stunned.

How do you know they weren't flying to see Grandma (or flying home from seeing Grandma)?? Did you ask them?

No, it isn't always necessary to take the kids. But so what? Was your trip necessary?

My kids' grandparents live on the opposite coast. My kids have flown to visit them numerous times in the few short years of their lives. My kids always sat in their own seats, almost always in J or F. Both made Platinum early on. Now they upgrade themselves.

As I asked above, are you certain they weren't traveling to see their relatives? My kids' grandparents can't always fly to see us, so we fly to see them.

My advice? Become a frequent flyer and upgrade yourself next time. Or if you already are a frequent flyer, use some of those benefits to escape the nursery.

Or at least get an exit row seat so you won't have to sit next to screaming toddlers.

After all, this is Flyertalk, the world's most popular frequent flyer community.

mjm572

I agree with what someone else mentioned in that many of us have to fly kids out to grandmas. As a more mobile nation, many are a 2 hours flight away from their grandparents, therefore meaning that you'll have to sit next to mommy and daddy going into war (as someone else mentioned) keeping their kids from going crazy.

onedog

Would I buy an airline seat for a 20 month old?

Depends on the length of the flight. But to answer the question, yes I would and yes I have on numerous occasions.

Aside from the issue of safety, infants/toddlers feel much more comfortable and secure in their own car seat and they and everyone around them will enjoy the flight much, much more.

Onedog

moeve

I can't believe that with everything we know today about the dynamics of flight - the gov bodies still allow children to fly as lap children!!! It is sooo dangerous for the child in the event that a seat should be made a requirement. You know it doesn't even have to be a crash it can just be a bad landing due to shear winds or on of the big holes in the sky where planes abruptly fall several hundred meters - your child and anything else that is loose will fly!!! and forget holding on to your child you won't be able to. Eva Air had 2 such serious incident alone this year where several adults were severly injured & small children can easily be killed.

Ok I 'm my soap box but this topic drives me mad when I see it because people are so naive & in some cases even careless with the precious lives of their children.

4thplz

~~"good old days"???!!!! I going to assume since I am 47 years old that you are assuming that my parents left me home. Not so, my parents took their children everywhere. And I also have taken my children everywhere. So, I have no idea what you are talking about when you say the "good old days" in that context.

Some children do have neurological damage and have a difficult time sitting still. Yes, even some of those children will appear to look normal. I just didn't want those dear children forgotten.

There are plenty of poorly behaved adults also that do not belong in those places either!

chrissxb

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USA_flyer

Flying on a plane is not some special occasion (was it ever?!), it's a mode of public transport and as such you have to take the rough with the smooth, just like you would on the bus.

I do agree that children of any age should have their own seat but more for their own safety than my comfort.

I don't see any positive outcome for berating these parents for doing something within the rules, except antagonise them and make a difficult situation more unpleasant.

pinniped

By that logic, children should be prohibited from riding in cars under any circumstances. My daughter's short ride to school this morning - even on side streets strapped into a correctly-installed carseat - is far more dangerous than flying as a lap child. Probably thousands of times more deadly... Talk about naive and careless! Maybe I shouldn't ever let her leave the house!!

(Then again, the chances of our house being destroyed by a tornado are probably 100's of times higher than her chances of being killed as a lap child on a flight.)

dhuey

We've hashed that one out in other threads. Researchers have spent a lot of time on that question, and the short answer is that your little one has about a 1 in 10 million chance of serious injury or death that would have been prevented if you had used a child restraint seat.

dhuey

moeve, do you have any research to support your position?

PremEx2000

Two points:

First, seeing that nearly a day has passed and Greenery has not bothered to explain him/herself based on the claim that there were five people in one row, we can all safely assume that Greenery's story was made up and that he/she is a liar.

Second, regarding putting infants in carseats versus in adults' laps, from a purely statistical/economic standpoint, paying extra to get a seat for the child's carseat is a huge waste of money. Hear me out because when we travel with our twins, we always get at least one extra seat for a carseat and, when taking really long trips, we get two so both kids can get good, long sleeps. But the risk of a child being injured or killed when they are not strapped into a carseat is infinitesimally small. And even when you do get a carseat for a child, there will be times when the child isn't strapped in (like when you are taking them back to change them or when they are fussy and they want to be held or want to stay in their carseat but don't want to be strapped in.

So having a carseat is not a magic wand that will keep them safe at all times on the airplane. And given that the cost of an infant seat (at 10% or 50% of a regular fare) can often run into the hundreds of dollars, the statistics say that it is an incredibly foolish way to spend one's money if one is interested in maximizing value to protect their child. Nevertheless, most parents think not in economic terms but in terms of protecting their children at any cost. I admit that I have one foot in this camp and think that the extremely small safety advantage of having an infant in a carseat is worth an extra hundred or two hundred bucks. But the real reason we get seats for our infants' carseats is for the kids' and our comfort, not for safety.

greenery

To those people who called me names- Get a life! The story is true! I was at the window seat and the mother was next to me with one of the boys, next to her was the father with another of the twin boys. (The mother told me they were twins)

The flight attendents said nothing about the overloaded row of seats. Rules like that have been broken all the time.

I still maintain that the parents were selfish and should have done more to keep the boys under control.

It is just like pets (barking dogs). If there are yours everyone else is wrong!