Traveling with children by plane is not easy. Neither for them, nor for us, parents. They have to remain seated (if they are less than two years old on mom or dad), while parents beg to remain as calm as possible for the duration of the flight. But for more tricks and toys you have to distract them, even if you have brought a few coloring books and a dozen movies, sometimes the plans do not go as expected. You know, they are children.
With children you can anticipate, but to a certain extent. Because they are children, not robots, and they don't come with an off button that you can press when they cry or feel upset. Something that in an enclosed space, surrounded by unknown people and ten thousand feet high, we would all do, only that we cut ourselves because we are adults and we have that called self-control that children still do not manage. Therefore, all those plane passengers who want families with young children feel far away because they believe that children bother, and even believe that they should not travel by plane (who says plane, says train or bus), here I leave an open letter.
Dear passengers who are disturbed by children,
I want to start by reminding you that once you have been children, and that if you are not parents yet, maybe in the future you will have children and, by necessity or choice, you will travel with them by plane. Someday it may be you who have a child in your arms that won't stop crying. And I promise you, you will want the other passengers to be much more understanding with you and your children than you are now with those of others.
Second, tell you that children have the same right to travel by plane, train or bus as any adult. They are also passengers, not "things that bother". When a family goes on vacation they usually take their children, even if they are not old enough to behave in public as the others would like. There are still no children's car parks at the airports so that they do not bother the airplanes, and if there were any, I doubt that the parents made use of their services.
You know, they are children. During the first years they cry when something bothers them and hardly stand still, except for the duration of a flight, not even for a few minutes. They pee and poop on top, and the first is not perceived, but the second you realize immediately by smell, and of course, if you are close, you feel it.
In Babies and more, we're going on vacation! Tips for traveling with babies in the car, train and planeWhen they start talking they say what they think without filters, they have tantrums and are able to repeat the same phrase two hundred times. Not because they want to bother the parents, much less the adult who has had to sit next to him on the plane, simply because they have not yet developed self-control or know how to manage their emotions as adults do (although some never learn). You know, they are children, they are learning.
If you sleep you are lucky, but that does not always happen. The baby's dream is also something unpredictable. There are children who sleep anywhere and others who fail to fall asleep if they are not in their crib.
Do not believe that parents like us. Traveling by plane with young children is not pleasant. At least I do not like anything, it will be because my trips are usually too long, more than 10 hours and sometimes with a stopover. At that time it is practically impossible for anyone to know that a child is traveling with you, and I don't even tell you if you have three.
At this point I tell you that I don't like the generic use of the word "bother" here, because a month-old baby or a small child doesn't know what's bothering you. He is not aware that an act of his, or something as uncontrollable as crying, can annoy another person. A baby does not have that ability, therefore It doesn't bother, it reacts to something you don't like (he feels uncomfortable, he is cold, his belly hurts, he is hungry ...)
But what catches my attention the most, and I'm afraid of the intolerance of some, is that there are people who not only consider children to bother. There are those who dare to say that Babies and children should not travel by plane, that should not be allowed, until they reach a certain age or know how to behave. When is that age? What do you understand by knowing how to behave, or rather by not knowing how to behave? How do we discriminate against it?
As I said before, children do not bother. They are children who are learning to act and behave in society. Believe me, there are adults who can be much more annoying and impolite than a crying baby, and that they have had many years to learn. The annoying adult does it conscientiously, the children don't.
Parents do not want our children to "disturb" on a plane. I assure you, we would prefer that they go unnoticed. But if they cry, the parents are here to comfort them, and if they do something that is not right to teach them that their attitude can annoy others. Because as I say one thing, I say the other. There are parents who do not assume the responsibility of educating their children when they are old enough to understand the consequences of their actions. If your child kicks, hits or insults it is your responsibility to teach him that this is not done wherever he is, whether on an airplane, on a bus or in the park in the corner.
In Babies and more From what age can a baby travel by plane?
