Baby’s First Airplane Ride

March 27, 2008

I had been looking forward to the time when I would be able to travel with my son. We would be going on a short flight — one hour — and my mom would accompany us to help out. I had only taken my son camping so this was a huge event for me. While at the airport he ran around as expected. He said hello to everyone he came across and tried to play with other childrens’ toys. No big deal here.

Our flight was delayed about one hour so he continued to flirt with pretty girls and play with the pay phones. We had a "wonderful" airport meal consisting of McDonald’s. Yum! Then it was finally time to board the plane.

By this time it had come very close to his normal bedtime and he was starting to be a little grumpy. We finally got onto the plane and found our seats. As we settled in, my son looked around with confusion. He did not seem to know if he should be excited or scared. Nonetheless, he sat on my lap and looked out the window. When the plane began to move he grew excited with anticipation of what would happen next.

Suddenly, the captain uttered these distressing words: "We will be held over for an additional 25 minutes." My heart sank so quickly I was sure the other passengers had heard the thud. There was no way a 16 month old boy would sit quietly in a confined space for 25 minutes — at least not MY 16-month old boy. Sure enough, it took less than a minute for my son to begin crying and trying to get down from my lap. There was nowhere for him to go and he got really angry. My mom took him and tried to calm him with his toys and a game of peek-a-boo. That worked for a few minutes then he started kicking and screaming again.

I could see some of the nearby passengers looking uncomfortable at the high pitched wailing of this child. There was not much I could do. I tried calming him by rocking then by showing him features of his toys he had not tried out. Again, this only worked for a few minutes.

Needless to say, that was probably the longest 25 minutes of my life. My son finally settled down and laid across our laps. He was tired and started to fall asleep as we took off. Whew! The short flight was over before it started. As we began to descend my son awoke to his ears popping and the screaming started up again. It was not as bad as earlier because he was half asleep but he was not happy.

Finally, off the plane and into his stroller my son was able to relax and just ride along off to the hotel. We will be returning tomorrow night so I will be sure to update you all. We have a late flight going home so this could be additionally troublesome.

I hope my experience opens the door for you to share your own experiences. I would love to hear what others do to prepare and deal with a delayed flight where you have to sit on the plane.