Last week I flew from Seattle to Newark on a non-stop Alaska Airlines flight. I’m here to attend the New York Times Travel Show and to tape an interview with Women for Hire. All very exciting!
Unfortunately, the flight was unexpectedly exciting as well. From the moment we departed Seattle, the child sitting in a car seat behind me started kicking my seat. And kicking and kicking and pushing and kicking.
Full disclosure – Brendan is the son of our WanderMom and is an excellent traveler!Â
Though I don’t have kids myself, I know it’s not easy to travel with children. As a matter of fact, I’m in the process of editing a book (Wanderlust and Lipstick: For Women Traveling with Children) written by two traveling moms. I’m regularly reading about potential issues and how to overcome them when you’ve got your kids in tow. So, I had a lot of empathy for the solo mom.
But I had to gather a lot of patience to not be annoyed by the constant banging on my back and the screaming and crying at takeoff and landing (luckily he quieted down through much of the flight time).
I calmed myself by devising in my mind a new product that would hold the child’s feet in place. Hmmm, a seatbelt type device to strap his legs to the child seat he was sitting in. A pillow, supplied by the airline, that would hang down and cushion any blows aimed at my seatback. A huge rubber band to strap his feet into that allowed some freedom of movement but restricting it enough not to reach my seat.
I fantasized but I couldn’t make my new device appear.
In the meantime, the mother apologized to me and did try to stop him, but I gave up and eventually just leaned forward into my book so that I wouldn’t feel the blows.
What do YOU do, as a mom or passenger, in such a situation?
Travel Well!
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