Crying infant in a plane

[unclepercy]

Let's suppose you are on a flight from Ottawa to Honolulu. You are sitting in the middle of the L1011. A 7 month old infant is crying and shrieking in the seat parallel to yours. This goes on and on for hours. Remember the flight from Dallas is 8 hours. From Ottawa - probably about the same. (not 100% sure)

People are looking around at one another, annoyed and yet afraid to do something. What would you do?

Uncle

 

[thomaska]

Having three boys of mine own, and having flown with all of them, I can tell you that I almost wished some ass had said something to me, while I was stressed out to the "bejeezus" over my kid throwing a fit.

That jerk would have been the perfect outlet for me to vent all my frustrations on.

I can't wait for some sanctimonious douche who paid no more than I did for a ticket to open his pie hole about my kid...

 

[karrie]

I would take into account the severe pain that flying can cause infants (due to them not knowing how to make themselves yawn, or be able to chew gum, to even out the air pressure in their super sensitive little ears), and the fatigue and frustration a parent must endure while traveling, and I would smile. Calmly smile a supportive smile at the parents, so that they feel calm, and are better equipped to then calm the baby. Tension creates tension. We are after all tribal creatures.

 

[thomaska]

I would take into account the severe pain that flying can cause infants (due to them not knowing how to make themselves yawn, or be able to chew gum, to even out the air pressure in their super sensitive little ears), and the fatigue and frustration a parent must endure while traveling, and I would smile. Calmly smile a supportive smile at the parents, so that they feel calm, and are better equipped to then calm the baby. Tension creates tension. We are after all tribal creatures.

Most people are like that, Karrie. On all of the flights I've ever taken my boys on, I've always done my best to keep them occupied, or asleep(preferable).

But sometimes nothing works, and you feel helpless, and embarrassed because you know it is annoying the hell out of everyone around. But..just two weeks ago, an elderly woman sitting next to me on my flight from Houston to Philadelphia, asked if she could have hold my 10 month old, who was being a hell-spawn at that particular time..and I thought to myself,"Sure, why not?" (my wife wasn't with us)...and wouldn't ya know..she held him for about 40 seconds, and he was out..fast asleep. And she insisted on holding him until we landed...think we were over Alabama when she took him, so we still had quite a ways to go...

 

[tracy]

Suggest any tricks that have worked for you, otherwise be quiet about it. If the kid were 7 years old then the response would be different, but a baby can't control itself.

 

[Just the Facts]

In an l1011 that would have to be one LOUD baby!!!

 

[lone wolf]

Suggest they give the baby something to drink (No.... NOT JD!) Swallowing relieves the pressure on ear passages in the same way as yawning. At cruising altitude, there really shouldn't be a problem because cabin air pressure is stabilized. For the most part, it's during climb-out and descent when air pressure plays ear games.

 

[Nuggler]

......Like, see if that emergency exit really opens in the air.........

Saving that, a bottle, a breast, a blackjack. Whatever works.

Take ear plugs.

Don't fly.

Crying babies don't really bother me. It's the drunken louts who wanna tell everyone how they did in Vegas......................:angry3:

;-)

 

[Ron in Regina]

Many years ago I was in a very similar situation (but as the parent) to the crying baby on a plane.
It really can be much worse. 17yrs ago when my Son was three years old, he wanted to go for a ride in
the submarines in the West Edmonton Mall. Well....those actually are real submarines but they run on
a track under the water, and once you are underway, there's no turning back. A submarine (these ones
anyway) are basically a hollow metal tube with about thirty people on benches looking out the window at
the fish. There was absolutely no sound absorbing material. Sound bounces and echo's horrendously...

We found our seats, and they sealed up the sub, and then pressurized it. My Son's ears popped
and he started to scream, cry, etc, etc, etc...and there really was nothing I could do. Thankfully the $8
tickets only bought us a 10-15 minute ride, but anyone that was on that submarine that trip would claim
that it felt like hours and hours in duration. I spend the 10-15 minutes trying to get a frightened three year
old to yawn, and chew gum, and everything else I could think of but nothing worked except the submarine
being unpressurized at the end of the ride. Oh well...if anyone did actually say anything to me, I really
couldn't have heard them, nor would they have been able to hear themselves.

 

[unclepercy]

You all are generally much nicer than I am. On a flight to Las Vegas, BIG plane, 565 passengers, two squalling infants were bothering the entire group. We hadn't taken
off yet. The flight attendant went over to them and asked if the babies needed a bottle or a change. 560 people yelled, "YES!" in unison. And wouldn't you know it? They were on the flight back.

As to Honolulu, I got up and moved. I told the flight attendant that the mother was having a time with her crying baby, and she said, "What crying baby?" She couldn't hear it over the engines--they sit in the rear. When she was made aware of it, 3 hours later (I couldn't take it anymore! and I certainly could not force an 8 hour smile), the
attendants took turns walking the baby and that helped. By that time, I was sitting two SECTIONS ahead. As I recall, the L1011 has 4 big screen TVs and 4 sections?

Come and fly American from Dallas, and we will test your patience. Two weeks ago, my daughter got hung up in Chicago at O'Hare for 14 hours. Had to fly to Atlanta to get out of the way of a storm. And it took 2 days to get from Chicago to Dallas. Outrageous?

Not hardly. The next weekend she goes to LaGuardia on American with MTV. Same story. She had to sleep on the airport floor and wait for her cancelled flight to be rescheduled, and then she slept on the floor of the St. Louis airport, also a day late. Now that's ridiculous. You wouldn't be smiling then - you'd be ripe for a nervous breakdown.

Uncle

 

[lone wolf]

So ... how's Amtrak these days?

 

[unclepercy]

Actually, Lone Wolf, it is strange that you should mention it. Just tonite, my daughter called to tell me she took her children (2 girls) from Philadelphia to New York City on Amtrak. She refused to fly American, and instead flew Southwest. She said it was wonderful, and next year they plan to take a train trip.

Uncle

 

[Unforgiven]

Crank the volume on my laptop for a little karaoke time!

 

[EagleSmack]

I was on a flight from Nevada to Boston and I had an infant in the seat in front of me that cried. The funny this is that the same couple was on the flight from Boston to Nevada and it cried then too! I guess we were on the same schedule.

BUT...I only felt bad for the mom and dad as they tried to calm their infant down. There is nothing the parents can do about it and they are even more stressed than the people around them. They do not want their infant crying either with very little to occupy them. So I feel sympathy to be honest.