Pack rats on planes
Ah, the great roll of the dice that is getting on a plane with a child. The resulting adventure is always worth it. As long as you don’t introduce sugar halfway through, you’ll probably find yourself surprised by how many relaxing moments you have, staring at the Emergency Exit diagram for the 30th time. I like to order a cup of coffee as rogue challenge to fate. I always manage to finish it while still hot, and it is always delicious.
Whether it feels like you finished your flight with a walk of shame or a nod toward infamy, someone is bound to say “oh she was so good” as you walk past. Translation: You’re lucky I didn’t hear that baby once from my seat.
Those who were so blessed, slept. Those who didn’t, blog anyway.
Packing entertainment for a near two-year-old means tapping into your inner pack rat. Find containers, most from the recycling bin, and hide things in them. Think color, tactile, cheap, and random. Random is the key because truly you have no idea what stage of object-love your child might be at that week. Hide everything until the plane ride (actually, for nine months and younger I think it’s better to introduce things here and there beforehand, because they like familiar objects in unfamiliar settings at that point). We explained several times, “We’re not unzipping that backpack because it’s chock full of treats for the airplane.” Evidently anticipation is inborn in humans from the word “me.”
The number one winner in this group for the whole trip is that little Clinique jar full of pom poms on the far right. This is a jar that I purchased in the late ’90s and wisely left in my cosmetic bag for the next eight years, expensive moisturizer steadily declining into lord-knows-what-paste. It looks like glass but it’s actually thick plastic (clever, Clinique!). Not only was this the plane favorite, it was the restaurant favorite, the it’s 8am and sunny but mom and dad are still resting favorite, and the we’re-still-shopping stroller distraction favorite. Pom poms were strewn across the city for pigeons to mistake for chewy colored bread. “All of these will end up thrown across the plane,” Joe wisely observed when I brought them home from Target. “They were $2” I gleefully replied.
But the very best advice is always going to be: ask at the desk as soon as you arrive at your gate to see if there are any open seats you can be moved near to. Lux was practically kicking Joe and I out of our seats on the way over so she could have her own space for awhile. It wasn’t lost on her that no one else on the plane was sitting on their companion’s lap. On the way back, by a miracle, she got her own seat and it was wonderful.
8 Comments
Bridget Hunt
So she didn’t sleep at all?! Any baby-headphone’d movie watching going on? I loved this line, “It wasn’t lose on her that no one else on the plane was sitting on their companion’s lap.”
Can you imagine if plane’s had some sort of play-space for babies/toddlers? Vivi and Lux could’ve made a mid-flight playdate.
Rachael Ringenberg
I feel like that must be in the future. Right? If there’s Virgin America for people who want purple lights and sexy music, there’s gotta be an airline that does at least one child-focused flight a day.
Junglewife
Great ideas! And glad your travel went relatively well. I definitely have some experience with little ones on long airplane trips, but even still am by no means an expert!
One of the things I have found works well especially as the kids get a little older is to take some of those treats and trinkets (I like to pick up items at the dollar section of Michaels/Target, with some bigger/nicer items thrown in too) and wrap them up in wrapping paper ahead of time. Even if the trinket isn’t something they’d get excited about ordinarily, there’s something about the excitement of unwrapping an item that makes the item inside that much more wonderful, somehow 🙂 I try to space out the “giving of gifts” throughout the airplane ride, which sometimes gets challenging on a 13-hour trip!
Rachael Ringenberg
Yes! Even though I don’t think it would have mattered to Lux yet, I was so close to wrapping everything up. Just didn’t find anything to wrap in in time. But I love that idea for next time.
Junglewife
Next time 🙂 Just be aware that it takes more time to wrap lots of little items than you might think… so don’t leave it for the night before… not that I know from experience or anything… 🙂
Erin
I never would have guessed the Clinique jar filled with pompoms. That is brilliant, as well as the fact that your pile of goodies doesn’t include candy.
Rachael Ringenberg
There was one Mars candy bar hidden in a coat pocket, eaten in secret in the bathroom!
Christine
Clever advice: asking for an open seat nearby. The child sitting on your lap does look around and want his own seatbelt to play with/wear, even if it costs you $300.