The flight from Hades

Eech, sounds rough. There is a really good web site about family travel called Wejustgotback(http://www.wejustgotback.com). There is a readers' advice section called "tip sheets," and one is about flying with kids. I found the tips extremely helpful prior to my last transcontinental flight with my 2-year-old and 4-year-old. There are other also a half dozen other tip sheets about things like road trips and saving money on travel.

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Our daughter does much better when she's strapped in her car seat on the plane. I know it can be tough to carry it when you are flying with him alone, but it's worth it, I promise. You can either get a backpack thing from One Step Ahead to carry the seat, or get one of those stroller/car seat combos.

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I am laughing this morning! Thanks for that post. We had one of those flights in November. I fly back and forth between St Louis and San Diego with my son about four times a year. He is almost three. We have had our ups and downs on various flights, but the November flight was one of those worst nightmare scenarios.

I won't go into the whole story, but lets just say that 4:30pm with no nap and no lunch and too much excitement and a long layover in Dallas when he thought that we were *already* in San Diego upon landing there all combined to make for a screaming flailing airplane window and wall kicking toddler who spillled milkshake all over me while I physicall restrained his arms and legs to keep him still (and keep the plane intact) and had the flight attendant simply standing at the end of our row before takeoff staring at us with an angry expression. Not offering to help, not offering words of kindness or sympthy, but simply giving me the "stop him now or I'm going to kick you off the plane" stare.

I probably should have nursed him to sleep at that point -- the funny thing being that as he was already the centre of attention, there was no way to initiate nursing discreetly, and in the current climate it seems that people might have preferred the tantrum to the nursing toddler and so I didn't even bother :-P

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Ugh, we had a flight like this last week. The only thing that saved us? Lollipops. Throat pops, actually, as junior had a cold. He would sit still and suck on those sugar bombs (two in an hour) quite contentedly.

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No advice here, but I have to say you are the six or seventh person I have read about having absolutely HELLISH travel with a toddler over the holidays!! My own 18 month old has been acting like a total hag since we spent a week at Grandma's (where she refused to nap, wanted cookies from Grandpa constantly, etc). I think it must be something in the air.... Gah

Getting back to reality is hard for everyone after vacation, even small people!

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Chuckle chuckle. Many apologies to be gleaning enjoyment from your torture, but I promise, there will be a day you look back and laugh about it. My daughter is 11, we're past the public tantrums...entering a new and scary phase...

But, thanks for sharing your well written account of your flight from Hades.

Here's a question...when I am an onlooker on a flight, I completely sympathize but am never sure how a parent would feel if I actually offered to help - would it make the parent feel worse for being so obviously in need of it? Better? So I smile encouraginly, maybe say a few comforting words...but what would happen if I offered to distract the wee fiend for a moment...sometimes a stranger doing something strange is enough to make a kid stop and stare...

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I flew several times with my son when he was a baby. My husband and I have taken one trip to Grandma's since he started walking -- and after that trip, we won't fly again until he is at least 6 or 7 years old. In addition to tantrums for not letting him run up and down the aisle, press the flight attendant call button or play with the on-board phone, his diaper leaked and I ended up soaked. It was awful.

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Was the trip "absolutely necessary" with a two year old?

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