Crying Children on your Plane? What to do - and what not to do!

Crying Children on your Plane? What to do – and what not to do! – 17 Nov 15

Post author:Balendu
Post published:17/11/2015
Post category:Children
Post comments:0 Comments

After having been in a plane for 7 hours on Friday, I would like to just ask you one thing today: if you are ever sitting next to or near a crying baby in a flight, just do your best to not increase the pressure on the parents!

I do not say this because Apra was making much noise. Oh no, as I told you, she was sleeping nearly the whole flight long! It was a flight however with a lot of children. There were many empty seats, probably because it was only two days after the main celebration day of Diwali. Only some people already flew back from India and several of them were obviously families with small children!

We had about five children in our immediate surrounding and we heard a few more from behind us. Everyone who has ever been in a flight with several infants will know that there is at least one of them who is not entirely happy with being in a plane. This child expresses his or her dissatisfaction by loud wailing and crying – much to the entertainment of fellow travelers who are desperately trying to sleep.

You can always see different reactions of the people around: there are those who simply ignore the addition in sound volume and do their thing, simply not caring much about the screaming next to them. I sometimes think moms and dads like these ones the most.

There is another type of reaction which is normally also welcome: the stranger trying to distract the crying kid from whatever it is that doesn't seem right. Works sometimes but at other times, the problem has already progressed too far, the irritation is too big and it can even make things worse. A lot of parents will be happy about the effort though, so please go ahead!

And then there is the third person and I want to request you to please not be this person! The one who very obviously gets annoyed. Listen, I understand you are tired, you have not been able to sleep nor peacefully watch your inflight entertainment program. Neither have any of us. Neither have the parents, by the way. They are aware of the inconvenience their baby’s volume may cause you and they are doing their best. You shooting angry glances at them, sighing overly loud or passing angry comments doesn't make things better though!

On the contrary, the only things you achieve is to make one parent anxious, the other annoyed and to put extra stress on both of them which will, in turn, cause the child to cry and shout even more. Children feel exactly when their parents are out of balance and it makes them insecure and afraid – which means that you actually make the crying worse with your actions!

So please just realize that this little being is probably overly tired, intimidated by the many people around, the loud noise and the different circumstances. He or she is probably having problems with ear pressure and may simply not understand why mum and dad wanted to come to this horrible place when all could have been at home, cuddling in bed!

Everybody knows it is not the ideal situation for such a small human person. Any parent will be more than happy when their children do not have a tantrum or crying fit while confined to a relatively small place with hundreds of other people. So let's just be nice with each other, understand each other a bit better and relax. I tell you – children will feel it and relax as well! It will be a smoother flight for all of us. Sit back, relax, blend out the noise and enjoy life with all its adventures!