Flying with kids: are we having fun yet?

Over the weekend I was at a dinner party with a group of really good friends where we were the only couple with kids. While they all seem to like our boys and have some crazy idea they are sweet angels - somehow the conversation turned and I ended up on that rant again - you know the one about flying with kids.

You know the refrain - how dare there be a crying baby on my flight? I paid (or my work paid) for business class - surely I shouldn't have to share my cabin with children? It went on. And it got up my nose.

As anyone with kids knows, flying with kids is stressful. We stress before we even leave home. Flights (especially long ones) usually come at a time when everyone is sick or really tired or you have stayed up late at a dinner party, leaving packing until the early hours in a wine-induced haze. 

Have we packed enough - or too much? Do we have enough to eat? We worry about kids running off at airports (having to let them go to walk through the scanner is a favourite) and we dread the juggle of bags and strollers and children through the security gate. 

We hope we'll be able to get on board quickly and set ourselves up without holding everyone up. We hope the plane will take off on time, ears will be calmed by milk or lollipops (sugar free if we can get them) and that there will be no turbulence. We hope we have charged phones and tablets and there are enough distractions and snacks. We hope we can get off the plane with every toy (one minor fail so far) and with no accidents.

If its a long flight, we cross our fingers that our careful timing of the flight to include time to run in the airport, followed by a quick change into PJ's and sleeping bag on the flight will mean peace for everyone.

For me flying used to be about hours of time to read, have a few drinks and watch a movie - with nothing else to do except nap. Except now, drinks are limited to a single G&T to calm frazzled nerves, dinner is eaten quickly, while a movie is perhaps the only reminder of travels past. Sleep is not an option, just in case one of the boys wakes up - or as happened to a friend once - the child slips off onto the floor - or into the aisle. 

And before you suggest that families should just stay home until children are old enough to "behave" on a flight - think about it. Families fly for a whole range of reasons - travel, work, visiting families. That family with the screaming child could be travelling for medical treatment - or perhaps a funeral of a loved one. I like to think that my boys are learning good manners and appreciate the need to respect other people when travelling. 

And if there is no sympathy after all that, well, let's just say there are people I don't want to fly with either. They smell (not enough deodorant or too much perfume), they drink too much, they talk loudly and annoy their neighbours. They turn their music up and fall asleep on the shoulder of strangers. The only difference - they are old enough to know better. 

So we'll continue to travel and plan with the precision of a well timed military operation. We'll do our best to make sure we all have a great flight. In return, have a drink or a nap for us!