Bright. Cheery. Helpful.
These are words I’m not used to associating with people working in the airline industry. More commonly, I’ve noticed that security officials and airline employees tend to be among the most riddled with Adultitis. Little did I know that there is a simple solution to help raise them from their doldrums:
Just add baby.
Yep, our first flights with Lucy this week have actually bordered on enjoyable. Part of the reason is that we’ve alotted more time for things, which has taken much of the edge off travel. (It’s amazing how much less stressful life is when you’re not always in a mad dash to be first, be it first in line, first on board, etc.) But another reason things have been so nice is because of how pleasant and accommodating everyone has been. Maybe its sympathy or maybe it’s a melting of defenses, but people seem to be much more approachable, and, well…nice, when you have a baby in tow. Frowns turn upside down, help comes from nowhere, and friendly conversations start up without effort.
We’ll be sharing more of our adventures in travel in an upcoming episode of The Escape Adulthood Show, but for now I will say that I’ve been pleasantly surprised by this unexpected wrinkle.
It kind of makes me wonder why we can’t treat each other with such regard all the time. After all, we were all cute, lovable, little babies once.
Even the most hard-hearted baggage screener.
We traveled a few weeks ago with our 5-year old, 4-year old, and 8-month old. Security was very helpful and polite in the Orlando airport. The only grumbles I ever heard were from other passengers when they saw our crew get on board, however, those grumbles were quieted quickly when they realized that we did not have loud, boisterous children to disturb their flights. Of course, the i-pod and hand-held games helped to keep my older two very much occupied.
The early boarding is a nice perk with kids too. One of the best flights I ever had was with my son, an evening one, and it was full of families with children. We all boarded together early and the most annoying character was the grandmother who didn’t want her charges to breath. All the kids fell asleep after an hour and mine stayed asleep all the way to the hotel! Glad you are having happy trails with Lucy.
We found 2 other things that have broken the iron curtain of airline employee’s frowns. First is when we traveled with our cats, we thought it would be the day from hell since they do not like being in their carriers. While they were not perfectly behaved, all the airline personnel were WAY more helpful then on our average flights. Second scenario, flying on holidays. We fly a lot and once and a while it ends up ON a holiday. Now, at first it may seem like “Oh my gosh.. you had to fly ON Christmas / Thanksgiving”. But, We have flow on both and they were some of the most pleasant experiences of our flying career. It seems like on the day everyone is happy and care free. It’s like all the planning and hassle and stress is over. The vibe at the airport on Dec23 is a 180 from the 25th. Happy travels!
Wendy: Yes, the other passengers started grumbling when Lucy cried for about 2 minutes…but those were the only two minutes she cried on the whole flight. Even before we had kids, I always tried to be understanding and patient with people who flew with kids, because I knew I’d be in their situation someday.
Libby: Yep, the early boarding makes things go pretty smoothly. Of course, if you have Adultitis (as it sounded like the grandma had), nothing will go right (at least from her perspective.)
Jesse: Interesting observation about holidays. I never would have thought that.
That’s a good point about holidays. I flew to Chicago on Valentine’s Day, and they were very helpful and friendly. They passed out chocolate hearts a couple times. (But then, thanks to my mom’s frequent flyer miles, I got a great deal on first class. They gave us the royal treatment anyway.) :-) I didn’t have any babies or cats, though. That might have made them even more friendly.