Beverly Beckham must have teenage kids who aggressively ignore her, because she sure got all nostalgic about a recent flight where a wired 8-year-old boy kept bombarding his patient, understanding dad with eager questions:
''Dad! Dad! Did you feel that bump?" he said as the plane took off.In the heartwarming scene [it's apparently Heartwarming Week here at DT], the dad eventually left his twins and moved up a row, crawling across the guy in the aisle to sit in the empty seat next to his son. It's such a short time when kids care what we think, Beckham opines.''Dad! Dad! Look over there," he said as the plane climbed.
''Dad! Dad! Where are we now?" he said 60 seconds into the flight.
All very touching; I wish my daughter and I could've been there. Because the First DT Rule of Stress-free Plane Travel is that your kid doesn't need to be quiet, just quieter than the other kids on the flight.
A son's adoration is a fleeting thing [boston.com via dt reader john]
The first rule of Flight Club is - kids do not talk about Flight Club. The second rule of Flight Club is - kids DO NOT talk about Flight Club. Third rule of Flight Club, someone yells Stop!, goes limp, taps out, the flight is over. Fourth rule, only two whining kids to a flight. Fifth rule, no shirt, no shoes. Seventh rule, flights will go on as long as they have to.
[I guess that makes my "first rule" into "rule i" -ed.]
That was so sweet. My son is going to be 9 in a couple weeks and I fear we only have a few years left of the adoration.
Here in just shy of two weeks I'll be getting my first chance of flying with my son.
I have a business trip to Oman and have to be there for several months so instead of losing my family time I'm bringing my family with.
William is 14mo now and we hope that he'll sleep through the flight. We leave in the evening after his normal bed time so hopefully he'll sack out and use his mother or I as a pillow for the flight.
I'm not sure my 18 month old adores me, but she sure does adore the monkey puppet I introduced to her. Now my coming home from work consists of "Daddy! Monkey!" and then 3-4 hrs of having my hand inside a sweaty monkey puppet.
(don't let me fool you - I wouldn't trade it for the world!)
So, we had packages for the kids they could open when the flight display showed they were over certain states (DC to CA)...little surprises. This kept them staring at the little airplane on the screen for minutes at a time, or trying to listen to the cockpit pilots chatter, or trying to bug the stewardesses, or trying to (very loudly) ask everyone in Cabin and First Class exactly where they thought they were. (In hell, but at the higher elevations, obviously). Some pluses, some minuses.