Sorry about the pathetic rehash of the seminal Beatles ditty ‘All you need is love‘ but I couldn’t help it. Let me explain…
Before I had Rohan, I used to be intolerant of wailing banshees a.k.a crying children on flights, I would clear my throat loudly, glare at the parents and generally squirm in my seat enough to make them feel like tapeworms. I know it was wrong of me. I realise that now. And I realise it more acutely now because if Rohan misbehaves in public or even whimpers on a flight I feel like evaporating. Nothing can be more embarrassing for parents than toddlers who decide to act up at the wrong place and at the wrong time.
Rohan recently turned two and he has been on six international flights lasting more than 8 hours each already, apart from at least a dozen short-haul ones lasting 2-3 hours.
The run-up to our first flight gave me nightmares about possible meltdowns. And I asked everyone I met for advice, even the till operator at Mothercare. Based on advice, I checked-in for our first child as a family of three.
The contents of my carry-on case for the 8 hour flight contained:
1) 6 bottles containing 8 oz each of milk;
2) 25 nappies
3) 4 packets of wipes
4) 4 changes of clothes for each of us
5) 2 bottles of Infacol (colic relieving medication)
6) 10 burp cloths
7) 5 jars of mashed carrots and potatoes
8) 2 bottles of Calpol
9) 2 different changing mats
Rohan’s changing bag was the size of a mini township and it took OH (who is very strong, btw) considerable effort to carry it onto the plane.
Rohan gets settled in for his first flight, Autumn 2011
The flight turned out to be totally uneventful. Rohan didn’t suffer from any of the maladies that afflict young travellers… no blocked ears, no incessant crying, nothing. Soon after the flight took off he got as-snug-as-a-bug-in-a-rug inside the bassinet and slept most of the way taking a few breaks to top up on milk.
Laying our fears to rest, Rohan caught up on a lot of zzzzzs on the flight, Autumn 2011
I breathed easy thinking the situation was under control but the flight back was not without incident, although it didn’t result in any cryathalons. Rohan’s formula milk had run out by the end of our holiday and he was solely dependant on me for all his nutritional needs. Let’s just say we made an excessive number of trips to the loo wherein he would invariably push the ‘call attendant in an emergency’ button repeatedly. Placed handily next to the toilet seat, it would result in the flight attendants trying to hammer the door down thinking I had somehow managed to flush myself/baby during the feeding routine.
Our next long-haul flight was when Rohan was one and a half. He could walk by then, had very strong opinions and was very wary of being made to take a nap. And just to make it more interesting, I was travelling alone with him. Google became my best friend those days, I would run endless searches on ‘flying with toddlers’, ‘how to avoid toddler meltdowns at 30,000 feet’. You get the idea. Most of the advice centred around toys, and not one but a vast number of toys, all new, that would keep him occupied for atleast an hour each.
I hit Poundland as soon as it opened on the day of our flight and bought a toy each for each hour of flying time and then gift wrapped them. The flight was a resounding success. Whenever Rohan got tetchy, I would open up the bag and bring out a shiny new gift wrapped toy…taking off the wrapper took about half an hour each time and he was thrilled with all of them, some passengers less so with the flute, I think. Bad call on my part.
Waiting to board the flight at Gatwick Airport, Autumn 2012
On board the flight to Sri Lanka, Rohan gets busy with his toys, Winter 2012
I hid it on the way back and everything went well.
This time, however, I didn’t have time to forward-plan anything as it was a very rushed trip. So, on the night before the flight, I sat down with my iPad and opened up the App Store. I redeemed a gift card that I had been given for my birthday last year and I started looking. I found a treasure trove of free books for children as well as doodling apps. I downloaded them all without hesitation.
Rohan has a serious obsession with Peppa Pig, the cartoon character and I found 26 episodes for £3.99. It is the best investment a mother with a Peppa Pig obsessed toddler can ever make.
Helping me with pushing the trolley at Heathrow, Summer 2013
I didn’t have to pack a zillion toys and then go crawling after the tiny webba (Zebra) that had somehow made it inside the shoe of the person in the seat in front of us, I didn’t even need the horrible Aquadoodle with the perpetually leaking pen.
Peppa pig enthrals Rohan during the flight, Summer 2013
With priority boarding, I settled Rohan in front of the tablet as soon as we boarded the flight. I even managed to feed him all of his lunch before the flight took off. He sat patiently with the seat belt on while the plane took off and left me in peace to eat my lunch and GASP! watch a movie myself without moving an inch from his seat!!! He was mesmerised, gobsmacked and utterly transfixed. When not watching Peppa Pig, he would draw a ‘Hati’ (elephant, his favourite animal) on the doodle pad or look at the picture books I had downloaded. It was nothing short of a miracle.
A couple of hours later, he crawled into my lap and said ‘Nona baby sleeptime grrr zzzz’ and promptly fell asleep.
When I had to wait for eons at one of the airports for our luggage to arrive, the iPad kept Rohan occupied and engaged while babies and toddlers around us raged/cried/fussed. Rohan even turned around once to say, ‘Oh dear, Baby crying’ patting a 3-year-old on the head who had arched his back like a bow mid-tantrum.
On the flight back, it was almost as though I was flying with an adult…we both got busy watching tv together and I snoozed extensively *5 hours COUGH!* I reached Heathrow fresh as a daisy and enveloped OH in a tight hug of joy when I saw him, he wasn’t expecting it. But didn’t mind it either.
I am sure you can guess the answer when someone asks me what my experience of flying with a toddler have been like…A breeze, I say.
My tablet set me free.
Gurgles and Woofs 
I often wonder what parenting was like before iPads. Then again, I wonder more about what WE were like before google. 🙂
I think it was quite cumbersome and a parent’s bag resembled a mini holdall at all times… a bit like us before Google, the Encyclopedia Britannica had pride of place on the book shelf 🙂
The first time we went home (8 hrs to Manila from Dubai), I overpacked everything: the carry-ons, the checked-in baggage thinking I will run out of stuff for my then 4-year old and 9-month old girls. We ended up not using half the stuff we packed because I apparently had forgotten how hot it gets in Manila in April. Eibee also had a cold when we flew so the cold meds helped knock her out. My kids never had cryathlons, thank goodness, and are mostly well-behaved during flights. I guess it helped that we took them out on long roadtrips as soon as we could. No motion sickness in this family. Your boy looks like he will be alright.
It is just the tantrums I fear the most, apart from the boredom of sitting in one place during a flight…keeping my fingers crossed that the situation keeps improving as he gets older!
Oh it will get better, as the attention span grows wider. I find that kids who fly as early in life as possible get used to the jet lag and being stationary for long periods of time more than those who don’t.