Oh dear god. Anyone who has ever flown with a child under two will probably feel my pain. I don't know why I thought it would be anything but challenging to be honest as Isaac doesn't sit still at home for longer than a few minutes before his attention is drawn to something else. He spends the day flickering between his toys, pointing to everything he can't have and pulling all his toys out of his toy chest so sitting on my lap for a two hour flight was always going to be testing.
We toyed with the idea of investing in a tablet for him but decided against it, mainly because we didn't have time to look at options, money was tight and we didn't think his short attention span would fully appreciate it. He can't even sit through half an episode of Mickey Mouse Clubhouse these days so it just didn't seem worth the investment, however, in hindsight it may have been worth its weight in gold if it had kept him still for just a few minutes!!
It was an early evening flight which took off at 7.40pm, pretty much Isaac's bedtime, so he was already tired, had spent an hour being restrained on a coach journey and another hour in a buggy in the airport so now he just wanted to be free to play and explore. Fair enough to be honest. I get antsy sitting on a plane myself, let alone and one year old but it was a living nightmare. He wriggled, he cried, he threw things, he had tantrums, he spilt water, he hit me...for two whole hours. However in between tantrums he smiled sweetly and waved at the air hostesses and other passengers like butter wouldn't melt whilst giving me daggers for restraining him.
In the end the only way I managed to keep him from having a complete meltdown was by singing every nursery rhyme and lullaby I could think of sweetly into his ear while rocking him gently (thank god I have been regularly attending rhyme time or I may have come off the flight completely bald). Even then, every so often he let out a scream in frustration and threw his dummy (which was cunningly attached to a strap) before I gently replaced his dummy and he settled down again!
Anyway, we made it through the flight and had a fantastic holiday so the pain of the flight was 100% worth it for two precious weeks of quality family time. We can't wait to do it all again next year. At least I will know what I am letting myself in for!!!..
What have your experiences of flying with a one year old been and how did you survive?
isaac enjoying a different kind of flight!
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