A colleague of mine is moving to the US in the new year with his family to work and live there.
We were talking about this new adventure and how the preparations are going, whether they’re stressed about it and the conversation steered to the trip itself, with the kids.
It’s the first time their kids will be going on a long haul flight and he wasn’t sure what to expect.
I told him about our experience with Miss Z and Mr A on a trip to South Africa from London (11 hours flight) when they were 2 1/2 years and 6 months old respectively.
On the way to South Africa Mr A was still below the 6 months mark so we were fortunate to get the bulkhead seats (that row of seats by the wall where they can attach a cot). More so, we felt really lucky because at check-in they blocked off the whole row for us (4 seats) so Mr A could go on the cot to sleep and Miss Z would have two seats to lie on.
We were so happy at the thought that we too were going to get some sleep.
It all was going well until the first time Miss Z turned in her sleep. She almost fell off “the bed” which startled her and after that she couldn’t get back to sleep. Mr A, bless him, slept through the whole thing. So did his Dad.
I was exhausted when we landed in Johannesburg. Miss Z had been awake for hours. And then something happened. It was like some button was pushed and she became hysterical. She was crying non-stop all the way from baggage collection until the point at which we got her into the rented car’s seat (need I mention there was a queue at the car rental place for you to empathise with what we were feeling?)
I’m not exaggerating here. At one point I wondered if people would think that she had been abducted.
As soon as we turned the engine on, it was like another switch had been pulled and she was asleep… For hours thankfully.
On the way back Mr A was a few days older than 6 months so no bulkhead seats. I had to carry him the whole time. Fortunately he slept well (it’s an overnight flight). Miss Z was sitting between my hubby and I in her own seat. The flight was after 9pm so way past their bedtime.
I was worried that we were going to have another flight from hell, but that didn’t happen. As soon as she fell asleep she didn’t wake up again until the morning!
My conclusion on this was that albeit for us adults sitting the whole night and trying to sleep is difficult and we would love nothing better than to have a bed or a free row of seats, for a kid what’s familiar is to be sitting in the car and happily fall asleep.
So if you have a small child and you’re going on a long flight and the check-in lady kindly offers you an extra seat, say thank you and use it to stretch your own legs š