I struggle to see why anyone would care this much about the opinions of a bunch of strangers. You’re already traveling with a baby and having a worse time than they are. They’ll just have to get over it.
Plus, if I were a flight attendant, I would not appreciate the additional pile of garbage this act would generate.
My experience is quite different. If you care about the environment in which you operate, try being nice. This is a way to do that. If you disagree, that’s fine. But I’ve never had a negative reaction to this.
@Mithrandir did you get the idea from this news story?
Personally I see no problem with it. It’s a nice gesture. But I wouldn’t do it personally… too much work on my part when I’m just trying to get my kid from point A to point B.
This is what my mom did with me and it seemed to work really well. She said when people got off the plane and passed by us, they’d remark that they didn’t even know a baby was on the plane in the first place.
No, the news article seems more recent than when my kids were babies. I did get the idea from online, though. I can’t remember if it was from a news article or from a blog of some sort.
I have only received overwhelmingly positive responses to this. And seeing as a I hate crying babies and that the effort to do this is so small, it seemed like a no-brainer to me. People were so nice and so positive, I have to recommend this to people with babies even if the small effort to do this causes them some stress.
I suppose I just don’t care because I don’t hate it when babies cry. That’s just what they do, it’s how they communicate, and I don’t have any sort of feelings toward it. I know by hour 9 or so of the overseas flight I’d kind of like to start crying, myself.
You’re a better person than I. I love quiet and the ability to rest, and babies crying destroys that. Gift bags and empathy are a way to disarm that type of reaction, even for those that intellectually agree with you but emotionally respond poorly to hours of a baby crying.
Cheap earplugs work like magic.
No, and neither do noise canceling headphones.
Wow, now I really don’t want kids.
What, because they cry on planes? That’s your rationale for not wanting kids?
They also give you joy, purpose and love. Yes, it’s a ton of work, but it’s worth it and frankly, I feel a bit sorry for people who never have kids. They’re missing out on a lot.
bassinet is a huge difference otherwise you basicly have to hold your baby the whole flight. Not only good for the baby, also works wonders for the parents.
Preparing gift bags for other passengers, I personally think is ridiculous. You should not have to apologize for travelling with a baby.
This added to everything else. I sort of enjoy flying and the time of silence to yourself on a plane. Can’t imagine traveling with babies and I probably won’t be traveling much anymore for fun.
It’s not customs…its immigration. You go through immigration first, then get your luggage and then you pass through customs clearance last. So many people just call the whole thing customs, but it’s not.
Immigration will be fine if your family all go through the same line together.
My first time to the US with my wife (no US passport) we went in separate lines. the immigration officer asked where she was and said next time just go together in the citizen line to save time. So the next 2 times we did that and it was fine.
One good thing about traveling with kids is that you are guaranteed to have a small person next to you and extra space to put bags under the seats.
Why has no one mentioned benadryl and whiskey? Benny-cocktails, great for the whole fam damnily
In fact, noise-cancelling headphones can make things worse. While they are magical taking away the loud ambient noise of the plane, they do not take away non-ambient noise. What I noticed is that it makes baby-crying noises even more evident (or ordinary speech for that matter), as their cries are no longer masked by the noise but clear and loud. Funny how things work.
This notion of “undisturbed quiet time” or “silence” during air travel that everyone keeps talking about is absurd to me. Between the incessant roar of the engine, food and snack service, and people talking, rifling through the overhead compartments, roaming the aisles, or squeezing past you for the lavatory, there is hardly any peace to be had on an airplane. Squealing meatballs are barely bothersome at all compared to other in-flight shenanigans.
ahh okay, I’ve always just said customs…thanks for letting me know
yeah, I even get looks from people in the store here when the baby starts crying. I really don’t understand the baby hate that seems so prevalent everywhere…we can’t just leave the little guy at home when we go shopping