Sweetie stories III

In the third and final instalment of my series on Sweetie please enjoy a story about my first plane ride alone...

When Sweetie was a little over 2 years old I flew from Phoenix to Seattle, my first trip alone traveling with Sweetie. She’s always been tall for her age and being tall usually leads people to assume she’s older than she really is and thus expect better behavior from her. I was nervous to say the least due to Sweetie’s utter disregard for safety and staying with me. She was a runner, in that she liked to run away. Come to think if it she still loves to run but now she at least has a purpose!

Anyway, L took us to Sky Harbor airport and walked us inside to check our bags. I had a carry on (backpack), an umbrella stroller and Sweetie’s car seat. I decided (rather foolishly) to take her car seat onto the plane. I read something saying that even when you gate check a car seat it gets thrown around as much as being in a car crash and you’d have to buy a new one anyway. So I’m weighed down with my stuff and we proceed to security.

There wasn’t much of a line so we killed some time in the gift shop and then say goodbye to L. I folded up the stroller in preparation for putting it through the scanner. Sweetie started to get antsy and so I pulled out the kid leash/harness thing I bought in anticipation of the trip. I’m not a huge fan of child leashes but I am a big fan of keeping my kid with me so I thought I’d at least give it a try. Big mistake. Sweetie put it on okay but once she realized what it is she threw a HUGE fit. She fell to the ground kicking and screaming and pulling away from me. We caused a bit of a scene.

I was just getting to the start of the security maze and I was trying to navigate my way through the line pushing the folded up stroller with the backpack on, carrying the car seat and pulling Sweetie along as she flails around. I made it through security and then got Sweetie into the stroller, balancing the car seat on top. All the while people were just sitting there, watching me and getting a little entertainment out of the whole ordeal (I actually saw some guy laugh). I’m sure they were making bets to see if I could actually pull it off.

We made our way to the gate and upon arriving discovered that we had been delayed an hour. I had to kill 2 hours sitting there (or more accurately chasing Sweetie around). And chase I did. We had to run off several times and I almost got in trouble for leaving my stuff but I think they knew better than to mess with me when they saw how frazzled I was and that I was running after a kid.

After all this drama we finally boarded the plane and I hoped for a smooth trip. We got all situated and we take off. Once Sweetie got in the car seat I realized that all it really did was put her high enough to reach the seat in front of her with her feet. She of course began to kick the seat. I told her no over and over again, I held her feet, etc. But by then I was already close to my breaking point so I tried to keep my cool.

After a few minutes an older lady sitting directly in front of us turned around, looked directly at Sweetie, and said: “I’ve heard your mom ask you several times and now I’m telling you to stop kicking my seat.’ Sweetie just kind of looked at her. I didn’t even know what to say.

The rest of the flight was okay, nothing too memorable. We arrived safe and mostly sound; I was very relieved to be off the plane. I will say I learned my lesson and never put the harness/leash on Sweetie again.