This is an old story, but it was shared with me for the first time today and I was touched by it and wanted to share it with you. A mother put together a cute care kit for other passengers ahead of her transpacific flight which apologized in advance if her baby was noisy.
Cute Crying Baby Care Kit + Note Ahead Of Transpacific Flight
Here’s how the story goes, which was shared widely in 2019:
A mother was traveling from Seoul, South Korea (ICN) to the San Francisco (SFO) with her four month old baby. She created more than 200 “advance apology” kits for the passengers around her in economy class, which included candy, chewing gum, and earplugs.
She also included the following note “written” by her baby Jan Woo:
“Hello, I am Junwoo and I’m 4 months old and today I’m going to the U.S. with my mom and grandmom to see my aunt. I’m a little bit nervous and scary because it’s my first flight in my life, which means that I may cry or make too much noise. I will try to go quite, though I can’t make any promises. Please excuse me. So my mom prepared little goodie bag for yoU! It has some candies and earplugs. Please use it when it’s too noisy because of me. Enjoy your trip. Thank you.”
As the father of two youngsters and one who has done his fair share of baby travel by air, I find this note such a kind gesture. It is thoughtful and gracious and I have to imagine it would have helped some people who would have complained or at least been annoyed with a crying baby be less annoyed.
That said, I’m not about to start doing this. Nor should others. Sometimes babies need to fly too and sometimes babies make noise. The idea that a baby must be as well-behaved as an adult (a trite demand from the anti-child crowd) is absurd.
Do note that when a child screams on a plane, parents are the most uncomfortable. Even when my daughter so much as whimpers on a plane, I do all in my power to keep her quiet. Certainly, I do not want to disturb others. No reasonable parent does.
But I won’t apologize for taking my young children to see their family across the ocean. Nor should Junwoo’s mother. The beauty of air travel is that it connects us in ways that were never possible in the past. That families with young children take advantage in order to see friends or family is nothing to be sorry about, even if the baby acts like…a baby.
CONCLUSION
I found the note from Junwoo quite touching and the gesture quite kind. Even so, I’m not about to start taking that approach when traveling with my daughter. We should all be more gracious and compassionate to others, but that goes both ways. Parents traveling with young children have it hard: how about being kind to them when their baby cries so that such goodie bags are simply not needed to shut people up?
I feel bad that she felt that she had to do this. There is a huge difference between a normal crying baby or out of countrol badly behaved kids (unless they have some type of medical/behavioral condition.
Yes, for some reason I can tolerate a crying infant but not a toddler-tantrum machine.
Of course you would never do that. Like a typical American you would just let your fellow passengers enjoy the sounds of your brats screaming. Why should you make the effort try to keep them quiet right?
Kudos to this woman. If only most parents were this courteous then people wouldn’t hate kids on planes so much.
*yawn*
You’ve become quite tiresome lately.
Oh? Good.
Probably a Chinese bot, Matthew…..
Matthew, this was SUCH a refreshing view on this topic, and one that needs to be heard more! My children are now old enough to travel without crying, but if they were at that age and this article had come out, I would’ve breathed SUCH a sigh of relief, knowing that I had allies!!! I regret so many things I did, in the sacrifice of my boys’ comfort, just to pacify strangers, so that I didn’t “discomfort” them. It actually makes me quite angry now, thinking back. I’m just happy and hopeful that the parents that read your article now know there’s NOTHING wrong with being a baby, or the parent(s) of a baby. After all, we ALL were babies at some point! And most of us actually grew up and learned things don’t always go your way.
Thanks Jennie!
Xenophobe
Mom proceeded to take 4 Benadryl and let the baby scream the entire flight.
Here’s a better idea. Don’t travel with a four month old. But yeah, it’s everyone else’s problem when you baby screams the whole flight. SMH
I would contend that a four-month old has more maturity than this post. SMH.
Living in England and having family across the pond, we tried to get our daughter used to flying as soon as possible. She took her first flight around 3.5 months to Portugal. A nice 2.5 hour flight to ease her into it. So far at 11 months, she’s been on two trips across the pond and a long haul trip to the Maldives. She’s a great traveler so far, but we know that will change when she starts to be more mobile. Here’s to hoping it continues.
You’re doing great starting early. I started traveling when my babies were 4-6 weeks old. They are 12 and 9 now and are expert travellers. One thing that helped a ton was getting them used to being “bored” or not having electronics to keep them entertained constantly. We limit it at home anyway. When traveling by trains, planes or automobiles they always bring a notebook and something to color or draw this keeps them entertained for hours. Always pack snacks. I even pack sandwiches now – I put an ice pack in our medical bag then immediately transfer the ice pack to our lunch bag after security. Starting young and setting expectations early helps with kids being great on trips. As I type this we are at the end of an 11 hour excursion to a glacier in Iceland.
> “the anti-child crowd…”
Wow. Persecution complex much there, Matthew?
Nah.
https://liveandletsfly.com/infant-first-class-advice/
How did she get all that through security!!?? The rule is 3-1-1 not 200-1-1…..
Wow, Matthew, what horrible comments in the first class infant advice post you linked. SMH…..
I have a better idea that I am sure everyone here would agree on: How about forcing passenger airlines to give earplugs to their passengers?
I BOARDED A FLIGHT FROM SFO TO MIA. A BABY STARTED CRYING AND THE MAN NEXT TO ME SAID HE HAS NO PROBLEM WITH THE BABY CRYING BECAUSE IT IS THE SOUND OF LIFE.
What this woman did was very considerate and I hope more people would do this, if not all. Her actions show an incredible amount of emotional intelligence.
My wife has a service animal and has traveled with him on multiple transatlantic flights, He is an 80 lbs golden retriever, that sits quietly at her feet for the entire flight. He has never made a whimper or bark or growl on the plan ride EVER. He has NEVER gotten up to wander the the plane and bother other travelers or kicked backs of chairs. Due to the nature of air filtration in planes (air travels downward) there is also minimal chance of dander allergens bothering other travelers (unlike cat dander which is much lighter).
Point being, if we can assume that a dog can be as well behaved as every other adult passenger, then yes, I very well can say, unless you can control your child, stay off.
Or be as apologetic and considerate as this woman.
We have had terrible experiences in which entitled people attempt to pass their pets as service animals and have made trips miserable for everyone. Dog urine, feces and barking on a 6+ hour flight is even worse than a crying baby. But guess what, our service animal is fully trained and we are aggressively against untrained animals on planes. Keep your pets at home.
To clarify the point of this, you should feel bad about not being in control of your completely intelligent, cognizant, higher brain functioning human child. If not, then just admit it, my dog is better than your kid. This woman is a hero and should be applauded and replicated.
Dude, assuming that this is an actual service animal then yes it’s been trained more than most babies and it’s likely further along in its maturity than a baby. The dumb baby literally thinks you have disappeared when you play peek-a-boo.
I get annoyed when older kids are misbehaving but even then we don’t know their story and they are still entitled to travel. Maybe they have a parent in the military and need to fly somewhere new, maybe they are flying for custody, honestly maybe they are just flying to have a vacation and that’s okay too.
When you get your private jet you can ban all babies
AyyyyyyyMen!!!! Love this comment!!
Hehehe.
Clarify your point….
If you have a problem with a noisy child, I suggest you not fly. If your dumb enough to get in a tin can for hours at 30000 feet and not expect discomfort, drive or get your own plane asshole
…*you’re dumb enough….
These days more and more people are doing that. It became a well known life hack seggested in social media. Your kid behaves badly on a long trip? Just give a few candy to some passengers and don’t worry much about it.
That is so thoughtful of her mom to do that. I’m Autistic and crying baby’s give me so much stress while I’m flying and just in normal life . So this just melts my heart with happiness.
I wish more mothers were thoughtful like this
I was on that flight sitting directly in front of the little girl and her mom!!!
It was a great flight and the baby behaved perfectly !!!
Thanks for sharing!
What about the child that screamed for 8 hours straight on a flight?
“This really cute thing happened but don’t worry about ever being this generous yourself, I certainly don’t plan to” said the author