Ella’s 1st Flight

Posted by Beth Henry on October 3, 2011

Ella was only 6 weeks old when I took her on her first flight. My husband was working, so I was on my own. Walking onboard I had a backpack on my back, a breast pump over one shoulder, and a diaper bag over the other shoulder. I was carrying Ella strapped into her car seat. We used a convertible car seat (the huge ones they use up to 4 years) and not an infant carrier, so you can imagine the struggle. Not one person offered help. Business men looked at me in disgust as I (accidentally…maybe) bumped their elbows and shoulders on my way back to my seat.

We fly often and Ella earned elite status on our primary airline when she was only 20 months old. I only cried 4 times in that 1st year and a half of travel with her. (joke) Through our frequent travel and my observations as a flight attendant for 12 years, I have collected many tips and tools on making traveling with kids a little bit easier.

Hopefully you experience more kindness from strangers than I did on that first flight. On our second flight at least 5 people offered assistance. I would help you if I saw you struggling. But I am sharing these tips so you won’t need to depend on others. So you can be self-sufficient when traveling with your kids and so you can eliminate as much as possible the stress of traveling with kids.