Traveling alone with a young children was not something that I ever thought much about - that was until I had a child of my own. Living on the other side of the word meant that a long haul trip would be happening sooner or later. I hadn't ever imagined that it would be at the worst possible point in a toddler's life. Old enough to know what's going on, but still too young to comprehend any of the following points of traveling etiquette:
- waiting in long lines, (airport security, immigration, boarding plane)
- sitting in a confined space,
- 'following seat belt sign instructions'
- being quiet when 200 other people are sleeping.
The idea of drugging my child through the travel had crossed my mind (though If I had done this I'd probably be divorced by now), but as time passed before the trip, I wasn't organized enough to get any appropriate drugs. I thought organizing night flights would be a smart way of helping my kid sleep at least a little bit. The longest of the three flights was 14 hours - YES I DID JUST SAY 14 HOURS!
Why would I do this you ask? Well when you realize that whilst your child is under 2 years old, YOU DON'T NEED TO PAY FOR THEM; and you have family so far away that you need to take 3 planes to see them- it seems like a logical thing to do.
There were only a couple of small gaps in my plan:
1) I hadn't factored in any significant delays or airport dramas, of which I have had more than my fair share of prior to this trip.
2) I'd never tried flying half-way around the world with a wriggling, noisy 12kg weight on my knee
3) I'd never dragged a 2 year old through a single airport before, never mind 3 airports in one trip.
Before having a child of my own I'd been one of the people thinking ( after seeing a parent dragging a young child down the plane isle) - oh no... please don't sit near me. I had suddenly been on the receiving end of those looks. Those looks were nothing compared to the people on the long haul flights - who saw me either at check-in, or gate - and could be seen to be thinking - oh no - don't bring that child near me. Being British I apologize for a lot of things that are not my fault anyway, (including when a person bumps into me when I'm stood still) but double the number of apologies I was handing out to my fellow passengers as we boarded the plane.
If I tell you the dramas of the first 24 hours - you'd be here another 48 hours reading it so I will give you a bullet point summary of what did (and can) go wrong when you take on this kind of challenge.
- Flight 1 - 5pm Wellington (New Zealand) to Melbourne (Australia) delayed, 1 hour, then undisclosed period and eventually 6 hours...
- Connecting flight missed whilst still at original airport (Melbourne - Abu Dabi). Told at 10pm to go home and come back the next day.
- Flight route & company changed to: 1 hour flight to Auckland (NZ), then 17 hours to Doha (Qatar) - then 2 hour gap before 7 hour flight to Manchester (UK).
There a million issues this raised - which all ultimately led my little boy being dressed in his pyjamas and running round the boarding area drinking his bedtime bottle before being offloaded into the cold night.
So after returning just 8 hours later we flew to Auckland (had 2 hours of my boy sleeping on my shoulder - because the airline said our 'small' trolley was too big for me to take it on the plane and so had to be checked through to the UK) whilst I pleaded with Qatar airlines & Qantas to find a way to fix the 'mistake' made when our flights were changed to get my child's ticket reinstated. As the tears of desperation (no exaggeration) were beginning to roll down my cheek we were told it was "ok" because despite the IT 'issue' someone realized they could write a paper ticket (I kid you not!) We required a full escort to the gate and through security to make our 17 hour flight - without time for a nappy change, food or more importantly - a cup of tea!
So, one man, one baby and one seat for 17 hours, on a plane! - Snakes on a plane move aside - this was an action movie you could not help but get into. The flight went something like this....
- Hour 1 - How many times can we make the nice lady come to the seat and ask us to keep the window shade pulled down - by pushing it up at every opportunity? The answer - 25 times.
- Hours 2-3 - Desperate Dad tries every trick to have child remain seated - playing the window shade game, reading books, trying to the tv distraction game. = Fail
- Hours 3-7 - Walking up and down the plane isle. (During the return leg shouting 'seat, daddy seat' - which sounded to the native ear like 'shit, daddy, shit'
- Hour 8 - Food - my child likes food - and ate well.
- Hour 9 - Daddy attempts to change nappy in airport toilet - without getting covered in soap, water and flushing baby paraphernalia down toilet accidentally. = Fail
- Hours 10-12 - Back to ilse patrol - now with sleeping passengers to torment or point at whilst saying 'shit'.
- Hours 13-17 Sleep - for child at least, Helpful passengers then help daddy carry luggage off plane into terminal building on 32 degree heat at 02:00.
This made the 7 hour flight just two hours later seem quite tame. The variation of flight 3 was simply, food, read, walk up isle, food sleep, poo, sleep.
A 2 year old child is beginning to see 'fun' potential in almost any activity, though they just have no clue that what they are doing (no matter how mundane) might be annoying, dangerous or just not appropriate. So after a 3 full flights, virtually no sleep and all the drama, I was so relieved to touch down in my home city almost 40 hours after I started. my child however saw one last opportunity to just extend this adventure. He decided that he had enough energy and determination to drag hand a small case on wheels almost one kilometre to the arrivals hall - refusing any help along the way!
No as for the journey back - let me give the short short version!
UK - Dubai ( A spare seat and the opportunity to at least get a little rest with just 1 hour of walking up isle).
Dubai 14 hour layover: - A train, 1km walk to mall and an in mall aquarium - with a 2 hour sleep in the airport = success
Dubai - Sydney: Nightmare - no spare seats - stood for 3 hours whilst child slept in solitary chair + stood to feed child as tray couldn't be lowered with child on my knee.
Sydney - Wellington (Short, sweet & just typical AirNZ)
So the take home message is..... don't ever fly by yourself with a 2 year old and if you do... buy some child reigns!! Being able to tie your child to a chair whilst you (accidentally) sleep at an airport is a life saver!
