Madam, – I would like to comment on the following statement made by Ben Lerwill (“Down under with our toddler in tow” Go, May 8th) “Worry about the baby rather than your fellow passengers. If you’re more concerned about upsetting the people around you, you are in for a long journey”.
I had been saving, both money and holidays from work, for a considerable time for the “trip of a lifetime” to New Zealand and Australia which I took in March of this year. My husband and I were seated close to families with babies on both the 12-hour flight from Heathrow to Kuala Lumpur and the second eight-hour flight to Auckland. Both flights were full, so options to relocate on the plane were not available to us.
When one baby or toddler stopped crying another took up the loud lament. There was continuous noise, making it impossible to either sleep, rest, read a book or watch the in-flight entertainment. The use of headphones, ear plugs, sleeping tablets or even the white wine which Mr Lerwill referred to in his article did not sufficiently drown out the noise.
The crying babies were obviously distraught with the confinement of the environment, changes in cabin pressure, and the unfamiliarity of their surroundings. Their parents offered no apology or recognition of the suffering inflicted on the rest of the passengers on the plane who all seemed to be as weary as myself.
As a result, the first few days of my precious, long-awaited holiday was spent trying to nurse a headache brought on by lack of sleep and sheer tension of the whole flying experience. Auckland unfortunately is just a vague memory!
When my children were at the baby and toddler stage I would never have considered taking them on long-haul flights for several reasons, the most obvious being the discomfort caused to the children themselves, to myself and my fellow passengers.
Would it be a terrible imposition for parents to confine themselves to short-haul until the children reach the age of at least four or five? – Yours, etc,