Let’s Fly!

“I HAVE TO PEE!” Isaac announced during landing. I told him he’d have to hold it. “I don’t think I can! I’m going to wet my pants!” So I tried to take him back to the lavatory and we got reprimanded and told to sit back down.

There were some tense moments where I thought, “I’m ok either way—this is why I packed a change of clothes per kid in the diaper bag. So really it’s the airline’s problem if he wets his pants. But having to change might make us miss our connection.”

“PLEASE PUT YOUR SEATBELT ON.” said a regular passenger at this moment, loudly, from several rows up and over, to me specifically, AS I WAS BUCKLING ALL OUR SEATBELTS. She was craned around backwards, looking at my seatbelt with the wide-eyed, focused stare of a fifth grade safety patrol officer. What was that about?

On our next flight, we had no seat assignments at all, and then were not seated together.

“Honestly, it doesn’t really bother me, I just wanted to mention it in case other people might complain,” I said reasonably.

A kind flight steward asked a couple if the kids and I could be seated together in their seats. “We’re together!” the woman said quickly and firmly, sitting down and turning her back to us. Oooooookaaaaaaay. The couple immediately put on headphones and didn’t talk throughout the flight.

The guy who ended up next to us got to hear all about Isaac’s monster truck video game, and the rating system, and losing tires when you crash off the jumps. Poor man.

Here I should note that Chris was on his own flight, reading and getting lunch peacefully with zero screaming or pee-threatening. And Eloise did need her spare pants, as an aside. And since the rental car was on Chris’ orders and we got in first, I got hip and took an uber to the hotel. Without the stroller, which unfortunately got left in California. 

But we made it. I even got a very excellent compliment. A man tapped me on the arm to tell me his kids were all grown and I should teach parenting lessons, because clearly I’m a great mom and not smacking my kids around like he often sees (!!!). I offered to let him reserve praise until the end of the flight in case he changed his mind, but he just laughed. He was even on both flights with us. That was a bright spot in our day.

And it feels weird to say, but it’s good to be back in Florida. One way or another, it seems like all roads lead to Pensacola.