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Diana Sugg
Oliver, 10 months, and Sam, 2, travelling through the airport in style.
We were the last ones to board the plane that clear January night, and I had a good feeling. My 10-month-old baby was fed and happy, and I’d been granted a last minute, unbelievable gift: the plane was full, so I – and my baby boy – had been bumped up to first class.
It was the year we’d become travel pros. Because of my husband’s work in Switzerland, we’d already pulled off several long overseas trips with our baby and toddler. And we had it down to a science.
Every inch of my carry-on bag was strategically packed, with enough snacks and supplies to survive any delay or diaper blowout. I’d discovered special wheel carts that turned the boys’ car seats into ad-hoc strollers so we could roll them through the airports. And at security checkpoints, we knew the routine so well that we could unload and reload the boys, get everyone’s shoes on and off, and get through the scanners in record time.
No matter how prepared I might have been for traveling with small children, though, I was learning there were two things beyond my control: whether the boys would sleep, and the temperament of nearby passengers.
On this flight, as I sized up the seat that I would share with my baby, I noticed that the first-class cabin was full of men, all in suits, some already stretched out and looking forward to a long, quiet night above the ocean. We were on a red-eye flight from Washington D.C.’s Dulles airport to Zurich. The flight attendant bent near me and whispered, “Do you know who is sitting behind you?”
I looked back, and there, directly behind Oliver and me, was Ben S. Bernanke, chairman of the Federal Reserve.
It was January 2009, and the financial crisis was in full swing. Bernanke had a huge stack of work with him and impossibly difficult decisions to make. I, on the other hand, had a bag with 25 diapers, teething toys and a soft, cloth book with sailboats and anchors sewn in it. Oliver, 35 pounds of chubby baby, was drooling, rubbing his fingers over his teething gums. He was standing on my lap, pumping his legs up and down, as if readying to launch himself through the ceiling of the plane. Oliver was just tall enough to pop his big pumpkin head over the seat and smile at Bernanke.
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I found myself flashing back to past experiences with fellow passengers: the ones who played peek-a-boo with the kids, or the kind, older woman, who, after sitting through my 2-year-old son Sam’s crying, bent near me with a warm smile and said, “Oh honey, I understand. I have grandchildren.”
Other times, it didn’t go so well. On one flight, as I settled into my seat with Oliver, I found myself saying out loud, “Oh no, you made a pooh pooh.”
“Oh gawd,” moaned the man sitting next to me, clearly disgusted. He looked at Oliver and me as if we were another, more primitive species. I hugged Oliver and wished we could hide.
But this night, in first class, I thought, it had to be better. The cabin felt quiet, almost meditative. The flight attendants gave me warm nuts in a little ceramic bowl. The leather seat was huge. I reclined it and nursed Oliver, trying to get him to sleep. When that failed, I tried to create a little playpen for him in the back of the seat, with me positioned on the seat’s edge as a fence. He was not interested.
He kept trying to bust out to the aisle, where he crawled at top speeds past Bernanke, or he grabbed onto seats and toddled from row to row toward the economy section, where my husband and our 2-year-old son were in their seats. I scooped Oliver back in my lap and tried to settle him. But then he would reach for the window cover, pushing it up and down, or he’d investigate the buttons on the fancy control panel. When the food came, he yanked at the white cloth placemat, almost spilling the deluxe food and flatware.
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He never cried. He was just happy, curious, and very awake. And mostly, for some reason that night, Oliver wanted to climb on me so he could see Bernanke. I cringed, trying to pull him down. Oliver jabbered at Bernanke in baby talk. At one point, I think around 2 a.m., I heard Bernanke’s voice reply. He must have said something funny to Oliver, because they both laughed, like old colleagues sharing a joke.
It wasn’t until we began descending into Zurich the next morning that Oliver finally conked out. As we landed, the plane stopped before the gate, so Bernanke could get out. He stopped at my seat.
“Did you ever get any sleep last night?” he asked sympathetically.
“No,” I said, thinking it was a bigger deal for him, for interest rates, for the economy. “I’m really sorry about the noise. I know you need your sleep right now.”
Then, just before he was whisked off in a black sedan with a police escort, the chairman of the Federal Reserve looked back at me with a huge smile, and words that would earn him a place as one of my favorite passengers: “I didn’t hear a thing.”
Diana K. Sugg is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist who has covered medicine, crime and other issues for newspapers around the country. She is now a freelance writer in Baltimore raising two young sons.
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Leave a Comment:
Nice guy :) Both my kids travel well, just like it sounds like hers do. They're not fussy or disruptive, just active and awake. And I'm always gratified when the people around me realize the kid's not doing a darn thing wrong and is just cool about it. :)
Wow. Something nice to read about. Thank you!!
That is just wonderful. Pay a trillion dollars for a first class seat and have to deal with other peoples children. Absurd.
What's truly absurd is your comment.
Just because you are a parent does NOT give YOU the right to subject AN ENTIRE PLANE FULL OF PEOPLE to your obnoxious spawn One of the most selfish things a parent can do is to fly with an infant or toddler. It's not a person can request the maitre d' to move them to a quieter room in a restaurant. Passengers are stuck on that plane for the duration of the flight.
I would be pissed as hell if I so much as saw a toddler or infant in first class. People pay for the luxury of peace and quiet in first class, and the airlines should respect that. So should the self-centered parents who believe that they and their screaming crotch fruit are entitled to everything this world has to offer. Let your parents fly out to meet your you and your obnoxious little poop factories. Do not subject a plane full of strangers to them.
Oh GIVE ME A BREAK! Just because you are NOT a parent does NOT give you the right to live in a child-free world. Sorry, that's just the way it is. Anyone who pays for a ticket and behaves resonably has every right to be on that plane. If the child was REALLY a problem in first class, the flight attendent could have easily asked her to move back and moved someone else to the front.
Children are NOT the only annoyance on a plane. I've been much more annoyed by businessmen who get sloshed and lewd, hitting on me for half the flight without taking the hint, or by people who don't believe in deoderant or by those who have no problem squashing my knees and rendering my tray table useless by reclining all the way back. Mostly, I grin and bear it because I DO understand the world doesn't revolve around me and a little tolerance goes a long way to make things bearable for everyone
Whether you like it or not, those self-centered parents and their offspring are indeed entitled to air travel if they pay for it, just like the drunk, smelly and rude self-centered people without kids. To truly fly in quiet, peace and privacy, you need a private flight.
Glad he was a nice guy about it. We've had entirely too many stories about bad celebrity behavior, it's about time one of them acted with class! I feel for the mom, sometimes kids just get wired and there's not a blamed thing you can do about it. Oh, and for those that hate kids? Just remember YOU were a kid once, and I'm sure you were just as big a brat in public, so get over it.
Take your "get over it" attitude and shove it.
Cats, Bad behavior and good behavior go both ways. It sounds like the author dealt with an active kid reasonabley well and the chairman was an adult about it.
Jack, Cats was wrong to say you probably were a brat in public when you were a child. Your comments show that you are still a brat in this format of public anyways.
I had a pretty rough day today and it was so nice to read a pleasant story for a change.
Kids are usually difficult to travel with; I hate flying but I always try to be patient and understanding
about cranky/tired children and their poor parents. If you listen and learn, it's so much easier to
be a little more understanding. Poopy diapers and a few tears are not really all that bad - we really
need to lighten up a bit! :)
Just because this particular trip worked out and just because Ben Bernanke was a much nicer person than he had any reason to be given the pressure he was under, it does NOT make it right to subject an entire plane full of people trying desperately to survive a miserable red eye flight to your small children. To be clear, I am not blaming your kids. They were merely being kids. I am blaming YOU for thinking it would EVER be appropriate to bring such small kids on such a long flight. That is perhaps the most obnoxiously, self-centered thing I have ever heard!
As a parent, I have every right to travel with my children, especially when I live in Europe and am visiting my parents in the United States.
What I find completely unfair is obnoxious people like you who treat me as a lower class citizen because you're so wrapped up in yourself to see that I CLEARLY do not want to be sitting anywhere near you either. Until someone can invent instantaneous transportation and I can "beam" from my European Home to my Parent's ranch, you're stuck with me AND my children.
Anna2CS,
Just because you are a parent does NOT give YOU the right to subject AN ENTIRE PLANE FULL OF PEOPLE to your obnoxious spawn Mothers like you seem to think that the world should bow down before them. You think you are ENTITLED to everything just because you don’t know how to use birth control. You have children. Big deal. This does not make YOU, or your child, special.
One of the most selfish things a parent can do is to fly with an infant or toddler. It's not a person can request the maitre d' to move them to a quieter room in a restaurant. Passengers are stuck on that plane for the duration of the flight.
I would be pissed as hell if I so much as saw a toddler or infant in first class. People pay for the luxury of peace and quiet in first class, and the airlines should respect that. So should the self-centered parents who believe that they and their screaming crotch fruit are entitled to everything this world has to offer. Let your parents fly out to meet your you and your obnoxious little poop factories. Do not subject a plane full of strangers to them.
Clearly, a prime example of "obnoxious spawn"
Really, guess Jack remembers what he was like as a child!
There are all kinds of people in the world and they fly. Basic fact of life. If you don't like it, don't fly! I don't understand people who don't expect to encounter a child in public. I mean, every single person on the planet was a baby or toddler or older kid once.
Took a night flight from Jakarta to Tokyo years ago when my son was 9 months old. We were put in the business cabin, full of Aussie business guys. My son, who normally was no problem at all, cried and fussed the entire way. I was mortified. But those gentlemen on the plane were true gentlemen: not one gave me a nasty look or made any sort of comment except those of sympathy and understanding, bless them!
It's great to know that powerful people like Ben Bernanke have patience and understand, unlike so many others!
He is a high profile person who values his career. Of course he will pretend to have patience and pretend to be understanding.
Duh.
Duh?
A person's high profile does not mean he has to pretend to have style, class or patience. The chairman's final comments were better than he had to make just to maintain profile. That shows class. Look at your comments - how much class do they show?
The wheeled cart things that she mentioned are a life-saver when going through an airport if you have a carseat - that way you don't have to carrying the dang thing and they double as a stroller! Win/Win!
oops, I meant "carry"...sheesh, is it the holiday yet...
What a great story... :)
The wheels on the car seat are from Go-Go Babyz....gogo Kidz Travelmate. Best traveling with kids product out there!!!! www.gogobabyz.com
Thank (insert your favorite deity here) I'm old, my son is grown, and the only time I have to put up with squealing ankle-biters is when I see my grandsons. And, lucky for me again, the youngest is going on three.
Excuse me Jack Baptist and Ken? Some people seem to forget that they were children once too. I travel with my infant daughter (and sometimes my six year old too) once a month from LAX to ORD. Sometimes the flight is easy and she sleeps, and sometimes she is active, and unfortunately sometimes is is a little unpleasant. No one on the plane is more stressed about a crying baby than it's mother. From my fairly frequent travels I have learned that the other adults on the plane are often more bothersome than the children. And who are you to say children should't travel, or be "subjected" to long plane rides? Clearly you don't have children, the things you said about parents are ridiculous and no one with any self respect would even post such thoughts for the world to see. Parents do not think they have special inalienable rights because we reproduced (which by the way, has very little to do with our knowledge of birth control methods). But we are blessed with more patience and understanding, and that makes the world a better place, Mr Bernacke is a parent himself.
I am always pleasantly suprised when something nice happens because I am traveling with children. I don't expect to get to skip the line at security, but the next time I do, I'll be thinking of you, while I hug and kiss my children, praying to God that I don't have to sit next to you on the plane.
I cringe as soon as I see kids getting on the plane. I've never been on a flight that didn't have screaming kids. They run up and down the aisle, they kick seats, they whine, they scream, it's awful. I paid hundreds of dollars and I can't even enjoy my flight. I just want to read a book and relax and it's impossible to do so. On one flight, the mom of a kid who kept kicking my seat gave ME a dirty look because I told her to make her kid stop kicking my seat. As if I'm the one causing the disturbance. If people would discipline their kids, flights would be more tolerable. I wish there were adult only flights, I would definitely pay extra for that.
Jeez, I can't believe anyone would be rude enough to take a red eye flight with tiny children. People who take red-eye flights are trying to sleep, and it's extraordinarily insensitive and selfish to bring children that young on the flight. There are so many other options for flights with families that there is no reason for a young child like yours to be on a red-eye. Any flight during the day, feel free to take your child and people should be grown up enough to deal with it. But during a red eye? Incredibly rude.
sometimes you just don't have a choice ENov. People travel for various reasons...
When I travel first class, I checked with the airline if there will be infants, kids, (they can not be controlled in a coped up environment). I need my rest and vacation. Airlines should lump together parents with kids in one flight, or charge them more, and give discount to first class passengers flying with infants, kids. Fair enough. First class flights with infants and kids??? FAIL!
You pay the first class price for the service and the seat size, NOT for the person sitting next to you.