Planes, Cars and Children

Ahhh, I'm finally getting around to something about my trip... I thought I would start with the obvious - traveling by plane, car and children. I'll start with kids.

I complained recently about lap children (those under 2 who do not have a seat), while I understand there are people who can not afford to pay the inflated price of a seat, I think some parents are just irresponsible about it. If you're going on a vacation and you can't afford that seat, then maybe you can't afford the vacation??? But if you're visiting grandma and grandpa then I'm feeling a bit more generous to your struggle.

But, what I saw on my flight home from Pittsburgh was disturbing. A child, who had to be close to 2 years old, traveling with her father. Originally Dad sat in a seat next to another person (this was a smaller plane with 2 seats on each side of the isle.) Since the plane was fairly empty he moved up a couple rows, giving me a birds eye view of him and the daughter. The daughter never sat during the flight, she was climbing on the father during take off and landing in such a way that he could not sit straight in his seat. This was a child that should never have been a lap child, she should have had her own seat and had a car seat.

If you're child cannot sit down during take off and landing and turbulence, then you're child needs to be restrained in a car seat. I know it's a pain in the butt, but this is the safety of your child. I found this child's behavior disturbing, and I don't even have children of my own. The worst part is that the flight was $60, I think the highest I saw it advertised for was $80. Then the guy has this wacky contraption with a giant seat that straps to his back that the kid sat in when he went around the airport. I tried to find it on the internet, but couldn't. It was like a big canvass chair with metal tubing to make the shape of it. Then it harnessed on the father like a backpack, the child is seated facing the fathers head. Of all the wacky things they make that you could use to carry your child in while going away, he came up with THAT! But didn't get his child a seat on the plane, which is one thing if he figured the plane might be empty and he could get two seats. But how about the car seat???

I'm too worked up now to write about my flights and my car rental, I'll do that tomorrow, sorry.

Babies on a plane and Penn State

Tomorrow (Friday) I'm heading out to Penn State for a football game. It's only the Akron game, but I'm quite excited. I haven't been to a Penn State game since I went to the PSU vs Boston College game in 2004 in Boston. Much too long... I'm dreaming of the fun of Beaver Stadium, yelling "WE ARE..." "..Penn State." Shopping downtown State College for Penn State clothing and visiting the creamery for some Ice Cream...

On a completely different topic... My friend is flying this year with your 7 or 8 month old baby. She was planning on buying a seat for her baby, until she found out that a seat for a baby is actually $100 more then it is for an adult. This is outrageous to me. A baby doesn't take up any extra room, and doesn't require a snack or drink. Further this is a safety issue. For some reason airlines apparently have this idea that because it's free it's a good idea to have your baby on your lap, I've heard of people being discouraged from buying an infant a seat by the airlines. Hello, it's a safety issue some people think that the extra money is worth their piece of mind. But there is a breaking point, like $100 more for an infant. I think it's irresponsible of an airline to charge more for a child. They should be encouraging (or at least neutral) to parents who choose to get a seat for their child. They should charge less, not more for that child. I don't get it?