Entertaining an Infant

Yesterday I had the chance to bring my grandson from Utah to California on my weekly commute. He spent the week splitting time between both his maternal and paternal grandparents while his mom and dad vacationed in Europe. As my grandson is only 15-months old, I didn't need to pay any extra airfare to bring him with me.

As a frequent flyer, I know it can be a huge annoyance when someone brings an unruly child on the flight. I always pack earplugs just in case there is a noisy kid sitting close by. I didn't want to subject my fellow travelers to a screaming toddler, especially since we were sitting in First Class. Unfortunately the flight didn't start out too well. I had to wake my grandson up early so we could catch our flight. That made him a little grumpy. We got on the plane and he kept making a lot of noise. Not nice noises but screaming noises. The kind that annoy everyone. I started to worry that my fellow passengers would throw us off if I didn't come up with a way to quiet him down.

My son and his wife had sent us a number of videos throughout their trip and we tried to reciprocate by sending videos of their son. To quiet the upset toddler, I pulled out my phone and started showing him videos of his dad. That helped a bit and then I started a 20-second video where my grandson wanders around the living room and then falls on his bum. For some strange reason, the little boy loved watching the video of himself falling down. He would laugh every time. We watched the video 30 to 40 times before the flight even left the ground. Each time, my grandson would laugh hysterically watching himself stumble. We watched it so many times I grew afraid that we would chew through my phone's battery before we landed in San Francisco.

After about the 40th time of watching the video, the plane started rolling down the runway and we climbed into the air. We had a bit of turbulence all the way to 39,000 feet and that gently rocked my grandson to sleep. He then slept the entire flight.

If you find yourself preparing for a long flight with a toddler, you might want to take a few videos of the child before heading to the airport. Hopefully you find one that makes the kid laugh. It may help keep your fellow passengers from asking you to ride on the wing.