Don’t Worry, Mama. If Your Baby Cries on an Airplane, I’m on Your Side.

Two weeks ago, I was sitting on an airplane, belted in and waiting to take off, when I heard someone mutter, “This is going to be a long flight.”

That person was referring to a crying baby several rows ahead. Glancing around, I realized that other people on the plane were making uncomfortable looks and gestures, as if they, too, expected four hours of unavoidable torment.

If there’s one thing that air travelers fear, it’s a crying baby. And if there’s one thing traveling parents fear, it is that the crying baby will be theirs.

Years ago, I witnessed an appalling act of airplane rudeness when a middle-aged businessman (who I suspected had never seen inside a diaper in his life) yelled at the mother of a crying infant, telling her to “shut that kid up.”

I was horrified, mostly because he was vein-popping, red-faced mean, and clearly didn’t take into consideration that the mother was already doing everything she possibly could to calm her fussy baby. She looked like she was about to cry and I felt awful for her.

In hindsight, I wish that I had defended her, even if I had to yell back at that impatient, angry man. But in those days, I was young, fresh-faced, pre-children, naïve and terrified of confrontation. I just didn’t have it in me.

Now, as I encountered another “crying baby on an airplane” scenario, two things occurred to me. First, until I heard someone mention it, I never even heard the baby crying. Of course I heard it in the background, but I swear on a stack of Huggies that it bothered me so little it barely registered in my consciousness.

That’s what can happen after you have kids. My perspective changed significantly, because before I had kids, the sound of crying alarmed me. But after experiencing the joy, frustration, fatigue and challenge of baby-rearing, I realized that a crying baby is doing exactly what babies are supposed to do: CRY. It’s a normal sound, produced by a tiny human being who has every right to voice his or her displeasure at being hungry, wet, poopy, cooped up or otherwise uncomfortable, even on an airplane.

Secondly, I remembered that long ago experience on a different airplane. I recalled how horrible that man behaved and I determined that this time I was not going to sit back and let anyone disparage the mother. My ears perked up, I tuned in to the mood on the plane. If anyone dared to say something rude, I was going to raise my middle-aged mom voice and put that unkind person in their place, leaving no doubt that I would aid and defend any mother, who is forced to realize that when her baby cries on an airplane, there is only so much she can do.

I did not have to go vigilante on anyone. The baby stopped crying almost immediately, which was, I’m sure, a relief to all the passengers.

I know this is a long shot, but if you were flying to San Juan two weeks ago and your baby started to cry on the airplane, I hope you know that I was ready, willing and able to defend you.

This time, I had it in me.

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photo credit: <a href=”http://www.flickr.com/photos/89826095@N00/2300241452″>Not that happy then</a> via <a href=”http://photopin.com”>photopin</a> <a href=”https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.0/”>(license)</a>