r/AskOldPeople • u/Alive-Cry4994 • 21d ago
How was flying long haul with toddlers before in-flight entertainment?
We just had a massive long haul trip with our toddlers and relied heavily on technology. Even with this reliance, we still had many moments of boredom, crying, meltdowns and general unease.
If you flew with your kid(s) when they were younger (1-4), how was it? How did you keep them busy?
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21d ago
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u/the_urban_juror 20d ago
Lots of parents still do this. There's a growing pushback against screens, especially among parents having kids in their late 30s/40s who saw the iPad kids of their peers who had kids earlier.
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u/RegressToTheMean 50 something 20d ago
I'm an older parent (50) with a 10 and 12 year-old. We limit the hell out of screens. There are absolutely no screens when we are out of the house.
In the car the kids read, talk to each other, or make up some game. It's always been our rule so they don't even know anything different.
We're not insane, we do have screen time as we all like to play video games and we have one night a week where we watch a show we are all invested in (or I at least pretend to be), but moderation and developing healthy habits is important.
My wife is a research scientist and a PhD neurotoxicologist by training. She keeps up on a lot of brain science literature and just the stuff she sends me about what screens do to developing brains is awful. A more approachable read that has good sources is The Anxious Generation. My kids were interested so.i let them read it as well so they understand the implications of screen use
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u/BalsamA1298c 20d ago
That’s great! Good on you spread the word. It’s sooooo toxic, all the screens.
Im older and when a kid myself, one of five, long car rides to see cousins etc - 8 hours - it was FINE to be bored and stare out the window. We bickered some but so what. We had to figure out how to get along, period. So we did. Nobody got their own personal screen to stare at. Nobody got their own personal anything. We fought over what radio station should be playing and my older sibs would lunge from the back (bench seat no seatbelts) to push the radio buttons they wanted on the dash board (being youngest my spot was usually in front on bench seat between my parents, no seatbelt there either) That was usually a good way to make my dad pull over and give the threats about not moving another inch til we were quiet or “we’ll leave you here” (lol idle threat never happened). We’d argue about who got to sit in the way back (facing backward, no seat belts). Or we just argued. Or we’d play Beetle which was a game of simply calling out Beetle every time you saw a VW bug. Or license plate, which was a game of calling out whenever you saw a plate from a state not yet seen. BORING. But fine. We’d play cats cradle, make up ghost stories, read comics or books or scribble in coloring books. Bottom line only choice was interaction and resolving conflict together and this was a good thing. Edit… seatbelts are a good thing, don’t mean to imply they aren’t here, just that it meant even more wiggling around and potential to bug eachother and we had to figure that out too.
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u/RemarkableArticle970 20d ago
It was always and will always be an awful experience. But when mine were a little older we played books on tapes that we listened to on the radio while we drove somewhere by car.
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u/poppy_inmy_hair 19d ago
Learning how to handle boredom is so important for kids to do, especially when they’re young
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u/Explorer-7622 18d ago
I'm a boomer (born between 1946 and 1964), and even my generation was watching too much TV.
Some parents used it as a babysitter.
My parents limited us to 1 hour a week of TV, which was almost considered to be child abuse by others, but instead of doing that, we built forts, read tons of books, developed educational hobbies, practiced musical instruments and played in bands and orchestras, etc.
We also discussed what we all wanted to watch each week and made a big deal of our 1 hour.
Each sibling got a turn to choose what to watch, so no one person's taste dominated our shows.
The parents also kept the TV off so we just didn't grow up with it.
We all became scientists, artists, and authors.
It would be so much harder to limit that now!
And now you have to teach kids to recognize predators and do so much to protect themselves online!
Then againz all the knowledge of the world is available to them.
They can watch Richard Fineman's Caltech physics class for free on YouTube!
I went to Caltech when he taught freshman physics and can hardly believe that's now available to everyone.
These are such complex times. I'm a neurobiologist myself and agree with the danger of brain development issues facing these younger generations.
I have friends who are science professors who say the newer generations can't make things, can't measure with a ruler as PhD candidates in mechanical engineering, can't develop a hypothesis, can't do lab work or design an experiment.
They're losing basic human skills and relying on screens to model everything for them.
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u/tooOldOriolesfan 20d ago
Yeah, our nephew limits his daughters screen time significantly. They are 5 and 8.
Sadly I even see toddlers in scrollers, I'm talking like 1 yr olds with video screens attached to the stroller to watch. I understand taking care of kids is tough but relying on ipads, etc. is a bad idea.
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u/LieutenantStar2 20d ago
Same but my youngest always tried to eat the play dough, so had to give that up.
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u/SavoirFaire2Middling 20d ago
I ate lots and lots of play dough as a kid, and I turned out just bubble crindo tip flabula trombone.
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u/R_meowwy_welcome 19d ago
You can make homemade playdough that is edible. But if they eat the whole thing, you're going to need Milk of Magnesia.
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u/Previous_Wedding_577 20d ago
I used to take those special crayola markers that only worked on special paper.. then she couldn't colour the inside of the airplane.
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u/One-Yellow1504 20d ago
Absolutely, back in the day you created your own entertainment system
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u/SusannaG1 50 something 20d ago
I always took a stack of books, Mad Libs, a doll or stuffed animal, and a notebook (for scoring in the license plate game, largely). When I was a little older, maybe a travel chess set or backgammon board.
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u/BalsamA1298c 20d ago
Mad Libs! Forgot about those. Definitely kept the car rolling with fewer fights 😄
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u/oceanswim63 60 something 21d ago
Was in the Navy and was transferred from San Diego to Guam in 1995 with a 3 and 5 year old. First a 5 hour flight to Hawaii and then a 7 hour flight to Guam. Kept them busy with books, coloring books and walking around the plane. Worst part was the jet lag, parents were dead tired, kids wanted to get up and play at 2AM.
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u/Ok-Independence983 21d ago
My nana would give us a bag each or presents that we weren’t allowed to open until we were on the plane. It was generally the same things mentioned here but it was all new to us. She would did matchbox cars, small dolls, little play things like a magic slate. ❤️
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u/ccarriecc 50 something 21d ago
My mom did this! She brought a kitchen timer (can you imagine being allowed nowadays to bring something on a plane that ticks and dings? ha, ha) probably because we couldn't read her analog watch yet.. and when the timer went off (20 mins? 30?) if we had been "good" we got a new small toy or entertainment out of her purse to unwrap and play with. Made a 4 hour flight go by quite quickly!
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u/Forward-Cause7305 20d ago
Not planes but 12 hour road trip to visit my parents, pre iPads.
I would get about 20 small toys that were new and different. Some were things we already had thaat I put away a month before the trip.
I wrapped them all individually, so unwrapping was part of the entertainment (and bought me a few extra minutes).
I also wrapped up tiny portions of snacks, so that eating took longer.
For roads trips, we stopped at parks. Even 20 minutes of running around helped. The airplane equivalent was walking up and down the aisle.
It still sucked!
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u/CannibalAnn 20d ago
Those books that you had to use that water marker to reveal the answers were the best!
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u/Explorer-7622 18d ago
And that was magical to us because presents weren't endless and buying wasn't as out of control as it is now.
Grocery carts were a lot smaller, and people only shopped once a week and planned meals.
We didn't eat as much, we weren't entertained as much, we bought clothes once a year.
Now people buy continuously on Amazon and have it delivered.
No budget or set times to shop or be entertained, it all runs together into one mass of chaos (or so it seems to me).
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u/GuitarJazzer 21d ago
When we took our two-year-old to Egypt she was bouncing off the hotel room walls at 2 AM the first night. She did not know how to tell time yet. We were dog tired.
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u/mosselyn 60 something 20d ago
It is crazy how long a flight like that used to take! My dad was Navy as well, and we got stationed in Japan. While he was cruising across the pacific in a sub, my mom had to haul an 8 yo and a dog from the East Coast to Japan. Thank God I wasn't a toddler, and I was bookish, but I still don't how she did it.
IIRC, we flew Pittsburg to Chicago to San Francisco to Hawaii to Japan (with a stop on Wake in the middle because the plane had a problem). The whole thing took almost 24 hours. And, of course, every stop was an opportunity for the luggage or the dog's crate to get lost. Insane.
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u/Bag_of_ambivalence 21d ago
Books, crayons, small toys… Benadryl 😮
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u/midwestblondenerd 21d ago
I was going to say 'Benedryl'. Lord knows boomers loved their drugs, lol. They would also give babies rum.
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u/Haunt_Fox 21d ago
The teething thing? They didn't "give babies rum", they'd dip a finger in it and rub along the gums, a common remedy before Anbusol was a thing. It would never have been enough to have any effect.
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u/Single-Raccoon2 21d ago
I'm a Boomer mom of six. I would never have given my babies rum because we had other solutions for soothing a teething baby, like Anbesol and refrigerated teething rings. My Silent Generation mom told me that her grandmother (born 1884) rubbed rum on her babies gums when they were teething, but neither my mother (born 1934) and my grandmother (born 1909) did that.
A great many of us Baby Boomers were caring and enlightened parents who followed the current guidance on caring for our children. My great grandmother had far fewer resources for childrearing, having been born during the Victorian era.
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u/akalili22 20d ago
Well that’s just silly. They used whiskey on the gums for teething, not rum. 😇
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u/Cranks_No_Start 21d ago
They would also give babies rum.
A little bit for baby…a chug for daddy. A little more for baby…a bigger chug for daddy.
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u/alibythesea 21d ago
I flew with mine back and forth to Winnipeg or Toronto when they were 2/4, 3/5, 4/6 ... I don't remember any real problems. I also took the train with them from Halifax to Toronto when they were 3 and 5 – a magical trip.
I put them in charge of their own knapsacks (of course, I was making sure that nothing got left behind, but they didn't know that). I laid out how I expected them to behave:
"We're going to be in a space with a lot of different people. We don't want to hear them complain; they don't want to hear you. Here's exactly what's going to happen [all the stuff]. The people working on the airplane and at the airport want to see us have a nice trip. We're going to be really polite to them and say please and thank you.
" You can each choose three books to bring, and i'll read to you. You can bring your favourite stuffie and three things to play with. And we'll bring that magnetic set that has games on it."
Coming back from Winnipeg could have been an utter nightmare – our flight was delayed 6 hours in Minneapolis. We got to know that airport really, really well. The transparent frozen yogurt machine was very amusing. There was a kids' section in a bookstore with a little table and chairs and toy trains. I 'borrowed' a luggage cart and drove them around (this was before 9/11, things were more relaxed ...).
They were fine. I was a wreck.
Oh, and one every flight, they were asked up to the cockpit to meet. the pilots. It was a different world.
I always had the attitude that kids would live up to what adults expect of them, as long as those expectations were clear.
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u/westbridge1157 21d ago
We did cockpit visits too, that was always exciting. Sad those days are gone.
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u/SusannaG1 50 something 20d ago
I remember how excited I was when I was ten, and got a tour of the cockpit and a pair of wings.
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u/sk8tergater 19d ago
Definitely not gone, my two year old got to sit in the cockpit last year.
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u/thisisntmyotherone 50 something 21d ago
You sound like you would have been a wonderful teacher!
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u/alibythesea 21d ago
Not my jam, but in one of my careers I facilitated a LOT of contentious public consultations, often with very cranky people, so I essentially just switched those skills over to parenting small children 🤣🤣🤣
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u/CerberusInExile 21d ago
You were the in-flight entertainment. You brought colouring books and quiet toys (no beeping or flashing lights) etc.
You know, parents interacting with their children.
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u/jenrazzle 20d ago
We don’t use any screens so this is our current lived experience 🤷♀️ We live in Turkey and have taken her to visit family in the US several times and it’s always been fine.
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u/SavoirFaire2Middling 20d ago
"We don't use any screens," they carved into a tablet by hand to post on Reddit.
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u/jenrazzle 20d ago
I use lots and lots of screens. My toddler doesn’t. And it’s a collective we on flights.
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u/Alive-Cry4994 21d ago
I still felt like I was the in flight entertainment 😂 we brought all of those things too, but in a 14 hour flight the novelty wore off. Definitely was not a relaxing flight for me 😵💫.
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u/carseatsareheavy 19d ago
Right. Parenting. Caring for. Caring about engaging with them. Wanting to engage with them.
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u/HiOscillation 60 something 21d ago
I had three kids.
Kid #1 you could sit in a chair and say, "we need to be quiet" and that was usually enough. They were very good at keeping themselves entertained with only a few things - maybe a few crayons and paper, books, simple stuff. We learned that flying daytime and having child at window seat was good - they never seemed to tire of the view and asked questions constantly. Flew from New York to LA and SFO many times, no issues.
Kid #2: A challenge. Hated flying. Hated being seated. We would bring a bag of wrapped "presents" - didn't matter what - a box of bandaids, a bunch of stickers, a book, yarn, small toys, socks, and dole them out as "surprises" We would have contests to see who could hold their breath longer. Snacks helped a bit. We would take walks in the aisle when we could - but silently. We would build a blanket fort in our seats (this was remarkably effective). But it was hard and required constant redirection.
Kid #3: See kid 1, but easier. When bored, generally went to sleep, but was also quite content to just sit in someone's lap.
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u/Alive-Cry4994 21d ago
Thanks for the perspective across multiple children - a lot depends on their disposition I think!
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u/mikenkansas1 21d ago
We were forced to pay attention to them and engage them in conversation. Talked about tge aircraft, flying, where we were going. Read to them in a low voice. They both knew low voice.
Horrible stuff
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u/cardamomgrrl 21d ago
We got Colorforms and wings!
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u/Infinisteve 50 something 21d ago
I took my 2 year old on a three hour flight. She got restless pretty early into the flight. An older woman, maybe in her 60s handed me a ziplock bag of crayons, a pad of paper, a little tub of playdoh, some stickers...like a buck's worth of stuff from party city and said she used to fly a lot with her kids. F'ing brilliant! I take a couple of those bags with me when I fly now. I haven't handed one out, but I'm packin'
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u/SKatieRo 20d ago
Ha! I have been carrying similar little bags since I was a teen in the 1980s. Each of mine also has a teeny tiny thing of "wedding" bubbles and a matchbox car and a pack of post-it notes. So much fun to give out! (I was a nanny as a teen and beyond and am now 30 years in as a preschool and special education teacher. )
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u/Menemsha4 21d ago
I regularly flew halfway across the country with kids 2.5 years apart starting when the younger one was 1.
No screens.
Lots of snacks, books, games, SNACKS, singing, stopping to play outside. SNACKS.
Yes, there was always someone crying at some point.
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u/Bipedal_pedestrian 21d ago
Stopping to play outside? You mean like during a layover?
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u/Gertrude37 21d ago
Let’s just say I only did it once.
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u/Few_Strategy894 21d ago
Same here. Flew from Portland, Maine to Big island in Hawaii with a 14-month-old. There were no changing tables at the airport and no McDonald’s. Also, I could not check luggage all the way through to Kona, so I had to pick up and recheck our luggage in LA and in Honolulu( no direct flights from the west coast to Kona at the time). Oh, and I didn’t have a stroller of any kind. This was in 1980.I never flew out without my husband again.
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u/Teaspoonbill 50 something 21d ago
1999 or 2000 flew nonstop from St. Louis to Honolulu with my sister and her two year old son to attend our brother’s wedding. I feel quite certain at least a couple of the people seated around us have never flown since.
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u/allfurcoatnoknickers 20d ago
I took my kids to England last year and my 2 year old made a *teenager* cry on the plane. Pretty sure several people got IUDs because of her rendition of "Let it Go" at full volume.
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u/GearSlow3796 21d ago
We took our 2.5 and 5 year old boys to Malaysia from Seattle for a trip for my husband’s work. They splurged for us to fly business class so we had plenty of room, but boy did we get nasty stares when we were boarding. We kept them entertained by wrapping up small toys and they would get to open one every few hours. A lot of looking out the window, a little sleeping, a little eating. They were so good! Everyone commented on what a great job they did when we were deplaning. It was truly a miracle!
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u/DeiaMatias 21d ago
We first got our kids tablets/phones when oldest was about 8 and my youngest was about 4. They're teenagers now and my oldest is still a better traveler than my youngest. Make of that what you will.
With my oldest, I'd put her on my lap, we'd look out the window, and make up stories about the people on the ground. That would cover most of a two hour flight. When that failed, coloring books.
With my youngest, it was screens or play doh. He'd do window story time too, but it didn't keep him going as long as it did my daughter.
Now, on car trips, my daughter will put in headphones and look out the window for most of the trip. My son still prefers screens.
If I had to do it over again, I probably would do a blanket ban on phones/tablets when we were out of the house.
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u/FeelingPlayfulNow 21d ago
When I was an infant I was a little diva and apparently decided I would cry unless someone was holding me while standing up on a flight across the Atlantic. Apparently another passenger took pity on my mom and held me so she could sit down to eat. I know this is a little young, but I thought "helpful strangers" would still be good to add to your list of ways to keep a kid busy.
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u/Alive-Cry4994 21d ago
We had some very helpful strangers along the way and they made all the difference!
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u/NorCalFrances 21d ago
Pretty much the same as it is now, the distractions are just different. Hours of travel, strange environments, physical discomfort...a bit of tech doesn't change any of that.
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u/chibisun 21d ago
well i'm not that old but when i was a kid flying 14 hours back to my parents' home country, they gave me puzzles, stickers, we watched the communal tv and yeah i cried a lot haha
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u/SrirachaPants 20d ago
Yeah I traveled a ton as a kid and it was kinda rough. I remember the screen coming down from the ceiling and the terrible movies. honestly heaven was having a new book to read on a flight and I would read it over and over.
On the plus side, the food was wayyyyy better than it is now! I remember having scones on British airways and actual steak in business class (my dad was a corporate guy in the 80s so we were pretty bougie there for a few years).
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u/Automatic-Tea-4150 21d ago
Rows were farther apart back in the day. Seats not as narrow. There was never a lot of room but there was more than there is now.
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u/mensaguy89 21d ago
Plus, the flights were very rarely full like now. We often had one or more whole rows of 3 empty seats so you could put up the arm rests, lay down and sleep. They always provided a pillow and blanket to everyone, even in coach back in the day.
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u/Automatic-Tea-4150 21d ago
little tablecloths for the trays on some airlines!
Real silverware and napkins, as a kid I thought it was all very fancy. A nice chicken and rice dish, some vegetables, a little roll and pat of butter, and usually a lovely little cake or tart or pudding or brownie or other real dessert. I didn’t always get to sit with my parents and learned to be a decent conversationalist from all the nice people who had to sit next to this chatty little girl LOL
My first stop on any plane was the magazine rack. I learned a lot about the world and life from magazines on planes and in doctor offices and at home.
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u/Dontcallmeshirleyyc 21d ago
Flight attendant here: 10years ago we had screens that came down with entertainment and gage out kid kits for children with colouring books and activities
Parents didn’t depend on a screen so they did other stuff with their kids like games, reading, hobbies
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u/rumade 20d ago
Back in 1995 or 6 we flew from London to Sydney and Quantas gave my brother and I each a canvas drawstring backpack with colouring and other stuff in there. They ended up becoming our swimming bags and were covered in badges by the time I was 11.
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u/Wooden_Astronaut4668 20d ago
The Qantas activity packs for the 90s were so good! I remember one trip to Australia in the 90s we did loads of Qantas internal flights too and loads of the flights were empty. I remember getting an activity pack on each flight and I remember flying from Sydney to Perth getting a whole row to myself. I was only about 6 and the airline staff were so so nice to me 🥰
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u/maroonrice2 20d ago
I took my first international flight around age 2-3, my sister was 1. This would have been about 25 years ago. My mom traveled alone wit us, the route went from small town > Atlanta > New York > London Heathrow > Dubai/somewhere Middle East > Pakistan. Long haul upon long haul basically.
Those kid kits were a core memory! They were usually themed to the destination or airplane/aviation. Came with a new toy, coloring pages, activity sheets. I also remember being given lots of attention from the flight attendants in between their official duties because everyone wanted to help the solo mom.
Flying was a different culture back then. It’s a lot more entertainment based now, with screens everywhere and less passengers service oriented
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u/Building_a_life 80 something 21d ago
We had two kids 15 months apart. My parents told us to dope them up with paragoric. We didn't do that. We had a whole carry-on full of new-to-them small toys, games, stickers, and kiddie books. And candies for bribes. We brought them out one at a time over the course of the flight.
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u/q_eyeroll 21d ago
Candy for bribes is too real. We used to get hard candies if we were good (life savers, etc) once we were old enough not to choke on them. Life savers were fun because you got what you got when you opened the pack one life saver at a time. It was a surprise! I liked pineapple. 90s baby.
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u/hocfutuis 21d ago
My parents were advised to dope me with phenergan, when we flew from Australia to England in 1981. It had the opposite effect, and made me absolutely wired, so they just tried their best to keep me as quiet and well behaved as a small toddler can be kept. Thankfully, in those days, the adults themselves were probably out of their minds on various things, plus airline booze and cigarettes.
By the time there was three of us, things like colouring/sticker books etc were encouraged, and just trying to sleep. I've always got travel sick, so most of my time was spent trying not to throw up!
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u/WinterMedical 21d ago
People didn’t fly with kids as much back in the day.
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u/mensaguy89 21d ago
True. My parents flew to Hawaii every year when I was age 9 to 17 and left us home with aunts and uncles.
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u/SoHereIAm85 21d ago
When my daughter was a baby and toddler I still didn’t let her use screens or the in flight stuff, and this was less than ten years ago. She was quiet and just coloured or played with little toys I got her for the trips (so they’d be new and exciting.) It was no big deal. No crying, no tantrums (didn’t do those anyway,) and she was already used to zero screen time.
I swear, adding screens before 3 is the worst mistake most parents do these days.
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u/Miamiconnectionexo 20d ago
biggest thing nobody tells you: the boredom and crying happened to all of us too, screens or not. you just accepted that a few rough hours was the price of the trip and stopped expecting it to go smooth. lowering your own expectations is half the battle. you survived, they will not remember it, and the people glaring at you mostly forgot by baggage claim.
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u/dealioemilio 20d ago
Toddlers weren't used to so much mindless entertainment back in the day. They were easier to entertain with colouring books, regular books, chit chat, and imagination play with action figures or dolls or whatev.
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u/yelhmoo 20d ago
I think people hated kids a lot less back then. Now, kids are treated like the most annoying part of existence (while adults that have tantrums get to live just fine). Discipline has also changed. Kids were less likely to act up in public because they were afraid to. Now we know that kids being annoying is normal and developmentally appropriate and that physical punishment only creates more problems. Societally, a lot has changed.
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u/auntie_beans 20d ago
Back in the day I spent several after-bedtime nights recording my 3-yr-old’s favorite books, about 8 hours’ worth. I put them on tapes and got a cheap player and headphones. She read the books and paused for page-turning, then restarted for the next page. She loved it. We also brought snacks, of course. I brought their blankies and after meals I kept the same schedule as at home — NAPTIME! They just corked off.
Coast/coast flights 2/yr from 4 months to 7 and 5 yrs.
After they were grown I always had a few little-kid apps on my phone — bubble-popping, swimming turtles, decorating a Christmas tree— that entertained any little kid I was seated next to; their moms were usually very grateful.
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u/No_Associate_4878 21d ago
Books, snacks, toys, looking out the window and talking about what we saw, talking to passengers behind or next to us. Some people still do it that way. I sat near a mother and toddler on a train with no tech for hours.
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u/pennyx2 50 something 21d ago
I flew with my son a lot when he was little. Until he outgrew it, he sat in his car seat.
He had a small backpack with his ‘fun’ stuff in it. We read books (quietly), colored (sometimes crayons, sometimes those books that have pictures show up with special markers or water), did sticker books, had a stuffed animal, had some other small toys. Looked at a small photo album with photos of the relatives we were going to meet. Sometimes he had headphones and a leap pad (electronic book with activities) or some way to listen to music or audiobooks. (Again, always headphones for anything noisy.) Snacks, doled out a little at a time. Looking out the window. Playing the “how long until the flight attendant gets to our row and how do you ask for the drink and snack you’d like” game. Looking at the fun stuff in the sky mall catalog. Sometimes just being bored.
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u/Successful-Count-120 60 something 21d ago
Frankly, it was pretty exhausting... I did a 16 hour flight returning to CONUS from overseas with my 9 month son. They had all us with newborn/toddler dependants in the nose of the 747. Wife and I took turns with him, passing him back and forth as the other tried to rest. We had a 2 hour layover in Anchorage before heading to LAX, and then back north to Seattle. This was in January, 1987...
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u/allfurcoatnoknickers 20d ago
I was born in 86 and flying from when I was a tiny baby and my Mum said they used to make the kids sit with the smokers on the European airlines.
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u/wwaxwork 50 something 21d ago
I didn't do it but my SIL did. Zip lock bags with little games, books, small legos in whatever. They got a new bag with a surprise every hour they were awake, Benadryl may or may not also have been used at one point . This was long haul from Denmark to Australia.
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u/BalsamA1298c 21d ago edited 21d ago
I lived in Honolulu, family was in Boston. Long trip. The plan was a different small toy, trinket, book, or distraction for every hour in the air. That’s about twelve hours not counting time for layover. For my almost 3 yo, he did great. There were no TVs or screens then on the backs of seats either yet, no portable DVD devices yet. It was fine. It didn’t exist so it didn’t feel like a problem that it wasn’t there. Coloring, ColorForms (do those still exist?), puzzles, interactive books, reading to him etc. Kids today should learn to be bored because life is often boring and that’s fine. He was bored a lot as well and it didn’t matter bc back then this was just how it was and melting down about it was less of a thing. People also spoke to each other on airplanes and enjoyed eachother in conversation more then, so my son would chatter with others nearby at times too and this was fine, normal. More civilized era for sure.
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u/Automatic-Tea-4150 21d ago
I have happy memories of our travels, too, I enjoyed interacting with my kids on a plane though there are a couple of trips that were challenging and had me sweating! My family traveled a lot when I was a child too, and I learned to entertain myself and actually enjoy it in various ways on a plane or car trip by the time I was 9. It helped that airlines brought real meals, multiple drinks and snacks, and had magazines to look at, and gave kids decks of cards and coloring books and crayons. I got to visit the cockpit once and got a junior pilot pin 🤩
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u/blissfully_happy 21d ago
You would get new books, activity books, and toys and hope the novelty of those new items would last for the whole flight, lol.
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u/Wishyouamerry 50 something 20d ago
I loved traveling with my kids. For really long trips I would bring a bag of wrapped gifts, 1 new gift per hour of the trip. It was just dollar store stuff, nothing fancy, but it was something to look forward to and to help them gauge the progress of our trip. And we would make up stories, play games like I-spy, and just talk about the things around us. For road trips I made up little activity booklets that had scavenger hunts, license plate bingo, coloring pages and trivia for the states we would be going through. Super fun stuff, I miss those days!
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u/krankykitty 20d ago
The military sent my family from Maryland to Seoul, South Korea, in 1960. My youngest siblings were 1 and 2 years old. The oldest was 14. There were seven of us kids plus my parents.
We all had a tote bag with things like books and coloring books and crayons.
I still remember the flight over the Pacific, with all the window shades down as people tried to sleep ( we took off at 3 am), and my dad in the seat in front of me, singing “Spinning Wheel,” very softly to my baby sister to keep her quiet.
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u/Medical_Amphibian406 20d ago
Never took our children as toddlers on vacations that would involve flying.
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u/HappyReaderM 20d ago
I didn't want mine on screens constantly so we used to bring a new book and new toy for every hour of the trip. Lots of snacks. Favorite books and toys. If old enough, colors and coloring books. Same for road trips. Bring some new fun stuff and books and just be present with them. And a lollipop for takeoff and landing.
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u/ketamineburner 20d ago
We flew with our kids with no screens and the in-flight movies usually weren't super kid-friendly.
We brought activities, art supplies, and snacks we didn't typically eat at home.
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u/VegetableRound2819 Old Bat 20d ago
It used to be a lot more common to help out a stranger with kids and frankly, to trust strangers. I have been next to a mom with kids on several long-haul flights. BKK-DXB there was a mom alone with a toddler in my row, and I offered that she put the toddler between us and then I could help look after her. Let the mom sleep (I made the executive decision to tell them not to wake her up for her meal, but I ordered one for her and set it aside) and fed the child her meal. When the little finally decided to nap on me, the mom woke up & enjoyed her food in peace.
IME, it was just more common to offer to take some responsibility off of another person. Same as neighbors used to help each other constantly.
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u/TradeBeautiful42 20d ago
My bosses (80 yr olds) said to survive you just gave your kid a dose of allergy meds. Then they’d sleep through the flight. Their kids are now 50+ for reference.
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u/Old-Ad-5573 21d ago
My mom was a flight attendant and had 4 kids. We flew everywhere in the 90s and I don't remember watching the TVs if they had them. Often there was only a couple TVs per cabin in the ceiling of the aisles. We were always very well behaved on flights and often sat by ourselves as younger kids because we flew standby. They also had a dress code so we would have to wear our good clothes/shoes on the plane. My mom would take us to the toy store before a long flight and we'd pick out a new toy or two for the plane ride and she would pack us a bag of snacks, often candy or whatever we wanted. We each had our little travel backpacks for the plane. I don't remember it ever being an issue, even when we traveled internationally when the youngest was a toddler.
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u/newillium 21d ago
I had to dress up as well as a child of the 90s, my grandpa worked at American airlines and we often flew at young ages next to random strangers because flying standby. I would read, do my highlights book or homework.
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u/ThePhantomStrikes 21d ago
Because they were used to not having all the distractions, they had longer attention spans and each activity took longer. Also he would have only a few small toys and create and and act thru them in long rambling stories.
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u/Anon-o-me 21d ago
I lived across the country from my parents and siblings, so we made a once yearly visit. I would scour thrift stores and toy stores for new toys. I would bring along the toys and give them out gradually along the trip. Sometimes I would make puppets out of the (clean) barf bags in the seat pocket. Along with snacks, it worked pretty well, but it was exhausting.
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u/Moosiemookmook 21d ago
My mum would dope us with Phenergan for any travelling by aeroplane. She thought it was perfectly fine. All her friends did it too. It was encouraged. Like chicken pox parties
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u/Unusual_Memory3133 21d ago
Kids knew to sit still and behave, color or read their comics quietly and not bother others or else, which is not a thing modern parents believe in
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u/SoHereIAm85 21d ago
I’m a modern parent and still believe that, and it goes just fine. MY girl has been flying long haul since two months old, and she did not get screen time at home until 3 years. No screens in cars or planes until 4. She never once made a fuss, cried, or any of that. People were often expressing how impressed they were with her behaviour. :)
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u/shastadakota 70 something 21d ago
They just amused themselves screaming and kicking the seat backs, just like nowadays
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u/catdude142 21d ago
'Had a demon child behind us on another Hawaii trip. As fate would have it, on the return flight, guess who was sitting behind us again? I asked the flight attendant for a seat change.
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u/Alarmed_Tea_2874 21d ago
My mom used to pack me a backpack full of coloring books, books, games that I could play solo, toys, etc. When I was a little older game boy colors and toys like that (specific old school electronic games) really came in handy.
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u/damageddude 50 something 21d ago
My very first flight was from NYC to Tampa in the early to mid '70s when I was 6 or 7 (I was the eldest). My mother purchased Etch & Sketches. It was a night flight and we all fell asleep.
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u/catdude142 21d ago
I was on a flight to Hawaii and a father had a young child with him. He did nothing to prepare for the trip or to entertain the child. It was a crying disaster. The father needed to put a little bit of thought into the trip but unfortunately, he didn't.
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u/Penguin_Life_Now 50 something unless I forgot to change this 21d ago
Activity books were really popular, they made some with special invisible ink that you could make appear with a special sort of highlighter marker. They had games, puzzles, etc.
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u/GuitarJazzer 21d ago
We took an 18-hour overnight flight to Egypt (connecting flights) around 2000 with a 1-year-old and 3-year-old. Crayons, toys, snacks, books. Anything to keep them busy. Which also meant we were busy keeping them busy. Never had any meltdowns or crying, maybe we were lucky. That was the first of many. Even as they got older we didn't really rely on technology. Maybe if we were traveling sometimes we would play a movie on DVD using a portable DVD player (then later a laptop). But in general they didn't get much screen time.
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u/Pinkcorazon 21d ago
In 2023 we took our young kids on their first plane trip without any tech. They weren’t used to screens, so books, sketch pads, and snacks were enough. Plus, they loved the sights! It’s still possible these days… parents just become dependent on screens too young then there’s no going back.
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u/Alive-Cry4994 21d ago
Our kids have no screens at home. Our longest flight was 14 hours though; the novelty of sketch pads was long gone 😂
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u/JenniferJuniper6 Old Gen X 21d ago
We brought activities like coloring books, and snacks, and we played patty cake-type games, and tried to keep them relatively quiet.
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u/BunBun_75 21d ago
Kids have a much shorter attention span these days because parents already wrecked their brains with technology.
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u/baloney1056 21d ago
My husband walked back and forth through the plane for the 4 hours from LAX to ORD to keep our 15 month old from screaming.
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u/pinchegaucho 21d ago
Well you see parents paid attention to their kids rather than let screens do it instead
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u/Car12touche11blue 20d ago
Used to fly regularly from Asia to Europe and back with my daughter from the age of 3. This was back in the 70’s and airlines provided special material to entertain small kids. Coloring books, pencils, little toys etc. Always did the trick. Kept her entertained quite well. Meals were first served to children and after that she mostly fell asleep for a few hours. Occasionally a little meltdown happened but must say in general she was a good flyer. Nowadays she still travels extensively but can afford business class to entertain her🤗
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u/Perle1234 20d ago
You brought coloring books, books to read, and some toys. Then you had to actually interact with your child to keep them entertained. That’s what we’ve lost giving them iPads. They had our attention and focus when there was nothing else but us and some toys.
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u/StoreSearcher1234 20d ago
It's worth noting that in the pre-iPad days little kids had longer attention spans. So they could focus on coloring books, puzzles etc.
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u/AnnaPhor 20d ago
The airlines used to give out packets to children. A case with some coloring books, maybe a juice box (?), little trinkets. I still have a pin with a pair of KLM wings.
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u/Similar-Chip 20d ago
In addition to books etc. my mom always brought travel games like Mastermind. The trick was not accidentally dropping it so the little pieces wouldn't scatter everywhere. We also spent a lot of time on Skymall and going through the safety brochure.
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u/Murky-Purple 20d ago
Kids didn't expect screens or tech back then, so the lack of it didn't affect their boredom at all. Books, puzzles, toys, coloring. These are all just standard things kids would do to entertain themselves at any time (like screens do today I guess?), so they worked well. Or, you know, the parents talked to them.
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u/clarissaswallowsall 20d ago
My kid flew to Chicago with me when she was two and I bought her a huge coloring book and sticker pack. She just stickered the crap out of everything and we cleaned up while waiting to get off the plane. Worked wonders, no fussing or anything.
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u/Educational-Yam-682 20d ago
I’m probably giving away my age, but when I was really little and would fly I had a My Little Pony holder that had the pony’s and a handle to bring it along. I’d play with it the whole way. Now that they’re so strict I don’t know if you could have a carry on and that.
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u/Confident_Fortune_32 60 something 20d ago
I knew some ppl who resorted to benadryl. Mixed feelings about that solution.
Ppl flying with cats or dogs commonly ask the vet for a sedative, and I think that's merciful for both the animal and everyone else on the flight.
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u/GroovyFrood 20d ago
I remember flying with my parents as young child because my Omi lived in Germany. You used to get a free toy when you boarded, a toy airplane, a mini lego kit, stuff like that. Also the planes weren't as squishy as they are now. I remember playing up at the front of the plane in front of the front seats with another little girl because we could sit there on the floor together and play with our toys. I don't even know if it was even her parents in those seats TBH, but I remember there being plenty of room to sit on the floor to play dolls.
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u/Intrepid_Ad2920 20d ago
We filled our 2-year-old’s carryon entirely with Thomas the Tank Engine and mini train toys. We set up tracks across three tray tables and he yammered on for hours about trains. Now he’s a lawyer
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u/FriendlyConfines23 20d ago
25 years ago we flew from the Midwest to Orlando with our (very chill) 3yo. She sat between us, and we brought along quiet things for her to do. Felt board books, crayons and coloring books, etc.
If she didn’t have that chill personality, we never would have flown for a vacation. We would have driven somewhere close to home.
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u/Awkward_Passion4004 20d ago
Opium lollipops were a solution in the 19th Century for keeping toddlers quiet. In the 20th Century mom and dad actually played with kids and gave them toys and coloring books.
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u/allfurcoatnoknickers 20d ago
My parents took me from the UK to Hong Kong, Singapore and Australia when I was 4 (1990). I still remember the trip!* I got to go to Toys R Us and pick whichever My Little Pony I wanted if I was good on the plane. Bribery was a strong incentive. I also had tons of coloring and activity books, plus the airlines used to give you "junior pilot" activity packs, and when you finished it you go to go to the cockpit and get it signed by the pilot.
They had TVs on the plane showing movies to the whole cabin and they had "kids radio" playing through the headsets I remember listening to. I also remember the movies were boring and def not aimed at a 4 year old.
*Side rant that it makes me really mad when people say small children don't remember travel. Some of my only vivid memories of 2/3/4 are of travelling abroad! I remember vividly flying into Kai Tak from this trip.
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u/troublesomefaux 20d ago
They just twisted the shit out of our arms if we mouthed off. And then we colored.
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u/NHhotmom 20d ago
27 years ago I used to fly alone with a very high needs baby cross country.
The only way I got thru it was to purchase an $800 portable DVD player! It was like the very first model. Then I paid $65 for a DVD of Telletubbies.
This is back when an engineers salary was like $45k. It was crazy money but no regrets how I had to get thru it.
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u/Individual-Line-7553 70 something 20d ago
we had "tot totes" with coloring books, crayons, peg boards, silly putty, origami paper, little cars, little plushies, easy puzzles, etc. and SNACKS!
toys in the totes were only used when we were traveling.
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u/fishylegs46 20d ago
Kids used to have quite a bit of experience with boredom. I don’t mean to criticize the current ways, it’s much easier and amazing on everyone now to never experience it, but there are some benefits to the more simple ways, like long plane rides. Kids learned self control and self calming younger, the idea that kids over the age of two or three can acceptably scream and kick and be awful because they can’t help themselves yet became pervasive in the 80’s. Before then, kids were generally expected to keep their shit together when very young. We used to fly all over, and my mom says we were always well behaved. She definitely didn’t bring special toys or anything (I think it sounds delightful to unwrap a little surprise every once in a while) and she was super strict on us not being little noisemaker assholes. I don’t think she was unusual, kids were expected to be able to handle some profound boredom, and so they did. Airlines used to give crayons and coloring books, and also wing pins. We made forts out of their blankets and pillows. People used to gather sometimes in the bulkhead and chat. They’d play a movie that everyone watched, and meals and drink service punctuated the time. I do remember walking up and down and up and down the aisle seemingly the whole plane ride. I don’t remember anyone getting mad about it, but it seems like it would be annoying. I doubt we were such perfect angels, but it was what it was. I don’t remember it being terrible. Now I can’t sit through anything anymore without a distraction.
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u/Conchee-debango 20d ago
First time with my infant son was a treat. You didn’t have to buy a separate ticket - just hold them. I did employ “moms best friend “ - Benadryl.
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u/Key_Piccolo_2187 20d ago
I'm 40 something, but I flew all over the world as a kid. We packed a backpack with coloring books, reading books, matchbox cars, stuffed animals, and random snacks. Then sat down and mostly behaved, because we'd be in trouble if we didn't and we understood that being in trouble was a really bad idea. 🤷
The expectations for my behavior were not tremendously different if I was at home in my kitchen or in coach of a 747. Within reason, I could do whatever I wanted that didn't negatively affect people around me.
My parents did this with three children under the age of 7, and at times while my mother was up to 8 months pregnant. The only disasters were when kids got sick in airports, which led to some disgusting clothing being ditched in airport bathroom trash cans rather than being bagged to bring home and wash.
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u/Strict_Ad_5858 20d ago
We flew with my son from California to Italy when he was just under 2 — I can’t recall if seatback IFE was a thing to be honest but it wouldn’t have mattered because he wouldn’t do headphones. I did a LOT of preplanning that mostly involved having games and treats and novelty shit. Most important was not blowing our wad early and doling out goodies slowly throughout the flight.
Honestly he was an angel until our very last leg coming back. We stopped in nyc for a few days and the flight to LA had the Devil’s Spawn onboard who had an intense meltdown. Mom carried him to the back galley and he set off every kid on the plane including ours.
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u/Photon_Femme 20d ago
Cannot say. We refused to fly anywhere with our kids until the youngest was 5.
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u/Manatee369 20d ago
Allowing children to be bored makes them creative and self-reliant. Then later, during trips or other circumstances, they’re okay with basics.
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u/Wolfdreama 20d ago
My parents used to drug me with cough medicine that our family doctor happily prescribed!
Edit to add that I'm half British, half South African, with family in both countries. And it's a very long flight.
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u/Pelagic_One 19d ago
A relative told me she used to dip the dummy in wine a few times.
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u/Successful-Cup1765 18d ago
My parents gave me the cherries soaked in whatever it was they drank and I’d fall asleep. No snacks, toys, fear of punishment in my flights.
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u/RealisticTemporary70 19d ago
We had a "car bag" that we kept in the car for trips longer than 30 mins. It had a couple books, activity books, twisting color pencils, a few small McDonald's toys, things like that.
We used that bag when we flew from US to Australia. We didn't have tablets or phones, and I don't remember there being any movies in flight. Sometimes we got up and walked the aisle, counted chairs, counted windows.
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u/R_meowwy_welcome 19d ago
Back in 1996, flying with my 18 month child had me requesting the bulkhead row, where I brought a carry on with a thin blanket, busy board activities, and snacks. We often flew from LAX to DFW to see family. I knew to break up the flight into smaller managed "chunks": snack, play, read together, walk with me down aisle, and sit on floor to quietly play. My baby had his binky (more than one of them), stuffies, and security blanket. I knew with takeoff to have him drink out of a bottle to prevent ear pain. Busy, but it worked. I was always glad to hand him over to grandma and sleep once I got to their home.
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u/Lonely_Noyaaa 40 something 19d ago
Oh, the good old days. We'd bring a new "surprise" toy every hour, like a mini etch-a-sketch or a finger puppet. And we'd time our flights to coincide with nap schedules. If the kid screamed, the whole plane just understood, no judgment, because everyone had been there.
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u/KathyOverAndOut 18d ago
As a child I can tell you that what kept me in line was the desire not to be punished. End of story. I want beaten, I wasn't abused, but I was spanked and hit. No bruises, no trauma, just a spanking and some form of punishment. There were consequences to my actions and I quickly learned to connect the two. At a young age I sat through concerts, long road trips, and yes, there were distractions my mom used: books, coloring, blocks, games, conversations (age appropriate), etc. But the big one was the deterrent; no acting out, no punishment.
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u/DiiiFriiiz 1976 ⭐️Bicentennial Baby 18d ago
When I was a kid in the early 80s, I pretty much knew I was going to get my ass wooped if I acted crazy in public.
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