The benefits of travel

The benefits of a tropical vacation are largely negated by being seated next to a screaming toddler on the flight home. Especially when the toddler in question is your own son...

To his credit, he was as quiet as any 1 year old with a cold crossing five time zones could possibly be expected to be. I just felt bad knowing we were being Those Parents, you know?

A plane just for families with small children would be excellent. The screaming doesn't bother me as much as the fact that I know it's annoying other people.

(Interestingly the only people who gave us dirty looks were middle-aged women. Most of the passengers were really nice about it, some even complimented us on how well he was holding up; men in suits just put in earplugs and ignored us. But these few older ladies just glared. I can't decide if that means they're childless so don't understand there was nothing we could do about it, or if they had fifteen kids of their own so thought they could do better than we were.)