We recently returned from our trip to Chicago, and it was a tremendous success! Thank you to everyone who provided helpful comments about flying on a plane with a child–they were very helpful! Pudge did wonderfully. On our flight to Chicago, we were lucky to be in a half-empty plane, so he had some room to play in the open seats next to us. The return flight, however, was totally full, but even then, he did a great job just playing while sitting on Mommy and Daddy’s laps. I was particularly worried about his ears hurting him. I often feel serious pain in my ears on airplanes, and this trip was no exception. Thankfully, Pudge didn’t seem bothered by it. For a few minutes, he held his ears, so we knew he felt something, but he didn’t cry and the sensation soon passed.

One commenter on my last post mentioned that, though not legally required, it is safest to buy a child his own seat and strap him into his carseat on the plane. According to FAA guidance, she’s right. But while it might be the safest and most ideal situation, is it practical? We did not bring Pudge’s carseat on the plane this time. On one hand, I’m glad we didn’t. We already had enough bags to manage, so the thought of carrying our son’s huge carseat through the airport, too, sounds beyond daunting. Plus, Pudge did really enjoy getting up and moving around once the plane was in flight (as many of us adults do, too). I have a feeling that he would not have been happy to sit restrained in a carseat for the whole flight.

However, I certainly want him to be as safe as possible. And since he did so well on his first flight, we are eager to take him on more trips. In the future, we’ll have to decide whether to bring his carseat along.

Having a carseat in tow would be helpful at the destination, too. We realized the hard way that it is very difficult to take cabs in cities when you don’t have your own carseat. Our two options were 1) take a cab sans carseat and strap our almost-2-year-old into a seatbelt designed for adults (which is not only unsafe, but also illegal) or 2) call for a carseat-equipped cab to take us around the city. The latter option sounds great, except that after calling 5 cab companies that did not have such specially-equipped cabs, we realized it’s not very viable.  We did find one airport shuttle company that had carseats available, but that shuttle obviously only went to the airport, so it wasn’t very useful in taking us around the rest of the city. It was difficult and frustrating, and we ended up venturing only to places that were within walking distance of our hotel (luckily, our hotel was located in the heart of Chicago, so we weren’t too deprived).

What do you do when you travel? Does everyone bring their own carseat(s) along? That seems so impractical, especially if you have more than two kids, and two parents need to haul 3+ kids and 3+ carseats around the airport and at their destination. But if you don’t bring along a carseat, how do you travel in cars once at your destination? Do you just plop your child on your lap in a cab and hope for the best? Or avoid cabs entirely?

Personally, if carseats are the safest way for children to travel, then I think airplanes should have them available for child travelers. Similarly, I think cab companies should have to have a few carseats available upon request. But since the transportation industry is not giving us such help, what do you do about carseats when you travel?