The holidays approach

Oh boy. I'm about to fly trans-Atlantic with a toddler. One who has recently started practicing the power of "NNNNNOOOOOO!" much more, um, forcefully. Meltdowns about not getting to carry the yogurt cup to the table are no longer surprising.

(Let's just get this straight, it was an open yogurt cup, and said toddler was in my arms, and we were already, seemingly contently, on the way to the dining room from the kitchen. About 5 feet into our 10 foot trek, I'd say. And said toddler started grabbing for said cup at the same time as whining about it. Not gonna happen, toddler. Not on my not-yet-fully-awake morning watch. And not in your already-school-clothing outfit.)

And I'm already in a mood. Or was. Or maybe it started just after her tantrum. Or just before. Tough to tell some days.

Then M went into the living room where I had just placed her on the couch, screaming "Nein!", to do something that wound up stopping the screaming, and I about lost it on him.

Anyway, I'm a bit overwhelmed with the thought of traveling on an 8 hour, daytime flight, with said toddler and her lack of napping these days. Holy shit, this could really suck. And being that I am in such a foul mood, you know what else I'm refusing to do? Give out chocolates or apologies to those sitting around us in the airplane for having a child, and for my child acting like a child. Last year I was all about the apologizing. This year, not so much. I shouldn't have to apologize that I have a kid, who is a toddler, who has tantrums. Not in the way the article which suggested said chocolates actually did the suggesting. It sets up a nasty situation where you already indicate to others that your child is not ok existing. Sure tantrums suck, and I'll be the closest adult to the center of that suck, over and over again on that flight, and the act of then apologizing to someone else about it.....well, let's just say we're all happy I'm not flying today.

I get that I was clueless before I had kids, but I never gave someone the evil eye for their kids behavior on a plane. Oh wait, ok, maybe when I was pregnant and we flew business class, and the mom put a 4 and 6 year old in seats in back of us, went to sit across the aisle, put her headphones on and mentally checked out. But then, it was the height of swine flu scare, kid was fighting with his brother and coughing towards the pregnant lady who hadn't gotten a shot yet. Yup, I was kind of pissed off then. And the kid was actually really good about covering his mouth every 30 seconds. Which is how often he coughed....the whole 7 hours. And I didn't have a lot of good will for that mom on that flight.

Now is different. On Monday I was on a super packed tight tram, around 6:30pm, from the train station, on a rainy night, and two parents got on with a 4 year old, and twin 2 year olds. No stroller, and who knows where it would have fit anyway. No one gave them a seat. The 4 year old had to stand, the 2 year olds were getting upset, and soon all three were crying. Still, no one gave the parents a seat, and only once a big stop came and people got out, could they even give the kids a place to sit. Still crying. Mom starting to just get upset with crying kids. I had no A with me at the time, and had just spent 5 hours on a work trip, in blissful silence. So I started making funny faces at one of the twins. Immediately she stopped crying. Then I included the other twin. Ditto. And up til now, no one on the tram, especially those near the family, had even smiled a "gee that sucks to be a parent right now, huh?" smile at them. And it took 5 seconds and a tiny loss of dignity to help get the kids quiet. From someone who hadn't had to deal with them the previous 5 hours. It wasn't hard. WTF, tram riders?

So, while I hope there are sympathetic parents on our flight, for when I've reached the end of my rope, blog posts about how I need to ingratiate myself to those around me just because I have a kid, make me feel pretty defiant. The business men who snore like hogs never hand out earplugs to those around them and apologize ahead of time. Neither do the people who get drunk and loud. They are just "who they are, deal with it."

Yes, I know, I may have to try to get some goodwill going on that flight, but part of me so wants to just throw wet diapers at anyone staring us down. All those people who think they know better, think I should be doing something different. Whew. Got myself all riled up.

And since this rant has not managed to calm me down that much, I'm assuming I'm just having a crappy mood day today. Huh.