Six nights in Hawaii with a 6-month-old: yay or nay?

Everything else
62

Why the hell does anyone need to take their baby on the plane? I could see it if they wanted to smuggle some rubies in the baby’s diaper, or maybe if the baby was foretold in legends as the only proper human sacrifice to appease a very angry moutain god, say Mingalu-Garjet of Pompeii, but other than that, what in tarnation do you need a baby for?

Is the baby going to remember this trip twenty years from now, and say, “Hey, I’m really glad you took me to Hawaii, so I could throw up and shit myself in an expensive hotel for a change. That was really nice.” Oh, I know, maybe you’re set to inherit a billion dollars from your exotic great-uncle, and he is awarding his entire estate to the first of his neices and nephews to conceive. Then I could see bringing your baby to Hawaii, because his lawyer that never leaves the cloud fortress will probably want to see the baby in person before he gives out the billion dollars, because hey, I know a billion dollars isn’t much to some people, but for the rest of us, a billion dollars is a lot of money. Also, you will probably be raising your baby in the cloud fortress from that point on.

But if you’re doing that, are you sure you’re even having children for the right reasons? I mean, at least xtien was furthering the species. If you had a baby just so that you could grow a friend, I’ve got to say, not that I am against foreigners or anything, but how can you even be good friends with someone who doesn’t even speak English? That’s some Enemy Mine type shit, right there.

63

Who thinks it shouldn’t make people unhappy? I don’t think anyone is ever happy about a crying baby - especially the parents and the baby himself. That’s a far cry from “it’s inconsiderate to bring a child out in a public space.”

64

People who think others should ‘suck it’ if they dare be aggravated by it.

65

According to Dr. Laura: Only mothers who don’t love their children would leave a baby at home and go somewhere without it during the first five years of a childs life. If you don’t like that take it up with Dr. Laura.

66

Kerzain: I think most parents know their baby is irritating when it cries. And I think they don’t expect anyone to be happy about it, just to put up with it temporarily.

Flowers: Babies need to go on planes because their parents want to go somewhere, and there’s nobody else to care for them at home.

67

Well that’s easy. Everybody, stop loving your children! (It’ll be like the 1950’s.)

68

I love this.

Truth.

-xtien

“I pray that when I have kids I won’t lose the indignation I’m expressing here.”

69

I can’t think of any circumstances not requiring my being awake other than being asleep, and if I’m around a screaming child, I sure as hell am not asleep. So my original point stands.

Look, there are plenty of times and places where one would expect and even delight to see screaming children: a park, an amusement park, Chuck E Cheese, etc. No one but the meanest soul is against the existence of children entirely. But the idea of dragging your child around to do all the things you used to do before you had the child is incredibly selfish and unfair to not only the child and everyone else around you. Unless the presence of your child was specifically requested by the friends in question, stay at home if you don’t have a grandparent to watch it.

Edit: Just in case you decide to get even more pedantic, my use of “child” in the last few sentences specifically means the infant to toddler ages.

70

I am taking my son on a plane at Thanksgiving. He will be 4 months old then and possibly colicky. He might scream his head off the whole time but he is still going on that plane to meet his great-grandparents. They are in their mid-nineties and this is quite possibly the only time they will get to see him. So STFU and deal with it. There might be a very good reason why that baby is on a plane. I swear you throw worse tantrums then a baby ever would. Grow the fuck up.

71

Your stupid baby isn’t going to meet anybody, it can’t form memories yet. Just go to the nearest rest home, pick any two residents with Alzheimer’s, and introduce the big pantshitters to your little pantshitter. Or better yet, leave your baby at home, fly to meet your grandparents, and borrow a baby for an hour from someone on Craigslist. Either way, a year and a half from now, you’ll still be the only one who remembers that day.

You’re pretty much trying to justify stressing out a planeload of people at an already stressful time of the year so that three black-out drunk people can meet each other and have their pictures taken. Maybe something like that matters to you, but it doesn’t matter to me. If ever I have met someone who proves that Holmes was right in Buck v. Bell, 274 U.S. 200 (1927), it would be you.

72

Inspiring.

On the sparkly gem-strewn crown representing Flowers’ posting history, I think that jewel above may have the brightest glint.

73

Unfortunately, he is using resources my future son might need. What a waste.

74

Throw enough shit and something will stick. That my mantra.

75

Pro Tip: When you’re packing make several changing kits by putting wipes in a small ziploc bag and tossing that bag into a gallon bag along with a diaper and a disposable changing pad. Then you can just grab a kit when you go to the bathroom instead of having to lug all your junk in there, and use the ziplocs to dispose of the dirty diaper and/or store a dirty outfit if the kid has a blowout.

76

Good tip, as I found out the hard way, there’s really not enough room for you, baby, and a diaper bag in the bathroom.

77

I don’t agree with you on what you’re underlying intent is in what you say, but you weave it so creatively that it’s fun to read.

78

I think this offends me. But you still amuse me, so I’m not taking what you’re saying seriously yet.

79

As a relatively new parent (17 month old boy now) I completely fear going out and doing certain things with my child.

I prefer to leave him behind when we’re going out to a restaurant, due mostly to the complaints here about being considerate. My child is reasonably well behaved, in that he may only let out occasional whines for a moment before we manage to reign him in. It still embarrasses the hell out of me though, as I don’t want to disturb others. On the occasions where he’s not easily managed, I’ll pick him up and leave the area, or do whatever it takes to calm him down. We’ve gotten a portable DVD player to bring with us which works wonders. The one thing I cannot stand is when a child is just left to whine and the parents ignore it. I totally get why the folks posting here can hate that. But I think the responsible parents who are trying to do everything they can to be courteous are kind of getting a bad rap. I think that’s the big issue here, is the parents that just sit idle and let their children misbehave.

I would never consider bringing him to a movie, that stuff should be done at home.

Flying with him sucks, I feel bad for other passengers, but at the same time, there are reasons for choosing to fly with a baby, no matter how much folks here would say they never have to fly. I’d rather drive 11 hours than take him on a 2 hour plane flight and have done so twice now. But the one time he did go on a plane, I honestly was supremely self-concious of his behavior. And when we got stuck on the tarmac for over an hour in a storm, I really regretted what I had done. Lesson learned for sure, and I personally will continue to avoid flying with him when possible. We’re going to Fiji when he’s 4, and that’s a damn long flight. Hopefully he’ll be ready for it, or I’ll have to ship him in a box ahead of us…

And telling parents that they can no longer do anything they enjoyed previously is pretty insensitive. I feel I should be able to take my child with us on a trip far away, it’s not really for the kid since as someone mentioned above, they won’t really remember it. It’s more for my wife and I. We want to remember it, and enjoy our time together. Granted, getting away alone would be great, but if we can’t find a long term sitter (kennel?) I’d still like to get away once every 2 years. Our lives have changed drastically. We don’t do nearly the things we once did, and wouldn’t imaging living our old lifestyle again. But we don’t have to suffer as pariahs, do we?

I figure my child earns the right to do certain things with us (restaurants, flying, trips, whatever) by behaving, and if he proves that he cannot, we stop doing those things with him.

80

Some of our movie theaters here have Baby Days. Babies are welcome to the first showing of the movie that day, and the theater crew turns the volume down and leaves some of the lights on at a dim level so that new parents can still come to the movies.

81

That’s cool, as long as it’s understood and planned. Though I would probably avoid it with my kid anyway just due to the fact that unleashing that much chaos in a big theater could cause some odd rift in space-time. Plus he does not sit still for long. They’d have to remove the seats so he can run free…