My flight from Houston to Denver had at least SIX children in the first two rows. Two unaccompanied minors (UM) who were each 9 years old, a mom with a lap child and another son, and a 4 year old girl and her baby sister. One of the UMs was an angel - didn't ask for a thing - was content watching his TV and playing his video games. The other UM was a handful. He loved to talk loudly, he loved going to the bathroom every chance he could get, and he loved to spill his cereal (with milk) onto the seat next to him - fortunately, the mom with the lap child (who were sitting in that seat) were in the lavatory at the time.
The lap child like to make a noise (like a honking goose or some such thing) every three minutes. He would not sit still. His older brother did better, but there was always a constant chatter going on. The two little girls in row 2 were doing well until the older one started screaming! I turned around and looked at her, putting my finger to my lips, saying "shhhhhhh." Well then she burst out crying!!! I ended up having a little talk with her about using inside voices, how people are sleeping, etc. and gave her a little smiley face pin to make her smile. Whew!
My next flight had 5 infants on board - 4 of which were in the first four rows of the aircraft. Three of the 4 in the front were fine, but one of them screamed the entire flight. The poor guy in the same row came to me asking why parents nowadays don't drug their kids for flights like in the old days!?!?! The mom was obviously tired, and let the kid just scream. And there was one kid in the back who was just as bad - after they left, we found peanut butter Girl Scout cookies ground into the carpet! How disgusting! Why do parents let those things happen?
On the final flight of this trip, I told the gate agent that we weren't allowing any children on board, but obviously, she didn't listen to me. In my front row there were three kids with their parents. Fortunately, the young baby girl and the middle boy were fine. The older boy was just darn cute. He wore glasses, loved to tell me that he knows all about airports, and just loved to talk. At the end of the flight, he kept telling me "When I see you again when I fly, I'm going to tell you hello!" And then his younger brother would mimic him and tell me the same thing. It was a cute way to end the night.
It was after midnight when I called crew scheduling to be released for the night. When I asked what Tuesday looked like, they told me that I was 3rd on the list of 1-day reservists. Fortunately, they never called me today! Nonetheless, I spent the night in Denver, had a nice, relaxing morning and gradually worked my way down the highway towards Colorado Springs. I got home at around 5PM or so and still hadn't received a call. It was good that I didn't get called in, but it sure would have been nice if I didn't have to stress about wondering whether or not they were going to call. One of these days, that will no longer be one of my worries...!
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