- Captain: … our flight to Tokyo.
- Captain: We kindly ask the attendants of the “Association of Oblivious Mothers with Infants Who Suffer a Fear of Flying” world congress–
- Richard: I need to get off!!
- Stewardess: The plane’s already taken off!
- Richard: Do I look like I care?!
|
Transpacfic flight with many crying children does kinda sound like hell. But I guess there is always alcohol
The babies know they’re on a plane? I thought they were just bawling because that’s a baby thing.
@ Jack:
Small babies often can’t equalize pressure in the inner ear, so it’s physically intensely painful for them to be on an airplane.
And usually the mother of a crying child is not in the least oblivious … you don’t notice the ones who succeed in comforting their child, and the others have tried every option they’ve got. If they look oblivious – they’re probably just enduring.
One of the tips to improve bub’s chances is to try to feed them during takeoff and landing. Swallowing releases that inner ear pressure for all of us. But once a baby’s ears are hurting, how interested are they going to be in feeding?
Exactly. Parent here who has done half a dozen intercontinental flights with infants.@ Cyberax:
As a father who went through a flight with my toddler wailing for hours, I can only say that these days, the sound of crying children fills me with bliss…
Because they’re not mine, and not my responsibility; thank God!
@ Navad108:
I’ve gotten so good at soothing unhappy infants in planes that the flight attendants dubbed me ‘the baby whisperer’.
@ dragonsister:
Usually my wife would chonk the kid on to a breast right on the taxiway. When you hear the “tong-tong” tone you’re past 8000 feet so at that point the pressure should equalize.
Took one infant from the US to Hong Kong and China, and two small kids to Australia, so we got used to the process after a while.
And now for a commercial break!
@ Evilbob:
I can tell you as someone who flies a lot those things saved my life. And the ones of toddlers/moms I didn’t strangle thanks to the headphones.
For Novil’s sake, I’m really hoping that this one isn’t semi-autobiographical.
I’ve seen enough MayDay! lately to know where this is going…
Funny, I read the comic and then scrolled down with the intent of leaving a comment just saying, “Alternate Title: Hell,” only to find out that the title of the strip actually was “Hell.”
@ Wanderer:
I’ve noticed that people who have not had children have a much bigger problem with babies on planes than people who have had children. My first experience with my own baby was that she cried until take off and then was lulled to sleep by the soothing sound of the engines. It was a very pleasant twelve hours with her asleep almost the whole time.
Toddlers on a plane, on the other hand, are a nightmare. It isn’t that they are noisy; it is that they are mobile and have no concept that they should stay in their seat. Mine escaped once and ran all the way through business class to first class.
Was there not a comic called Hell in the past?
I have never had kids, but I traveled with my cat from China to San Fran. He had two escape attempts, one successful, I spent an hour with him shoved down my sweatshirt before I coaxed him back into his carrier and then for the rest of the 10 hour flight had my hand stuffed in the carrier with him on my lap petting him…….. That was the first leg of our journey….
@ Patrick Ohm:
One called “Hell” http://www.sandraandwoo.com/2012/04/09/0366-hell/ and one called “#FFA500 Hell” http://www.sandraandwoo.com/2018/04/02/0976-ffa500-hell/ The URL scheme here means whoever names the strip doesn’t have to worry about something as insignificant as having used a one-word title before.
He’ll pass the entire trip crouched next to that door, snapping and biting at whoever tries to move him away . . . .
Not trying to be picky, but…
Atendees or participants would be a better translation of teilnehmer
That poor guy. Even I feel sorry for him.
That said, why isn’t there a unfoldable airlock for passenger airplanes for people to safely space themselves?
I can’t really hear the crying since my ears break every time I fly on a plane.
I’m glad I don’t fly very often, and that I don’t have kids. I find the sound of crying babies annoying enough without having to hear them for hours on end.
While I not been on the parent side I’ve been on the Young kid side. With the special ‘bonus’ that due to an ear infection as an infant my left ear was particularly sensitive (so sensive i have had the typical middle reduction in hearing of high pitch sound, hell I still hear higher than normal) and Made the trip from Boston to Auckland before the were nonstop transpacific so we had landing an take in Boston, NYC (saw the Concorde docked) Denver, LA, Honolulu and Ackland.
The first tke off was hell. At NYC my parent myange to get me some gum, which partially helped. (I actuall sleeped though the Hawaii Landing and tackoff)
This back when Pan Am gave Kids (not just unaccompanied minors) activity packs and thing like toy pilot’s wings
Is that World Congress an annual thing? I’m pretty sure I was on that flight in 1987.
@Regis Earsquake
No alcohol service on this flight due to turbulence.
well that’s nightmare fuel for sure
Regis Earsquake wrote:
But there are rumors that alcohol is bad for little kids…
Probably a typo: attendants should be attendees.
Heh, the joke is on you, because I am deaf. Pop my hearing devices off, and anywhere in the world becomes blissfully silent.
Richard should be pulling out his wallet and buying his way into business class.
Then again, how long’s his flight – 8 hours? What a wooss – he should be thanking the racoon goddess that he’s not flying to Australia – from Europe.
I find it helps enormously to tell oneself…
…That YOU may be stuck on a plane for a few hours with a crying baby…
…but when the flight lands, your “ordeal” is over.
…That parent has to bring that baby along HOME with them.
Really helps keep in perspective, whom has a real right to complain about whom.
Author should be arested for crimes against fictional humanity.
Me on the flight:
https://youtu.be/rYvYjWgPh-k?t=13
@ Regis Earsquake:
true, but is there enough alcohol on board to knock out all the infants?
And as we have so many children on board, we’ll be playing ‘It’s a Small World’ on continuous loop for the entire flight.
I’m taking a plane to Tokyo tomorrow…the timing for this comic couldn’t be worse. XD
@ Sturzkampf:
Better than Baby Shark on repeat.
oh that poor bastard
Oh that reminds me of that flight Paris to Toronto. where I an infant in front an infant behind and two infants to the right… Good thing I can’t sleep on planes anyway so it wasn’t exactly hell but it was kinda loud…
*Pilot’s voice: ‘…For the sanity of the other passengers and the staff this chamber’s oxygen masks have been fitted with an anesthesia option as required. To have a nice rest hit the Zed button as you breathe in, we will wake you when we arrive at our destination.’
A couple of pre-flight gin and OJs combined with my noise cancelling headphones is good to completely shut out all the screaming kids on a plane unless they are right beside me. And even then, unless the kid is completely uncontrolled, I never feel the urge to yeet them out the emergency exit.
@ Cyberax:
Children generally get the ability to adjust the pressure by swallowing, around 4years age.
They sell ‘pressure equalizing earplugs’ at most airports. These equalizes the pressure very slowly, so that the inner ear pressure can adjust at its own pace.
But they MUST be put in before the child is brought aboard the plane. Because the planes generally lower the inside air-pressure as soon as the doors are closed. (they lower it to about the pressure found at 3000′ altitude.) Not only does this result in a weight reduction, but it also lowers the stress of on the airtight bulkheads, so the plane can be built lighter and still fly just as high.
Why did nobody wake Richard up to tell him to fasten his seat belt before takeoff? He would have known about the other passengers then.
This cartoon is rather hackneyed. Quite a long time ago, there was a Dilbert strip on exactly this theme, with the moms and kids being on their way to a “Colicky Babies Convention.” It wasn’t funny then. It isn’t funny now, at least to me.
@ Regis Earsquake:
Yeah, can he get the kids to drink it?
@ Anthony_Lion:
I may be mistaken, but I think that at least some airlines slightly overpressurise the cabin for takeoff and landing. This is to prevent smoke from an eventual fire from entering the cabin.
Guy in the bottom-left corner of the second panel seems like he has experience. Always be prepared. I’ve never flown, so I’m sure I’ll forget a LOT of things, and bring at least 5 items not allowed by TSA.
When I was returning home from New York to Rio de Janeiro (this means a ~9 hours flight) there was this baby who cried most the time – he alone was making as much noise as all the babies in Richard’s plane.
I usually sleep thru long trips, except that one *ugh*
The end of the announcer’s line:
” – … that bring at least one adult relative of yours with you, who will paying attention to your children until our arrival!”