Flying with family is always stressful, and even more-so if you’re flying with small children, but no one on a plane — including you — appreciates it when a child starts wailing in their seat for no reason. The Daily Traveler notes that one way to handle the situation without raising the ire of your fellow passengers is to distract the child by whispering questions to you so they feel compelled to quiet down and respond.
Whispering appeals to human nature to get on the same level as the person they’re speaking with, and if you ask a child “want to know a secret?” repeatedly while whispering, eventually they’ll calm down and ask what it is. When they do, tell them anything — the important thing is they’ve calmed down.
Meeting a child’s out-of-control volume with measured quiet is an interesting approach. The site has a number of other tips to help you keep a noisy child quiet on a long flight, including giving them your full attention or letting them play in their seat next to you with things they wouldn’t be allowed to touch at home, like your phone or your camera (after all, you are supervising them while you’re sitting together).
In any event, it’s in the best interest of all passengers on a plane to keep an unruly child as calm and quiet as possible. If you have kids, how do you keep them quiet on plane trips? Do you think this will work with your kids? If you don’t, how do you deal with the noise? Share your suggestions in the comments below.
Tips for Handling an In-Flight Meltdown [The Daily Traveler]
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