Holy shit! I made it. I flew across the country with my 15 month old twin boys and back again. 4 flights in total. Layovers, delays, and seat changes oh my. You may be wondering WHY? My only sister gave birth a month early to a beautiful baby boy. I had to go see her and my new nephew. Nothing was going to stop me. I will write a separate post about my sweet nephew who carries my name (Lindsey) as a middle name. Lucky fucker! I called my mother and asked her if she was willing to take off work and help me wrangle the twins on a cross-country adventure. She didn’t even hesitate and agreed. Little did my mom know what was in store for us. I definitely could not have done it alone. I traveled on an airplane once before with my first set of twins 2 years ago for a funeral. My dear friend agreed to help me on the flight. I still feel horrible for what I put my friend through on that trip. It was a quick flight and we had no layovers. It was still awful and filled with screaming babies and hairy eyeballs from the other passengers. I vowed to never fly with twins again. And I did it again. My mother was an amazing help and I couldn’t have done it without her. We learned a lot about flying with 15 month olds. I will share a short list for y’all.
1) 12-18 months is the worst age to fly with a child/children. Avoid it all costs if possible.
2) Have a ton of snacks and drinks for you and your kids.
3) Bring balloons, keys, books, iPad, toys, wallet to open, straws, and anything that grabs their attention for longer than a minute.
4) Offer to buy alcoholic beverages for the surrounding passengers. A friend with twins handed out ear plugs when they took a flight recently. People warm up to you pretty quickly when they see that you are making an effort to keep your kid quiet and calm. Many parents don’t give a shit if their kids yell and kick seats and feel entitled to let their kids run amok because they paid for the seats. This may be okay for you but you are ruining it for the rest of us that take other passengers into consideration. When my mother and I sat at our seats with the twins we got the most horrific looks from our fellow travelers. By the end of the flight the woman seated next to my mom who rolled her eyes upon us getting on the plane was holding one of my twins and kissing his cheeks. I overheard the lady next to me saying to her husband “Ugh, I knew they were going to be seated next to us. Humph.” By the end of the flight she was singing me high praises and calling me her hero.
5) Make many trips to the bathroom. The babies love pulling the toilet paper and splashing in the water. Whatever keeps them busy.
6) Order a cocktail for yourself. It took the edge off of the whole experience. Smiling and laughter are good medicine as well. I was faking a grin the whole flight and it actually helped.
7) Always take direct flights. I will never try to cram all that traveling into one day with babies again. They were so over stimulated and crabby that I felt bad for them. Poor babies. Poor me. Poor Uma (my mother)
8) Know your seat assignments prior to boarding. You can only have one lap infant per row because of the amount of oxygen masks. Be prepared to seat separately if you are traveling with twin infants. Purchasing a seat will insure you are in the same row. I just didn’t have the cheddar to make that happen this flight.
9) Bring a stroller and check all bags except your diaper bag. It’s worth the extra cost. Lugging kids and suitcases suck bigtime.
10) Always keep in mind that you will reach your destination and can put all this traveling stress behind you. My husband had dinner, wine, and ice cream waiting for my mom and I upon arriving home. Thanks buddy.
I want to give a big super-duper shout out and thanks to my Mom, who I probably won’t see until next year. I don’t blame you Mom that was a crazy difficult journey. You will only ever understand the difficulty unless you go through it and we deserve fucking medals. My new nephew was worth all of it. xo
Dear god, this couldn’t have come at a more perfect time. We are due to fly with our 15 month old twin boys in two weeks. Glad to hear you survived. You and your mom most certainly deserve medals. I can’t even begin to tell you how much we are dreading the flights, but then again…you probably already know. A couple of questions: 1. How did you manage a drink while holding tiny bucking bronco? 2. Did your boys sleep at all on the flight?
I got one of those mini bottles of wine and skipped the glass. They also have lids available for your jack daniels & coke. hah. My twin boys did not sleep much at all. Super overstimulated. The last leg of our final flight they fell asleep the last 20 minutes and woke up screaming. If you expect the worst it really isn’t so bad. I will be sending you happy thoughts. It’s nice to know that I am not suffering alone. Big huge good luck to you. Happy twin travels
Congrats to your sister, and to you, Aunt Lindsey! Please tell her I said “hi”…i’m sure she’s grateful to have a seasoned veteran like you for advice and support. Xoxo
Yes, avoid at all cost! I’m glad it went okay. The trip down here was not pleasant. The 5 kids (at the time: twin 2 month olds, twin 19 month olds(+carseats), and my 6 year old) just me and my mom. The kids were all pretty good, lugging the stuff on and off the plane and security- not so good
Congrats to your sister!
Oh my gosh you and your mom are my heros. You are a brave woman. I think when all the kids are a bit older we will attempt a flight with all of them.
[...] decided to make an early arrival at 36 weeks. My Mom and I flew out with my 15 month old twin boys. Click here to read that post. This sweet little man is also very lucky because he has my name as his middle [...]