TSA: How to Make Flying with Kids Easier

Babble has a great article about What TSA can do to make flying with children easier. It does a great job of capturing the unnecessary turmoil that the current rules put parents and children through.

I have traveled with my son almost every month since his birth, and each trip holds some new nadir of absurdity. When Milo was four months old, he wore shoes for the first time. They weren't really even shoes, they were Robeez, which I'd put on his feet to prevent him from ripping his socks off and shoving them into his mouth. When we got to security I was informed that I needed to remove the shoes and put them through the x-ray machine. It was as if the people at security were conspiring to make it as unlikely as possible that the baby might sleep through the trip (which surely was in the best interest of not only me but everyone else in the entire airport) by not only requiring that I take apart the stroller and remove my own shoes while balancing a baby on my hip and simultaneously displaying my boarding pass and driver's license, but also asking that I take shoes off of someone who wasn't even able to walk yet.

Add to this the fact that they cannot make up their minds about whether baby can go through security in a sling or not (meaning that I always seem to have the wrong plan for getting through security) and insist on X-Raying my toddler's security blanket (I've tried tying it around him like a cape and insisting that it's clothing, but no dice) and it all adds up to a lot of unneded anxiety for everyone.

The travel industry has been focused recently on capturing more family travel dollars. Of course most of that seems to be focused on advertising, and little on overcoming some of the roadblocks (real or perceived) that families face. This week, I'll be blogging about what different companies in the travel industry (airlines, hotels, airports, restaurants could do to make travel with babies, toddlers, and kids easier.

Related: Babble: Babies On A Plane

0 comments | Posted on September 5, 2007 | Save to del.icio.us

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