Parents: How to Keep Your Kid Calm During Holiday Travel

Here are a few tech tips to help your flight go smoothly.

By Laura RiceDecember 17, 2016 4:38 pm

Over the next few weeks, more and more people are going to go to the airport, pack themselves onto planes, stuff that carry-on into an already overstuffed overhead compartment and settle into a plastic seat that seems just a tad too narrow. They’ll fasten their seat belts, mess with the overhead air vent and then roll their eyes at the screaming baby or toddler getting plopped into the row behind them.

Sharing a flight with a crying baby sucks, but remember that the child’s parents are doing the best they can to quiet the kid. Associated Press reporter Barbara Ortutay knows this first-hand. She field-tested some technology to see if it could help.

Ortutay says she flies with a sometimes crying baby fairly often.

“It’s really difficult,” she says. “Before I had a baby I was one of those people who, whenever I heard a baby crying, I just I got a little exasperated. But it’s very difficult to fly with a toddler.”

What you’ll hear in this segment:

– Why using a mobile device to calm your kid down is okay

– Some kid-friendly soothing apps to use

– A few non-technology suggestions for keeping you kid occupied