This afternoon I was enjoying a late lunch with an adult beverage at Whole Foods when my musings were disturbed by a screaming infant. 'How like a dental drill in tone and tember' I thought until the second one joined in. Then I noticed, they were in synchrony. They did not step on each other yet maintained their unique cries of pain and agony . . . OPERA! So I suggested to management that the next time they have screaming babies, play Mozarts Queen of the Night Aria. At least let the babies entertain us. Bob Wilson
Lunch at Whole Foods is quite entertaining without the adult beverage.....or the screaming infant. I'd go much more often but it's attached to the rest of the store....which is also rich in entertainment, but expensive at checkout.
From today's Sydney Morning Herald: Australian inventor tackles baby crying, the mother of all flight problems It's basically a tent that fits over the bassinet on the plane, to block out light and movement and make it easier for the baby to go to sleep. We just used to use a load of sheets. Gosh, this brings back memories. We did the Sydney-Shanghai flight (about 9 hours) a few times with my elder daughter before her first birthday, and she just would not go to sleep. Once, on a Shanghai-Sydney run when she was about six months old, the flight was due to take off around her bedtime, but it got delayed by two hours, and she went absolutely mental, and just would not be calmed down. She was tired and scared and confused, and it all just went horribly wrong. She screamed for more than an hour before she fell asleep. In most cases, the one saving grace of your kid going nuts on a plane is that at least you don't know anyone. Unfortunately, on QF129/QF130, there are always people I know on the flight, and this one was no exception: I think I knew about a dozen people on the plane. Everyone was very nice about it, but it is a horrible thing. And at bedtime, when there's so much noise and light and movement, it really is next to impossible to get them down. I always make a point of being extremely nice to parents in that position. Honestly, these days, when I hear a crying baby on a plane, rather than being annoyed by the unpleasant noise, I just think "Thank goodness it's not mine, and not my problem."
Excellent! I may order one since we are planning an 'EV Day" at Whole Foods. Having one in the shopping cart area may be just the thing. Bob Wilson
Babies cry; apparently their best shot at resource acquisition; confounded with discomfort. Unconfounding these appears beyond our best thinkers! Treating the symptoms instead might be tractable. I could imagine a bit of serotonin and a bit of opiod (not the newest strongest ones) in saline in an epipen-like delivery system. Not proposing nor suggesting that it could get past FDA review. Only that it would probably be effective. Epipens got to $600 (before their fall) and this tactical injectable could easily double that. Bwahaha.
The best friend of many parents of frequently-long-haul-flying toddlers: And in a 100ml bottle, so we can take it on planes.
To quote WC; "Aw - yes ..... babys - just like newyear's resolutions - they all need to be carried out. " .
Screaming babies....can be annoying. I think there is something genetically hard wired in us as humans to respond on many different levels to crying babies. But when I'm in public and a baby starts crying? Well, assuming it's NOT an action of guardian abuse, I remind myself that a crying baby is actually singing the song of the future. I try to enjoy it. Sometimes I succeed. Years ago, I had the privilege of attending a performance of Itzhak Perlman. Right in the middle of his performance, a lady a few rows in front of me, opens her purse, removes a Tic Tac container, shakes it, pops one in her mouth, then continues to shake it for several seconds as an offering to the person sitting next to her. She just kept shaking it, like a maraca. Totally oblivious, or uncaring as to the fact that her quest for fresher breath, was adding a Maraca beat to Perlmans performance. That I've remembered for years. A baby crying? Well...that's part of humanity. That I can forgive. Don't get me started on Talking During a Movie. And yes, I think you should leave the baby with a baby sitter if going to a movie or play.
he's a gentleman - even if he'd have heard the woman. Heifetz on the other hand - not so much. He'd have likely stopped playing & had her escorted out (lucky for her there'd have been no tic-tac's back then ) . .
