It was with mixed emotions that I woke up this morning. On the one hand, I was looking forward to some quality bonding time 1:1 with Erez. On the other hand, I was thinking about all of the possible snafus that could evolve in 7 hours of travel, two airplanes, a connection in Detroit, and a 5 month old infant.
Key lesson of the day is that when a father is travelling alone with a child, the attitude of the people around you changes dramatically. Let's say a mother is there with a crying child, people are thinking "hmmm, why can't this woman control her kid?"
With a father, there are no expectations, people think that he's naturally incompetent. Women flock to you (particularly those between 45-65 with no grandkids of their own), and you're the object of empathy and patient understanding.
On flight 1 (which suffered a 45 minute delay on an uncomfortalby hot day), I enlisted the aid of 4 flight attendants and 5 other passengers. It was great. Flight 2 wasn't as bad from a crying perspective (we had about a 25 minute episode on the first flight) and we made it very well.
I guess the key for today was attitude and perspective. If you think it's going to be stressful and difficult, it will be. If you give yourself plenty of time, plan and think ahead, and maintain your composure, it's generally going to work out pretty well.
Erez was a total trooper and did a great job of putting up with all of the movement. A bonding day indeed.
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