Day 18, interpersonal conflict resolution

Thursday, 3 October 2013

The journey home. We took a series of increasingly larger trains to the airport. It took a long time. The Rome airport was a fiasco. When we finally found where we were supposed to be, it seems like we checked in three times, got shuttled around three times, and went through security three times. And in contrast to Portugal where we got special treatment for being pregnant and having a kid with us, in Rome we were punished by having to go through an extra security line in addition to what everyone had to do. But as we waited to board the plane, Daniel made friends with the crowd around us and entertained everyone. People in Rome are very friendly and love children, unless they're working.

The flight was 9 hours, and it went relatively smoothly. Our stewardess did not like children, I think, and so we clashed with her a little bit. But she tried to be nice and we tried to control our child. It got off to a bad start when Daniel pushed the stewardess call button as people were boarding the plane. Each seat has a call button in the headrest of the seat in front of it, within easy reach of any child. Whoever thought that was a good idea did not know the power of "the button" to a small child. We were apologetic to the stewardess when she came and I asked if there was any way she could disable the button or ignore it, because I did not expect that we could go another 9 hours protecting that button from Daniel. She said no, she could not disable or ignore it, and then she gave an icy smile and said "you know, it's your job as parents to control your child :)". I said back, "and it's your job to deal with the passengers on your airplane", but I'm not sure she heard me. I guess we were both feeling saucy. But we did manage to keep Daniel from pushing that button again, and she did bring him some special snacks. He cried a few times and went a little crazy, but I would say he did very well. On the flight to Portugal, we sat near Europeans, and they loved Daniel. On this flight home, we sat around Americans and Daniel was an annoyance to be tolerated. I think they would have been more friendly if we were taking our pet dog instead.

Speaking of our pet dog-- he was very happy to see us on our return, as well as the rest of our family.

The end.