Flying without cares harnesses or carseats

My life is insane right now and I forgot to rent cares harnesses for our 4-hour flight coming up on Thursday. Flying alone with kids and cats, so carseats are not coming. Will my kids be okay?! Please help me feel better about this ( or let me know if I need to go track down & buy some locally). Ahhh! Can't believe I did this! *sigh*

 

With the trip so close, I would just go. I forgot to rent a CARES harness for my trip with Sarah at T'giving, and I did buy one, but I still had time to mail-order it and at least not be driving all over town looking for one. Plus, I only needed one. They are pricey and I wouldn't want to buy two. I'm sure they will be OK. The CARES harnesses are for peace of mind in the very unlikely event of serious turbulence, but in my (almost) 39 years I've never actually been on a flight like that. (Well, OK, one, but it was in a tiny prop plane flying through a thunderstorm in Alaska. :ibiggrin: ) I think you should just focus on other plans for your trip -- and spend some time rehearsing with your kids how important it is for them to keep their seatbelts buckled.

You might also try sending out an email to a local mom's group or something, to see if anyone has harnesses you could borrow. It wouldn't take much time and you might get lucky.

 

We went on a flight about that long when the kids were almost three and they did fine!! :hug: :hug:

 

We fly all the time without the CARES harness and have been flying without car seats since the girls were about 2. Just talk to them a lot about what is expected of them on the plane and that they will need to wear their seat belt while the little sign with the seat belt is on. I tell my girls that the pilot is the boss and he says you have to wear it. They usually end up wearing them the whole flight because they forget about it and watch their movies or color.

It also helps us that the girls have stuffed animals they take everywhere that they like to make sure are safe and strapped into their seat belts.

 

Erin, I'm sure they'll be safe without the harnesses. The chance of any really severe turbulence (when the carseat or harness could make a difference) is tiny, so don't worry. I think the harnesses make things easier (ie - no one can unstrap without Mom's help); if you want CARES harnesses, I have two sitting right here and could Express Mail them to you tomorrow. I just checked, and Express Mail sent tomorrow to Phoenix would get there by noon Wednesday.

Edited because I can't spell.

 

Thank you so much, Trish! You're too kind!

 

I think they will be fine without the harnesses. We flew when the boys were 2.5 without them.

 

Thanks, everyone. I am glad to know it's okay to do, for future reference. I'm going to be really glad to have Trish's harnesses, though - the likelihood of at least one of them NOT sitting down due to lack of restraint would be pretty good, and honestly the mental relief is priceless in this particularly stressful travel situation.

 

Glad you found some! Flight day is quickly approaching. Wishing you safe travels!!!!!!! :hug: