It's a complainer's world, I MUST prepare

 I was not at all stressing about taking my 4 year old and my 1 year old on a 6-hour flight across the country when I made reservations. They had just traveled by car for much longer hours with no problems. 

Yet, the more I research traveling-with-kid tips online, the more I begin to think of all the bad possibilities. What if Nora nurses and gets mad that I cover her face and cries the whole way. What if Luke has one of his famous tantrums, what if, what if, what if. Most of my fears are spurred on by reading comments from passengers who claim they cringe when they see kids on a plane and hope they do not sit nearby. 

 I have run across people like that before who have very little tolerance for children noises, children talking, children anything. But this time I will not be able to just ignore them or walk away from them, I will have to be in a plane with them. I have always held a firm belief that we live in a "complainer's world".  Before my kids my husband and I would take our African  grey parrot, Nugget,  everywhere. Once we went to an outdoor cafe in Dupont Circle, DC and the cafe worker comes over to us 10 minutes later, and in a whisper asks us to leave, apparently, someone complained that it was unsanitary to have a bird at a cafe and as cute as my parrot looked on my shoulder (outdoors!).  It did not matter that the bird is a home pet and has not bugs, etc.....You see....we are in a "complainer's world" and that has me worried.  

I will have to seek inside myself and just epitomize calmness and confidence on this trip. I have a huge bag of new quiet toys to bring out one at a time. I have healthy non-sugared snacks planned to baggie separately for each child to avoid the "sharing" difficulties.....I am taking 2 laptops to play movies for them....earphones for each, paper, crayons, glue, tape....my daughter loves unwrapping band-aids, so I am taking some toys from our doctor kit and a whole box of band-aids. Lollipops to help with ear popping for take off and landing.... I am envisioning 2 very calm and happy kids.