Should Kid be Sedated on Flights?

This article made me uncomfortable. Its one thing to joke about knocking your kid out for a good nights sleep when they are sick – I have talked about how Nyquil is the only thing that helped my daughter sleep when she had a wicked cold- but to openly admit that you will sedate your child for a long flight, with no other reason than you are tired…makes me..well, again, uncomfortable.

I can see why, don’t get me wrong, but I think there has to be better alternatives to sedating your child with drugs so you can travel.  I travelled with two kids for 14 hours in a car on one day, and instead of drugs, it took a lot of work, entertaining and pre-planning. You have carry-on for the plane, so why not pack a bag full of entertainment? I know, its easy to say, isn’t it.

Perhaps I feel uncomfortable because I wouldn’t want anyone sedating me for no apparent reason. It just feels like a slight invasion of my kids rights. And the parents who foresee ” a lot of travelling”, I really want to know if they will use Gravol etc.  every flight? Maybe its better to have one hellish flight, where you learn as a family how to entertain each other, how to have proper manners on a plane and what is expected of you, and then the flights afterwards get increasingly better? I can’t see how drugging your kids will teach them the proper flight manners they need to learn to function as a traveller, I just don’t. I can completely understand if your child is crazy and you are about to get kicked off the flight,  but pre-planning sedating them before you even get on the flight? Hmmmm. And the fact that someone lists it in their top 10 international travelling tips really is irking me.

But maybe I am totally off on this one. But there’s still that niggling uncomfortable feeling about this whole thing.