 Re: what to say to airlines about your autistic child
I flew with my 'then' 3year old Autistic son from Perth to Melbourne. The flight there was hell on earth (or air) my mistake was worrying too much about everyone else on the plane. I also wasn't consistent....I let him out of his restraint and once it came time to put the seatbelt back on all hell broke loose...he screamed for 20 minutes....seemed like 20 hours!! A woman behind me got very abusive...the flight staff escorted her off the plane...my 3 children and myself were all in tears...all the other passengers leaned down to me on their way off to show their support and say what an awful woman she was. The staff ended up giving me two bottles of wine to take home!! ha. It was so awful.
HOWEVER....the flight home was much different, I went about it all differently and stopped worrying about the other passengers. I also sat my son in his seat, put on his seatbelt and left it on for the entire flight. He was fine with this...he had a packet of chips and ended up falling asleep for most of the flight, when he woke, I left the belt on.
There was so much more to the story, but we survived it. Be open with the flight staff, let them know about his fears.
Relax and enjoy. It will only be a few hours out of your life....ha....you'll get through it.
Michelle.
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