Who hasn’t had a travel nightmare when taking the kids?
But the worst I’ve heard is having a plane of angry passengers booing your family as you try to calm a child on the autism spectrum.
“People are very quick to judge,” explained Laurie Cramer, who now is executive director of the Autism Society of Greater Akron, Ohio.
She recounts a flight experience where her 10-year-old autistic son screamed uncontrollably because he had to put away his electronic device for takeoff and hadn’t been given any warning.
Cramer explained that she subsequently learned that for kids like her son, not being told what to expect can be difficult and enough to set off the tantrum, as well as bad reactions from strangers. “People were awful,” she recalled. “My lesson from that is to always be upfront to flight attendants and others to ask for accommodations.”
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