Parents as Cabin Crew
 

I am just wondering how many of you cabin crew are parents? Does anyone fly with crew who have children and how do they manage?

Is there any airline who welcome parents as crew?

I have a wee boy and was just wondering how everyone else manages the hours, being on standby etc ???

CCMNo1 3 of the Mods on this forum are both CC and parents. It is not an easy combination but it is possible.
For me, I waited with getting pregnant until I could go part-time (after 5 years with my comp). Then we had Au Pairs for many years. For us, it was the best (if not always ideal!)solution even if we lived in a very small house and the Au Pair often cost us about the same amount of money as what I made at work.
But there are many other ways of doing it. replacement Granny, host family, flexible airport day care are a few examples I know are used by colleagues.
When our kids got too big for an Au Pair, Grandparents stepped in. When they got too old, and the kids got old enough to look after themselves, we hired a lady to do the driving to their various activities.

I recently asked them what they thought of their childhood in regards to my job. The 18 year old said she had always loved the fact that I flew because it got me out of her hair for a few days at a time. :) The 16 year old confessed that he had consistently hated my job taking me away from home for those endlessly long stretches of time. :sad:

There is no such thing as perfect parenthood, and I often did feel like a bad Mum leaving them. I also loved the job, it gave me the chance to be somebody besides a wife and a Mum and it fulfilled me in a different way.
Looking at our kids now, they seem well balanced and not to have suffered any great harm from growing up with a partly absent parent.
Hope this helps and good luck with the next 15 years!! :D

Thanks, i know i will manage somehow and i am not going to be flying long haul and i will only be doing it part time. My other half is a Captain and it will mean us both working odd hours, but i miss flying so much. Every day he puts on his uniform i am so jealous. I think he thinks that i should be lucky that i dont have to work but i am so bored sitting around all day.

Keep your fingers crossed for my interview!

We have (or had) a mother and her daughter both flying for us!

Absolutely loads of mum's flying for Monarch at Manchester base. Full time, I'm told, is hard work juggling the kids, but quite a few opt for part-time and get the best of both worlds. Quality time with kids and some quality time at work with adult conversation. :)

Friend is CC for a particular charter airline andhas three young kids 18months - 6 years.

Her husband works days, the normal hours so to speak but she is lucky to have her parents and brothers and sisters to babysit during the day if needed.

She loves her job but it is hard juggling it and the kids:ok:

A mother and daughter fly as Cabin Crew at QR.

I flew whilst a father, but my wife (ex crew) was at home looking after our daughter so it wasn't too bad, Still missed them like hell when I was away though.

Cheers

HR

Can i add a comment from the childs point of view???
My mum an my stepdad have been together since i was about 5, and my stepdad is an ex ansett (now virgin blue) pilot. I'd like to think i had a pretty normal upbringing! When we were younger my mum was working a 'normal' part time job but i remember for awhile we only had one car and she had to get us out of bed at all hours of the morning to drop off/pick up dad from work and we loved it hehehe.
flaps, even though ive never met your children ill agree that they probably have been brought up well and not at all disadvantaged from growing up children of a flyer! The only thing i remember hating (and i still do hate it!) is when dad was always away for special occasions, but hey it all worked out good, i cant remember the amount of times we had 'christmas' on a day other than dec 25th!
And the bonus side is ive grown up LOVING airports/planes, ive travelled all over the place thanks to staff travel :) and now i want a job as cabin crew! At the moment it may happen with QF but id LOVE to be able to fly with dad on virgin!!
now ive lost my point.... i think it was something along the lines of children of flyers are more advantaged than disadvantaged if anything!!!

My husband is a captain and I fly p/t and I have to say that I am finding it extremely difficult to get the flexible childcare for my 21 month old! There is no nurseries that take your child at 0530 or will look after them until midnight.
Unfortunately, I don't have the pleasure of family living close enough by to rely on them constantly.
Our company will not help out with the rosters as its seen as favouritism.
BUT, I love flying with easyJet - I can't seem to get it out of my system. So somehow, we manage to muddle through!!:D
It's amazing what you can do when you love something!!:\

Tell you what though, there is a massive gap in the market for childcare specifically geared towards shift-working families... Someone will make a fortune....Maybe I should think about a change in career after all...!!!:ok: This time next year, Rodney, I'll be a millionaire..!!