in Parenting, So That Happened

George And Amal Clooney Creatively Apologized To Fellow Airplane Passengers About Their Kids

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What’s the worst thing about flying? Okay, everything about flying is the worst thing about flying — the long lines, invasive security checks, flight delays, missed connections, $12 inedible sandwiches, and people who take their shoes off mid-flight and stick their gross feet between the seats and rest them about six inches from your nose are but a few of the obnoxious indignities travelers face. The absolute worst thing about flying, though, is getting seated next to or near a crying baby. You feel like a jerk if you get annoyed, but another person’s child screaming their lungs out in a tiny, confined space is objectively terrible. You think so, but the baby’s parents also think so. Also, that baby is crying because it’s deeply uncomfortable. Nobody is okay with the situation.

Sometimes, kind and understanding parents just accept the fact that their baby is going to cry, and instead of desperately trying to get the kid to stop, they try to soothe their fellow  passengers driven mad by the tiny infant’s giant noises. On a flight to England, that’s what famed human rights lawyer Amal Clooney and her husband, an actor named George Clooney, did.

They had not just one baby on board, but two — Amal gave birth to twins just six months ago. Before the flight began, and before the babies could offend anyone’s delicate sensibilities, the Clooneys passed out some nice, noise-canceling headphones to everyone seated nearby, i.e., first class. The note that came with the gift said they were “apologizing ahead of time” if one or both of the twins cried.

The headphones bore the logo of Casamigos Tequila, George Clooney’s liquor company, which he recently sold for about $1 billion. That windfall allows him to do things like buy fancy, noise-canceling headphones for a large group of people, but maybe he should have passed out some of that tequila — that stuff will ease most any flight-related tension.