The Airlines these days...

So i've been planning and getting ready for my first cross country plane trip ALONE with my toddler. The thing that's been stressing me out the most is the car seat. Because most airlines now charge to check bags, we're having to take a carry on, on top of a diaper bag and my daughter's backpack full of toys... I obviously need to take a stroller to wheel my daughter around in... But I have to drag a car seat around too? I'm not that great at math... But I just don't think i'm gunna have enough hands.

Virgin, Song and British Air offer FREE baby/child seats (FAA approved car seats) ON TOP of a 40-60% discount rate for children under the age of 12! So tell me why US based airline carriers are incapable of doing this? The airline is obliged to provide wide-waisted people with seatbelt extensions, so why don't they provide kids, at least those who are traveling on a paid ticket, with the seating equipment they need? You know what, I don't even have a problem forking out the cash for a full priced ticket. I figure my two year old takes up the same sized seat as I do. But come on... For the price we're paying for airline tickets these days, you can at least let us borrow a car seat. Or hey, I'd even be more then willing to fork out an extra $20 to rent a plane seat at the gate JUST to save the stress of gettin it through security and dragging it through the terminal. Oh man, what I wouldn't give to walk on the plane and find a child seat just sitting there all strapped in and all right in my daughter's spot! Can you even imagine that... it could transform flying with children from a travel hell to, well, if not a travel heaven, maybe at least a travel heck. Like shopping carts and restaurant high chairs, plane seats could spawn a whole cottage industry of portable or disposable cover makers!

If only someone were to design, test, and manufacture this to the rigorous specs demaneded by the FAA and the airline industry... What's that, you say? Someone does make one? And they call it what? The PlaneSeat CRS-2000?!? So you mean the only reason we have to haul that damn carseat everywhere is because of the airlines? Yeah go figure.