Mom And Chatty Toddler Kicked Off Flight - Spot The Childfree Traveller…
18 07 2007In this thread I mean. It’s a good thing Brightfeather sent me this link.
Mom and chatty toddler kicked off flight
Otherwise I might have had a bit of a problem wading through the howling indignation expressed by all the “mommies” on this blog thread. I call it a version of “let’s worship at the alter of the (Madonna) and child.” See what you think.
Any childfree person who has traveled on a plane with a parent and small child can without hesitation bring to mind the sinking feeling when the child starts acting up. The feeling gets worse as the parent may ignore the unruly child, or try to calm them and give up. I remember the feeling well, since it happened on my last trip. I can only pray we don’t have the same experience on our upcoming flight.
For the record, I am well aware that there are many well-behaved kids who travel with their equally well-behaved parents. They travel like any other paying passenger. They don’t necessarily sit still all the time. But they don’t disturb other passengers (including their parents) to the extent that one’s flight is ruined.
Considering you’ve usually paid several hundred $$ for your flight, and quite probably want to get something resembling shut-eye and relaxation during your long flight, reading or listening to music or whatever - you can immediately forget it. Your enjoyment of your flight becomes dependent on whether the child decides to stop screaming, fidgeting, kicking – or running along the aisle.
Not only will you have to endure the noisiness of said child ( hey, it’s a kid, what do you expect?), you cannot escape. You are trapped 1,000’s of feet up with an unruly, or screaming kid. Not nice. I once travelled on a long-haul flight with a child kicking the back of my seat for most of the flight – among other things. After fruitless attempts to get the mother to control him - I could even have tolerated his fidgeting if only he’s stopped the incessant kicking - I called the flight attendant who had a word with the mother. The mother of course, looked offended. My flight was ruined because some idiot parent could not be bothered about her child.
The interesting thing about the actual MNSBC story is that the full facts aren’t yet known. They are still being investigated. And articles like this almost always report the side of the story that’s going to get the most indignant response. Oooh, that BAD, uncaring flight attendant. Banish her to Disneyland. There was, predictably, no consideration that perhaps the pilot may have had a good reason to make an emergency landing given these decisions aren’t taken lightly.
The interesting thing about the sk-rt thread is how all but a couple of people on this blog thread immediately leapt to support and defend cannonize the mother. The poor, hard done by mother. When Brightfeather offered what I thought was a balanced alternative opinion, the reaction was to get personal and insulting.
Sort of like covering their ears and shouting “lalalalalalalalala…la!”
Out trotted the “Where is your compassion and empathy?” question. And “How sad to see children are seen as such a burden.” and “Parents dread it as much as you do..” Seriously?. Oh, and this hilarious one… “Parents… are stressed by passengers who “only care about their personal comfort and their dinner!”
Well, exactly what are we supposed to care about? You and your baby? The kids you seem unable control?
Even though Brightfeather had said she herself had helped raised four siblings that, apparently doesn’t qualify her for making judgements about other parents. Hmm, but it qualifies the parent of the disruptive child to say that we shouldn’t dare to complain about said disruptive child, nor the ineffectual parent.
As BF said, perhaps some should have waited for the other side of the story before rushing to make a saint of Madonna and Child.
And I shall certainly be taking a leaf out of her book… a disruptive child is going to result in some compensation from the airline if it ruins my flight. If we don’t speak up, we can expect more of the same. I think it’s time that parents of disruptive kids, of kids who just can’t travel begin to think of their fellow travellers – not simply expect everyone to feel “empathy” for their inability to control their kid.
I do not.
Maybe one day we’ll be able to book childfree flights – like we can holiday resorts.
Technorati Tags: childfree
Brightfeather’s responses were brilliant - a lot more calm and reasonable than I suspect I would have been.
My fiancee and I are going to Canada for a holiday next month. It’s the first time either of us has been outside of Europe and certainly the first time either of us has been on such a long flight. I’m certainly looking forward to the trip, but somewhat dreading the possibility of some fidgety child kicking the back of my seat. Fortunately my fiancee is a primary school teacher and has a finely-honed hard-stare that has been known to silence any child at 10 paces. I’m hoping she won’t have to use it, it can be a deadly weapon.
@ JSDarwen
Thank you for the compliment.
It was difficult to remain calm when there was an automatic following of canonizing “mom” supporters who were already campaigning to defend the Madonna with her child her, without even hearing the other side of the story.
Worse still was the fact that the credibility of woman leading the campaign TheSillyWagon was in question from the outset as she is the proprietor of a children’s store.
When challenged she could provide citations only to media articles which were based on the “testimony” of a single passenger, who referred to the mom by her first name, making it clear that she was not an objective “witness” at all.
The fact that TheSillyWagon became a nasty and insulting namecaller didn’t really surprise me either. I have met other mothers like her have lost all credibility by responding like harpies when I have objected to the behaviours of their out of control children.
I remain firm when it comes to my zero tolerance policy. I will no longer be held hostage by a toddler terrorists and their enablers on any public conveyance or in any public place.
The last time I endured an onslaught by a little Napoleon and his mother on an airflight I was on my way to a wedding wearing a silk suit. After 3/4 of an hour off the wall behaviour, which demonstrated the mother’s inability to control her son she allowed him to drink her coffee. You guessed it — the kid dumped the coffee on my lap.
The other passengers close by and the flight attendants backed me up when I demanded the price of dry cleaning in advance from the mother. I spent about 15 minutes soaking the stain out of the skirt in the tiny wash basin but the skirt it was ruined.
The second flight attendant kindly brought me my flight bag and I donned another skirt that did not match the suit top. When I arrived at the airport my godchild whose wedding I was attending 2 hours later cried when she saw what I was wearing. We had a connecting flight to catch and I had chosen the silk suit with care so it matched the rest of the apparel in the wedding party.
Upon reaching our destination (her 2nd flight of the day and my 3rd) we immediately went to a ladies wear store and I bought a replacement suit that was not the best colour choice. Thus, I had a miserable trip, I ended up spending twice as much money on clothing as a I should have had to spend, and the wedding ceremony began 1/2 hour late.
It was then that I adopted my zero tolerance policy.
Gleah. I adoped a zero tolerance policy when I had to spend a 9 hour flight with a three year old crawling all over me for the entirety of the flight with nothing more than “honey, please” type correction from the mother. I offered to let them have my aisle seat, I put everything but my book in the overhead compartment in a vain attempt to give them some space, I spent almost a half hour in the bathroom in the hopes that without ol’ Feh around, the kid might fall asleep…no dice, no rest, and no relaxation. Not like I can relax much with the “you’re going to die in this plane” mantra my brain likes to do, but it just solidified my belief that as soon as any plane leaves the gate, it is filled with a sedative gas which is gradually reduced near the end of the flight thusly allowing everyone to arrive at their destination relaxed and alert.
Well said as usual.
Wow! This reminds me of our last flight from Chicago back to Phoenix. We had the misfortune in sitting near a couple with a 1 yr old that just cried and cried and wailed and screamed through more than half of the 4 and a half hour flight. My experience with kids and calming them down is admittedly very limited, but you’d think that maybe some parents should have low-dose Valium prescribed to their chyyy-uld. It’s either that, or practice better discipline… :/
I was so PROUD that this was Continental! I have almost 40k FF miles with them, I fly this airline exclusively to visit my family on the East coast.
I would like to take this flight attendant out to dinner….it would be MY PLEASURE!!!
Eight years ago, I was on a flight from Cleveland to London, when I was stricken with food poisoning about 2 hours into the flight. I excused myself from my window seat, in which I shared the row with an elderly couple, and moved me and my stuff to an empty row of seats in the back of the plane. I got up every so often to puke, and I had a migraine to boot.
Meanwhile, these little kids were kicking the back of the seats I was curled up in, and screaming at their mother, “Mum! What is wrong with this lady, mum?” *kick* *kick* Mum did nothing to stop them. I finally grabbed one of the kid’s arms when he thrust it through the seats into my back, and I gave him a death stare. He stopped.
I still think I should’ve thrown up on him.
Karyn - What I can’t get my head around is how can a parent simply sit there and do nothing to stop them? Sad, but I’ve seen this too many times.
Brightfeather, you are brilliant! After a few really bad experiences, including one where Northwest refused to give me the fee they collected for two kids traveling alone who I ended up taking care of (including the use of a barf bag), I plan on taking on a zero-tolerance policy myself.
My response to the incident that took place in February:
http://blondebombchelle.blogspot.com/2007/02/tantrum-at-30000-feet.html
Explosive Bombchelle - that is an excellent article you wrote. There should be a mandate that parents have consideration for other travellers and if they don’t take steps to at least demonstrate that they do they should pay a penalty. I too understand that sometimes you can try everything to calm a child and nothing works. But to sit there and do nothing, expecting everyone else to suck up because you either can’t be bothered or simply can’t control your child is so incondsiderate.
I for one am also adopting a zero-tolerance policy for bad parental attitude on airlines. I believe if enough of us do so (and I believe there are parents that also wish to have a peaceful flight) then airlines will have to take notice and do something.