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I've traveled with more annoying adults than kids. ....
Unfortunately, when flying just about everyone is annoying, But crying, screaming kids moreso. You can insult an obnoxious adult and get momentary pleasure.
One flight started out with a non-annoying adult. I was in Navy in San Diego, took an LA to Chicago flight, was bumped to first class, and as the plane door was closing this unbelievably attractive women boarded.
I thought, wish she would sit by me. She did.
Thin with a couple of great assets, all but exposed, with a micro short skirt. The proverbial 10+. Movie starlet, I learned, quickly!
I thought I was in heaven.
Unfortunately, before we had lifted off she had combed her gorgeous hair a million times, and by the time we landed, the comb was probably worn down to the nubs. Talk about annoying!!!!
Or terrorists.
Honestly, although I too like my peace and quiet, I'd rather have annoying children around and stay alive than be on a quiet fly that ends up being hijacked or whatever.
It's just a flight, not the end of the world.
Do you understand how truly pathetic this type of thinking is? Your odds of being hijacked are less than being stuck by lightning. Do you go through you day thinking "I better not go outside today, I might get killed by lightning or falling meteorites"?
Do you understand how truly pathetic this type of thinking is? Your odds of being hijacked are less than being stuck by lightning. Do you go through you day thinking "I better not go outside today, I might get killed by lightning or falling meteorites"?
I think it was making a point and a joke though VJ...
We have a 14 month old daughter and we'll be taking her on a flight to Myrtle Beach, SC out of Philadelphia. At first I was more than willing to drive the 12-hours mainly because I am nervous on how my daughter will do on the flight. Then when push came to shove... a 2-hour trip is certainly a lot more tolerable then a 12-hour marathon. Besides... a little baby-Benadryl can't hurt I suppose.
Do you understand how truly pathetic this type of thinking is? Your odds of being hijacked are less than being stuck by lightning. Do you go through you day thinking "I better not go outside today, I might get killed by lightning or falling meteorites"?
Of course the risk of hijacking is low. My point was to make people think of what is worse on a plane: kids (that won't kill you) or any danger (be it lightning, terrorists or what not). By the way, I was replying to someone who said kids were better than snakes.
And FYI, I care for my 3 year old who's fighting lung cancer, so honestly, I enjoy life to the full, I know how important it is to enjoy every single day, even during tough times.
So a plane full of children won't kill me. If it bothers people, then they should focus on the destination, whatever they are going to do wherever they are going. The flight will come to an end at some point!
I've never been a big fan of children, BUT seriously sometimes kids are going to get upset and make noise on planes. Though I definitely get annoyed by parents who don't seem to notice or care when their children are disturbing others, there are a lot of parents who are trying their best to get their kid to settle down, but sometimes no amount of games or food or distractions can silence a kid who is really really upset. Put some head phones on and stop moaning about it. I think it's a lot more obnoxious to see an adult act like a jerk over a child crying than to deal with the crying child themselves.
I'm sort of torn, and almost advocate for both sides seemingly like a politician trying to get voted. By the way, I have kids, and that I have kids has SORT of changed my expectations, but it hasn't been even remotely a total 180 either.
On Behalf Of People Who Hate The Noise
Yes, it is awful. For some of us, like me as I am someone who speculates I may have misophonia (meaning I am hard-wired in my nervous system to where certain noises are all but impossible for me to deal with), the noise of a child fussing is downright blood-curdling. I tend to think I have the RIGHT to not be exposed to a noise I can't deal with, even if it means the parent & child just can't be on the plane at all. I can easily think that my right to not have to hear a noise I can't deal with is that absolute, yes, absolute enough that it supersedes the rights of 100 other travelers who have children.
If there are "coping" mechanisms that truly work, okay, but those noise-canceling earphones--well they don't work very well when you're made to turn off all electrical devices for seemingly half the flight for the supposed "risk" they incur, when the truth is they're not a danger at all. So there goes that. Otherwise, for the duration of the occasional flight (I don't know that such a person should have to do that on EVERY flight), I would agree if it weren't for the "turn off all electronic devices" nonsense they do.
I also, especially with older children, tend to look at it as others do with regards to discipline. Yes when I was a child I probably fussed in such situations, but if I did my mother didn't hesitate to practically put her foot up my a`s-s if I did. Trust me, by the age of 3 easily, if she wanted me to be quiet, I was quiet, because I feared crossing her. And frankly, if that's what it takes, so be it.
Enough of this wussy parenting where we refuse to BE parents for fear of being thought of as mean or for parenting by intimidation. Frankly, I don't care how you make your child be quiet, but do it. If it takes putting your foot up its a`s-s, spare me the "that's child abuse!" bologney. I don't care. All and I mean ALL I care about is that you make the noise stop. (I am taking about toddlers ages 3 and up or so, not babies.) As for babies, I think you should even, if necessary, put your hand over a baby's mouth if necessary, just not with a tight seal, but sort of like you're "shsshing" someone or whatever. As long as you don't put a tight seal to where they can't breath, it will help muffle the sound so it's not so intense. They still have their nose, after all. To just let it squall full-blast and you don't even try to muffle it, come on.
I've never flown with kids, but I will say this--when our children were around age around 3-5 or so, people used to compliment us on how quiet they were in restaurants. I would tell them "it's because I EXPECT them to be." I don't tolerate this nonsense about how "they're just children" blah blah blah--phooey. Heck with our son, I recall giving him a light spanking and in a hurry when he was only 1½ years old. We were outside an Arby's about to go in and he wanted to take his toy, I didn't want him to because I wanted him to focus on eating only and I figured the toy would get left behind and lost. So I NICELY tried to get him to give it to me. He refused 2-3 times, so I flat-out SNATCHED it away by force. He started crying, I pointed my finger at him and said "cut it out," he refused and in SECONDS I was in the men's room with him giving him a butt whooping (that's an expression, I may have applied 2 pops, on top of thick clothing).
How many parents would've excused that from him because "he's just a child?" How many would've scorned the supposed "might makes right" I was supposedly practicing in snatching the toy away from him, or that I was parenting by fear and/or intimidation? Phooey. It worked, and it wasn't abusive to me (no bruises, slapping etc), so frankly, that it worked, to me THAT is what matters. Stop being such wussies, parents.
On Behalf Of Those Who Say "Tolerate It"
I am going to take up for the parents somewhat, though, despite the tone of my last section. You know why? It's because so often it's damned if you do, damned if you don't. In other words, how many people will scream at you "spank that kid" or "control your children," but then if you do so in a way that's even 1/20th of what I just described and in front of people, the CPS phone lines will be buzzing with people calling in to report "abuse." I was able to do what I did because much of it was not in front of a lot of people. Had I done even 1/4th of that in front of an audience, inside of 5 seconds the phone lines would've been jammed with busy-bodying snitches calling social services.
Yet, try other wussy methods that don't work, and someone's going to be upset that you're not doing enough.
Simply enough, no matter what you do, you're damned.
Further, as much as the noise bothers me, enough that I have been known to suggest that people shouldn't be allowed on planes with their children at all due to the noise, really--do we expect parents to not fly ever for like 6-8 years or so because they're currently parenting children less than age 10 or so? Yes parents can be self-centered with respect to their children sometimes, but it's not all about you (the parent-less traveler) either.
And yes, it's true that it's the parent's job to handle their children, not impose on others, but what about community and an attitude of helpfulness? If you can help by talking to the child and acting goofy with funny faces or the such, why not do it? "Because it's not my child." Gee, what kind of attitude is that? What about if the plane crashes and catches on fire and you're in a position to help this child out of the burning plane, or someone else for that matter? Are you going to just let them burn because "it's not my problem?" I think this is the same thing, even if not as extreme.
Like it or not, you're part of a community, it's not all about you. I hate dog barking, for instance, but just for the sake of argument--if someone had a dog on a plane and it was noisy (granted, they don't let people travel with pets that way usually, but just for the sake of argument let's pretend that they in fact can), and I knew of a trick I could do that would help calm the dog down, would I do that or insist "not my dog, not my problem?" Maybe the dog shouldn't be on the plane to start with (and don't get me started on how dogs aren't as important as people, even though many seem to think that they are), but for that moment where they are there, why not do something like that if it helps?
I can understand someone saying "well I just want to read my book and not be obligated to entertain a child for the duration of an entire flight." I can see that, and I would agree. At the same time, I think there are probably scenarios where you do such for, say, 10-15 minutes and then after that the problem will dwindle. In such cases, you've spent 10-15 minutes helping someone else with an issue they're struggling with, being a good neighbor of sorts, and helping out others who probably hate the noise too. That sure sounds like a more community-attitude centered response to me.
Really, I think this is becoming a problem in a lot of realms of parenting. People see a parent struggling with something they're doing with a child, and they are SO quick to condemn and judge (and sometimes butt in by calling social services) and not actually offering a helping hand of love. Why don't you try offering to help once a while and stop with the ugliness and snitching by calling social services for every little thing? Be a solution. Often-times parents are truly exasperated with an issue as much as you are, and think of it long-term--those little brats as you call them will one day be grown adults. We can't shove them all in a shoebox until they're 20, and thank goodness no one was shoving YOU in a shoebox when you were a child.
When our first child was just under four months old, we had to take a flight (along with a connection each way) for my wife's brother's funeral as he had just passed away in a car accident. Overall, our daughter did well, but on one of the connecting flights, she got to the point where she wasn't feeling well anymore and started crying. My wife and I tried to soothe her, but it took some time and effort.
What really upset me was that a young couple sitting across the aisle from us kept giving us cruel looks. The husband even pulled out his phone and took a picture of our baby (and probably us) without our permission! I imagine he was going to post the picture online along with some snarky remarks, talking about how due to us he and his wife were forced to suffer unfairly.
I understand how babies and children can become frustrating on planes, but I also understand that the parents' options for handling these situations are limited.
My wife was on a business flight and had a 5-year-old, unaccompanied child seated next to her, in the middle seat. For some reason--even though they knew it--the flight crew expected her to take care of this unaccompanied child the whole flight. "what's this?", "what's that?", "Help me with my drink", "Can you help me go to the bathroom?". Drove her absolutely nuts that a child that young would be sent by themselves, much less that "since she was a woman", that my wife was expected to "babysit" the entire flight. . .
And DON'T for a minute, give me crap about "well, parents divorce. . . parents can't always accompany their child. . . ", etc. BULLshiite. If you can't take care of EVERY aspect of your child's life and are assured of it before you have one, then don't procreate.
It doesn't TAKE a village, but some--or most parents, these days--insist that the village has no choice but to raise their kids.
That said, I was on two legs of a flight with a screaming baby and her mother. The mother was absolutely beside herself being apologetic and trying to keep the baby quiet. Honestly, I think if she could, she would have opened the door and jumped out. She was that distraught about disturbing the rest of the passengers. I finally went back and asked if I could just hold and sit with her baby while she took a while to relax. She burst into tears and said "thank you. . . so much". I held the baby in my arms and it quit crying and went to sleep. The mother was finally able to relax enough to get up and use the restroom--for a good long while. The baby just needed someone different to hold her, who was not distraught and crying and shaking from the stress. I held that baby for over two hours and she slept like an angel until we landed--and so did the mother. All four of the flight attendants--three women and a man--came over and gave me a kiss on the cheek when we landed.
So, I've seen both sides of it. Next time you're on a plane with a crying baby and a distraught mother or father, maybe offer to help them for a while if you can. It might make all the difference. . . you just never know. . .
For me, flying is such a headache nothing about it is enjoyable. Thus, I avoid it whenever possible. Most of the times the kids I've seen on planes have been very well behaved. If the kids are fussy, I try to be understanding. I am not a parent myself, but I get that the parents don't have much choice. Most of the parents appear to make every effort to keep the kids calm and quiet, whatever the age, and I applaud their efforts.
Wow, what a nice guy ! if only others understood that sometimes all toddlers/babies are fussy. Unfortunately, often on planes and can be even more uncomfortable then we adults.
I agree if the parents are trying their best to quiet them or engage them, I try to give them an understanding smile and put my headphones back on for some tunes.
I sat if front of a whiner leg kicker whose mother was too engrossed in a movie to care. Blamed her, not the toddler.
Rude people burn me up no matter where.
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if only others understood that sometimes all toddlers/babies are fussy. Unfortunately, often on planes and can be even more uncomfortable then we adults.
