Posted on 11/18/2011 9:08:16 AM PST by Slings and Arrows
Babies on airplanes. It's enough to make parents—and all the passengers around them—cry.
Parents are complaining of airline seating policies that create "baby ghettos" in the back of planes. Even worse, families are increasingly split up, leaving small children in middle seats in the company of strangers unless passengers arrange seat swaps on board.
(Excerpt) Read more at finance.yahoo.com ...
“I’m Jeffrey...I’m Four Years Old.”
Same as restaurants or movie theaters. I don’t necessarily blame the kids—I blame the crappy parents. Some will try to quiet them or at least comfort them when they don’t know how to clear their ears, but far too many just let ‘em scream.
I support a sound proof room at the back for idiotic parents who bring babies on planes. I was on a plane to San Francisco where a baby cried/screamed the full last hour of the flight and they did nothing. A whole bunch of people were ready to cause a ruckus but in this day and age you never know what can happen with the air marshals and Obama might fling some terror charges on you.
A nation that hates its children is a nation that isn’t going to be around much longer.
As a business traveler, I’d rather sit next to a child than an obese person who takes up 2.5 seats.
+1
Why? There's a perfectly good cargo hold.
How do you know the parents were not trying to calm the baby?
“Even worse, families are increasingly split up, leaving small children in middle seats in the company of strangers unless passengers arrange seat swaps on board.”
I don’t have children but do have a very handicap wife and I’ve never been in a situation where our seating assignment split us up and if no one else, the stewardess would work to make sure we sat together. I’ve never had to do this directly with other passengers.
As far as kids, I lament the security hassles and the poor customer services from airlines generally much more so than kids on a flight.
Because “business travelers” are all so svelte.
I once flew to Las Vegas on Southwest Airlines. During the flight instruction / comedy routine, the attendant said, “And for those of you traveling with small children...WHAT WERE YOU THINKING!??!”
Amen.
I remember - a classic.
and super F’n cool. We rarely sit in the back with you groundlings.
Someone recently asked me to switch seats on Southwest so the could sit with their wife.
The answer was a polite No. I paid extra so i could have an A check in and get an aisle seat on the port side.
If it was a parent with a child I would probably switch and be pissed off about it.
Whaaa!
The other SWA line is: "If you are travelling with more than one child, place the oxygen mask on the one you think has the most potential".
Ditto. I see about half the passengers with earbuds or headphones. The other half looking jealously at them...
So yes, it is annoying, but the babies can't help it, and their parents can't do a thing about it. Toddlers are a completely different story; if they're screaming and being obnoxious, the parent's CAN do something about that. Usually it involves talking a lot about what the plane is doing, pointing out the window, if you can see anything, or just doing a mighty job of distraction.
I like the idea of them being in the back of the plane, because they usually take the longest with getting settled in their seats, and not having to wait for them trying to do that in the middle of the plane makes complete sense. The same in reverse; folks aren't delayed getting off with parents having to re-load all the kids' gear.
I don’t really care either way. That’s why headphones were invented.
Problem I now have is getting my headphones through security.
“A nation that hates its children is a nation that isn’t going to be around much longer.”
We don’t hate kids...we hate the lousy parents that fail to supervise or discipline their kids.
I usually sit in the back. It’s statistically safer, easier to get window seat on the shady side (SWA) and that’s where the dogs sit.
When I travel with my baby, I put a burqa on the kid. And a hijab. And the kitchen table cloth... whatever.
That way my kid enjoys all the special priveledges the muzzies do.
It is amazing how quickly kids can modify their behavior once they understand consequences associated with that behavior.
Even my infant grandson has learned that misuse of his new teeth means early termination of his snack from Mommy.
“I support a sound proof room at the back for idiotic parents who bring babies on planes.”
But what if the Muzzie terrorists get confused and think the door to the baby room in the back of the plane is where the pilots are located? Muzzies threatening a bunch of mothers with babies wouldn’t end well for them.
As far as kids, I lament the security hassles and the poor customer services from airlines generally much more so than kids on a flight.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Eggs-zactly. What with the TSA, unhelpful airports, and bad service from your air carrier - why SHOULDN’T babies get the same rude service the rest of us do?
Planes should load from the back, window seats first.
Simple fix to a baby ear pressure: Valsalva Maneuver. You do it every time you hold your nose and blow to release pressure in your ears. A quick hold and release of an infant’s/child’s nose can clear their pressure jsut as well. It might take several tries to coordinate their blowing out and you holding their nose for them, but it works just the same. For children that can safely chew gum, gun chewing can also help.
I love bacon, but I still don't want fly with the precursor.
How do I know the parents weren’t trying to calm the kid? Maybe bc they’re sitting there doing nothing?
This is okay, imo.
... families are increasingly split up, leaving small children in middle seats in the company of strangers ...
This is not okay. Put the family together, somewhere.
Fly a lot and offer that suggestion to all the airline personnel - as in ‘you could get employee of the month with this idea’. LOL!!!
Make sure I wait until all ZONES have been seated before boarding. Eliminates waiting in a stuffy plane for 30 minutes. The trade-off is no overhead space for the carry-on.
Loading from the back to the front - makes so much sense - from an engineering perspective.
On one of my bathroom breaks the grandma apologized for the behavior of the one kid because he had ADHD.
What ticks me off is when I bring my family unit aboard I see some people in the surrounding seats start rolling their eyes. Personally, I'm more concerned with the colorful language you hear from drunks on the plane and all the crying and whining associated with a weather delay.
Then the gate crew could just get every body up from the outside (window seats) and march them on the plane. Then the centers and then the aisles.
First class could still board first to get their drinkz down as was the case back in the day (pre TSA) when I flew relatively frequently on day trips.
Same here.
I just bring an iPod and headphones. When a baby starts crying, on go the headphones and the music gets cranked up.
There is no remedy for getting stuck next to a big person, unless there happens to be another seat available onboard.
+2
I’m getting tired of the threads that promote hatred of children and even violence towards children on Free Republic.
I don't think it's so much hatred for children as it is disgust for some parents.
A little baby likely to cry, especially on takeoff and landing because it bothers their little ears, but I've had to tolerate some ill-mannered, obnoxious older kids while traveling and it's always because the parents let Little Snookums annoy the hell out of people until somebody finally says something.
A Valsalva Maneuver? Do you even know what that is? I highly doubt it because that’s a dangerous thing you’re talking about. And you’re advocating using it on a baby? You have some sort of malfunction.
*the below is not necessarily directed at you*
It really depends on the age of the kid. If they are younger than 2 it really is next to impossible to get them under control once they loose it. Sure, we can try to plug their nose and get them to ease pressure but that’s easier said than done.
My kids (both under 3) have always been decent on planes but I still get eye rolls from people. A couple of times I’ve had one of my children lose it during the last 30 minutes of the flight. All you can do is try to address the obvious things (food,water,toilet,entertainment) but after that it just has to run its course.
That being said - when I travel alone for business I prefer to use patience and understanding when it comes to families traveling rather than responding like a 13 year old girl and rolling my eyes. The thing is, WE are the adults. As adults, we handle life’s little discomforts like grown-ups and should refrain from bi#ching and moaning because some kid is making too much noise on a JETPLANE. Having control of your emotions is really the only thing other than life experience that separates you from that child.
Harden up people. You’re crammed in a tube with jet engines on the wings; you’re not eating at the ritz-carlton or anything.
I go for the exit row. No kids, but a risk of sitting next to a super sizer with a really smelly meal. lol.
Families... Take Amtrak...better than an airport the train depot!!
“I highly doubt it because that’s a dangerous thing you’re talking about. “
Sorry your ignorant of such things, but getting hostile is just silly. Where did you get the idea that such a thing was “dangerous”?
Babies and small children will do that when traveling by car as well. I give my little ones when we travel Tylenol 1/2 hr before I expect altitude changes. The result they sleep right through it, no crying.
*snicker*
***
Just wanted to grab this portion of your post and add something....
The part about “We handle life's little discomforts” -
Well —— Children, kids, babies are people. They are not “life's little discomforts. And we do not “handle” each other. We love, serve, care for, minister to etc each other. So much business terminology has crept in to our vocabulary since the wretched 80s, all this bs “how to manage your business, your family, your marriage, your children etc. We do not manage each other. We should be serving, loving, caring for, praying for etc. We should not ever be primarily motivated by our own comfort either. We should be seeking the comfort of others first. The narcissism, self centeredness etc is at fever pitch. Shut off the indoctrination folks and read your Bibles. Christ said they would know we belonged to Him by our love for each other.
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