Posted on 05/08/2014 5:48:49 AM PDT by relictele
Is there anyone on the planet who wouldn’t pay to avoid travelling with other people’s children? A survey has found that almost 70 per cent of travellers think planes should have child-free zones. Half of those would pay up to £63 extra to fly without children, especially on long-haul flights. I can see what they mean. Flying back from Italy recently, I had my back so thoroughly bruised by a small, restless boy that if King Herod were standing in the European elections, I’d almost be tempted. Under normal circumstances, I like children – an eccentricity which has led to my work as a children’s book reviewer. And naturally, I am devoted to my own. But other people’s children are, by and large, hell. The noise, tedium and energy of a child is something we accept only when in the grip of parental passion, professional vocation or martyrdom. Yet such is the modern mania for tolerating kids that we are afraid to utter a word of complaint, even when they come up and kick you in the shins for their own entertainment. Why do we accept it?
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
Disciplining children and teaching manners is hardly child-hating, much less satanic. On the contrary, a parent is responsible for doing just that to the ultimate benefit of the child cum adult.
I have done similar things in restaurants and movie theaters. I don't discipline the kids though, I discipline the parents. "Would you please stop your child from kicking my chair?" or "Would you please ask your child to be quiet?" In other words: man-up / woman-up and start acting like a parent.
I think people should be able to pay to avoid children on an airplane. It would be interesting to see how that would work out in practice, however. What’s the airline going to do if they have empty seats and a potential purchaser with a child? Leave the seat empty? Charge the “No children” person for the lost revenue? Accept that loss and hope that advertising guaranteed no-children accommodations will, overall, result in higher revenue?
I also think it’s fine to have a “No children” restaurant, as long as the information is published. Logically, this would mean businesses could refuse to serve anyone, for any reason ... and that will never fly in our climate of forced association. But anyway ...
I don’t think we’re in disagreement.
My point was that lefties hate children and don’t want to see them or be around them, and this is just an expression of their Satanic anti-family agenda.
There are earplug products designed to do exactly that, and they come in kid sizes, too - they S L O W L Y equalize air pressure through baffles and ceramic filters, preventing pain caused by rapid air pressure changes. If you can get your daughter to keep them in for the entire flight, they should provide relief for the worst moments.
The best seats on airliners was the smoking section. No Kids!
I was sorry to see smoking banned on planes. I have flown once since the ban, and will never do it again.
Except when they can use them for political props.
Back in 1996 I was on a flight from Washington Dulles to Frankfurt, Germany. I was still active duty and was on a business trip. A youngish military family with six children boarded the 747 and their seven year old son was deposited into the seat on my right and for almost the entire nine and one half hour flight he would not stop talking to me except when he took a 45 minute nap. It was the most grueling trip I had ever been on including trips to Japan and Guam. I was praying for a roll of duct tape and a gag to appear so I could shut him up for awhile.
Not once did the parents come by and talk to him or their defacto baby sitter, me.
Just before we descended towards Frankfurt Airport the head stewardess handed me a bottle of duty-free wine, thanked me, and told me she had never seen someone so patient for so long.
” parents wouldn’t discipline the little bastard”
Wait a minute... how did you know they weren’t married?
Drug the kid before boarding. Slip the kid a Benedril and have fun
I remember one flight with eleven young kids divided among three adults (we’re not Catholic or LDS, but we do love kids), where I was simply overwhelmed entertaining three kids under 7 y/o for four hours. The kids were reasonably quiet, but I was wondering what condition I would be in after the flight.
The businessman next to me read his WSJ for about an hour, at which point my 6 y/o fell asleep, and he asked if he could entertain the 3 y/o and 2 y/o while I took a break. He was amazing! He sang so softly and beautifully that they were silent so they could hear him. He played games that I remembered once he tried them but had forgotten in the stress of keeping multiple kids calm and cared for. He made silly faces and sillier noises. He drew lifelike pictures of them, which kept their rapt attention (and hung in their rooms for years afterwards). Three hours later, when the kids hugged him goodbye, I thanked him, and his response was to thank me for the joy of playing with my kids. He also asked me to pass the favor on in a decade or so - and I have done so several times, as have my (now much older) kids.
You may not be able to do anything about the crying kids a few rows away, but I’m impressed at how much one stranger can do to help adjacent travelers with young kids. When I’m the one entertaining a traveling child, I enjoy it, and I can bring out a broad repertoire of tricks that are new to the youngsters. I actually prefer to sit next to a parent traveling with children because they entertain me as much as I entertain them.
I hate kids and I’m not at all Satanic! Kids are the worst: obnoxious, drooling little beasts who are allowed to scream for hours on airplanes and stand on chairs in restaurants. They run around grocery stores upsetting fruit and pushing old people to the ground - or they ride around in those huge, foul, plastic “cars,” blocking aisles and skinning the knees of hard-working grocers.
They should be seen and not heard - except they shouldn’t be seen.
Don’t know if you know, but having her drink something (so that she swallows constantly) during take off and landing will go a long way to prevent the ears from not popping. Once you’re at altitude, the pressure will be constant and shouldn’t be a problem.
Don’t forget their rock and roll and their jalopies!
Why can’t they be like we were? What’s wrong with Sammy Kaye?
I thought that was what the Kennel hold was for?
I,ve had one kid on a flight sit with me after 20 mins of annoyance, I traded seats with him and gave him the window and said occupy your self!
I guess we should carry an issue of Highlight’s.
” little beasts who are _allowed_ to”
I think this is the key to your post, and your dislike of kids.
My kids don’t do any of the things you used as examples of bad behavior - at least in public :).
Wifey and I were really happy to get that stop, figuring the family would depart and head to Bombay -- but no...we got another 9 hours of it all the way to Singapore.
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