Faremax: Travel Forums

Can anyone tell me why some parents feel its ok to let their child run wild on planes? I really can not understand it. I think it is so rude and disrespectful to allow your child to disturb other people. Everyone is tired and some people use that time to relex. When you get mad and say something to the bad uncontrollable child, the parent that should have been doing their job has an attitude.

Yeah, thats too disturbing.

I wonder how can those parent be so careless about that. Why they dont understand about what other passenger feels about that?

Oh saysay you have probably tocuhed a nerve with this subject. How cute. There is a discussion somewhere around here about kids and passengers. I don't do other people's children, if you can't control them and they are working on my nerves then I mostly likely will say something. And we aren't talking about those kids who are babies or can't talk so they cry to get what they need. We are talking about "Dennis to Menace" type of kids. I just stick my leg out and trip the little brats.

I think that tripping the, if you were caught, could land you in a whole lot of lawsuit troubles.

I agree that children should not be allowed to run all over, but there are limits. We cannot legally gag our children and tie them to their seats. I only have a toddler, but can tell you that she stays in her seat or on my lap, or will walk with me to the bathroom. She never leaves my supervision, though she will sometimes turn and talk to the passenger behind us. I frequently apologise, but so far no one has seemed to mind.

Heck, if you don't want to be talked to by anyone, an airplane is NOT the place to be.

If you don't want to be talked to then just don't say anything abck when they say something to you thats how i figure it.

Maybe you can't tie kids up or gag them, but the way I see it, if your kid can't behave, don't fly with them.  Flights (especially long ones) are tiring enough without having to listen to stupid brats all the way.  I can accept crying, but shouting, running around, or kicking seats is really annoying.  How many passengers need to get their sleep now because they have an important meeting / wedding / funeral to get to?  Not everyone flying is off on a holiday and can crash a day to recover.

Sorry if that seems  hostile, but the few parents that I know have the consideration to either punish kids who can't behave by leaving them  behind, or will take an alternative method of transport (like a cheap cruise, where there's more room for the kids to move around) if it's feasible.

That's all well and good if you live on a tiny island like the UK, yes you can go by train or bus. But you try living five thousand miles away from your family and friends, with no way to get there other than by plane, and then consider just never flying. I cannot just ditch my child on a friend and jet off to see my family (who incidentally would string me up for visiting without taking their only grandchild to see them, as I am sure you would if your only grandchild lived thousands of miles away and you'd only seen them once).

There is no other way for me to get there. I cannot swim across the ocean with my kid and suitcases strapped to my back. I have to fly-there is no choice. It is not a case of me simply taking a vacation-this is to keep in touch with my family who I see exceedingly rarely.

I consider my travel to be every bit as important as anyone else's. I am sorry if you consider your vacation to be of more import than taking my child to meet her grandparents, but I don't.

Incidentally my child, as I have said earlier, has NEVER behaved like that. Her only offense was to cry, for which I copped it in the neck. I would never tolerate that kind of behaviour from her.

But the fact still remains that I pay full price for two tickets. I have just as much right to be on that plane as you do, as does my child. You don't like it? You want silence? Go first class.

 Sorry if that seems a little hostile.

I think I probably came across worse than I intended to.   You make some good points

I have no problem with children crying - that's natural, it's what they do when they have a problem and need to draw attention to it.  My issue is with the chair kicking, shouting, running around type children who either won't listen to their parents, or have parents who don't care what the children are doing.

What I meant when I mentioned vacations is that not everyone who is flying is just on vacation - some people are flying for important reasons (and I included family events in there) and need to get to sleep on the flight.

If a child is just crying, fine, but if a child is out of control then I don't see why they should be permitted to fly.  If an adult started running around like a lunatic they would be in serious trouble when the plane landed - personally I don't see why the same standard of behaviour isn't applied to children.

I didn't mean this as an attack against all parents and children, I just don't see why some parents think of planes as mobile daycare centres and think they can leave parenting to the air hostesses when they're in the air.

I think that the reason that you cannot apply the same standard to children as you do to adults is because, well, they are children! It's as simple as that. They are not allowed to drive, drink alcohol, vote. And there is a reason for that.

They are not mature. They are immature little snotty, whiney things that have the attention span of a flea and they can be VERY hard to please. As a parent of a frequent flying toddler I can tell you that it is exceedingly hard to entertain a child for 7 hours-especially when the environment is made harder for you by the crew.

You need to consider that toddlers need naps too. Yet the plane has the TVs running throughout the supposed night time. I cannot stop my kid from watching it, and as a consequence she will not sleep. That means that I don't get to sleep, and have to, exhausted, entertain her for seven hours or more. The worse was a 17 hour journey during which she wouldn't so much as take a nap.

The crew could make life a whole lot easier, just by turning the TVs off, by not coming round offering drinks during sleep time, by serving meals on time and not making a toddler wait for TWO HOURS after everyone else got dinner.

I guess what I am saying is that no, you cannot apply the same standard to kids-that is unreasonable because they are simply not capable of those standards. But that you also have to take into consideration the fact that there are lot of things out of the control of the parents that make things WAY worse.

Yes, it is wrong to let your kid kick seats, run around and so on, but kids are tiny bundles of energy that then get cooped up for (in my kid's case) sometimes 17 hours at a go. It's hard on them-consideration would go a long way to helping.

Ouch, the examples you give are very bad.

I've not seen airlines treat people that badly usually - I've seen them run out of specific foods then scramble to find an alternative, but they always managed to get everyone, even special diets and children, served pretty much  on time.

When there's been inflight movies they were either on a screen in the seat in front, which you could turn off, or a projection screen and headphones, so it wasn't too intrusive.

I agree a 17 hour flight in the circumstances you mention would be a nightmare, and I have a lot of sympathy for parents who try.  I recently did an 8 hour coach ride where the air conditioning was broken and there were no windows.  The coach company policy was no comfort breaks where passengers could disembark.  There was a hot, dehydrated, uncomfortable baby that was obviously very upset.  The mother pleaded with the driver every time they stopped for fuel to let her get the baby out in the fresh air for a minute or two, and maybe get them to a changing room to freshen them up.  The drivers stopped for a comfort break, so why not?

She wasn't allowed to, so the baby was inconsolable for the latter half of the trip, but most passengers were sympathetic - even if they were wishing for ear plugs :)

My angry sounding first post was more directed at the parents who won't even try.

I agree with you.  What are these parents thinking while letting the kids run around and being disrespectful while on a long plane trip. The trick is to plan ahead especially when you are travelling with kids! Bring things for them to do and to occupy them and the time spent on the plane! No one should have to or will want to 'parent' your child while on a flight!

I'm completely with you. I mean, being unable to stop a baby from crying is one thing, letting children run wild on the plane is another. Everyone should show some decency and respect in a public place and especially on a plane where everyone is tired and needs the best of what the narrow and uncomfortable seats can offer. Air travelling is tiresome enough without having to deal with noisy kids.

I recently flew on a long flight where a father was traveling with four children under the age of ten.  I thought I was going to die when I saw them heading closer and closer to my seat.  They finally ended up filling the row across from me and the two empty seats next to me.  But, I have never sat next to such polite and well behaved children.  They were ten times better than some obnoxious adults I have sat next to in the past.