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Kids under a certain age are not allowed, supposedly, in first class. My husband works for united and we fly non rev allot. Once when our son was 2 we were offered seats in 1st class. The gate agent felt really bad for us sense we had been hanging around the airport all day trying to get home. I was so worried my son was going to act up but luckily he fell asleep and I was drinking wine and my husband was sitting in the jump seat.
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. . .
Great story. What people seem to forget is, when you have an agitated baby, eventually the parent trying to soothe the baby gets agitated too. So the baby never really calms down. That was a wonderful thing you did for that mom.
"Kids" aren't a problem, generally speaking. It's infants and toddlers, but it's not as if nature intended them to be confined and silenced for hours at a time.
One infant utterly ruined a flight from Hong Kong to Sydney. It screamed for the whole 10.5 hour overnight flight, barring a break for dinner and breakfast. By the end of the flight, one could tell the kids voice was hoarse and worn out, but still it screamed. I was farther up front in premium economy, and this kid's voice managed to carry from economy.
That is bad parenting.
You can't be serious.. can you?
A screaming/crying infant is screaming or crying because they are in pain (ear pressure issues, common in infants and children!), not because they are bored or whatever other insane reason you think they are crying .
People frighten me.
Honestly though, when my youngest was 1 and a half, we had to fly to Florida...and I was a little paranoid about the ear pain so gave her baby tylenol before we even took off. She did fine. So that was my workaround for it. Drug them before they even get on the flight (just a mild painkiller) and bring stuff to suck on (sippy cups, bottles, lollipops, etc). And ALWAYS a small bag of new, cheap toys.
I agree with most of the posters, the kid kicking the seat is way more annoying then the crying baby.
And IMO, seats should not recline. It just causes way too many issues.
For those of you who hate having noisy kids around you, fly 1st class.
this is a ridiculous suggestion. most people who fly frequently enough to have a right to complain about crying children are those traveling on business ( honestly other infrequent vacation travelers really just need to deal with it) and cant expense a first class ticket. and no, upgrades are few and far between these days even for a million miler. i fly about every other week and while i love kids i have to be honest there are more than a few times i almost cried myself when faced with three or more crying children, especially now with workloads so intense that my company expects us to actually get real work done on the plane. if the parent is genuinely trying to comfort the child or disciplines them to stop truly bad behavior, i can deal with it a lot easier. but i see at least half the parents doing nothing at all. my favorite parent move is when they turn on the cartoon or video game WITHOUT HEADPHONES and then act smug like they are a great plane parent. SERIOUSLY PEOPLE?!? the parents are probably a much bigger problem than the children. to the lady worried about bringing her chatty four year old i say, bring him on my flight! i would love the distraction from yet another horrid presentation or spreadsheet. he sounds adorable...
Great story. What people seem to forget is, when you have an agitated baby, eventually the parent trying to soothe the baby gets agitated too. So the baby never really calms down. That was a wonderful thing you did for that mom.
This happened to one of my friends. They couldn't calm their little boy down, they were all exhausted, fortunately a lady asked them to carry the baby for an instant, and he stopped crying immediately. After that, he slept the whole flight in his moms arms. Just a few minutes with that lady were enough!
Last edited by Sudcaro; 05-21-2014 at 05:22 AM..
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