The first time we flew with the Peas Twins (ca. 3-5 years old), I packed an entire carryon bag with snacks, games, coloring books (with a brand new box of crayolas each!), chewy things for air pressure ear relief, those calming gummy things, iPad full of their favorite movies, etc. It was a three-leg flight and they did amazingly well.
Their first flight to Seattle, Young Lady Peas was a little stuffy and miserable and basically cried the whole descent with her ears absolutely killing her. You know who I felt bad for? Not a goddamn one of the other passengers, that’s for sure!
You want a quiet, child-free ride? Charter a private jet, asshole.
ETA: When people talk of “controlling” children, it signals to me that either a) they don’t have children or b) they do have children and have a very toxic relationship with them.
Exactly four hours ago I have disembarked from a three hours flight.
Three seats across mine there was a baby, notwithstanding the conspicuous efforts of their parents, they cried for a good part of the flight.
My mind was never crossed by the thought of making a fuss about it.
I just raised a bit the volume of music/podcast/video and smiled at the parents when they were looking around.
If you can’t stand this, buy a good NC headphone, or, cheaper, noise protection ear muffs, or, even cheaper, foam earplugs.
If you are noisily complaining, you are adding to the problem, not helping to solve it.
Agreed. This person has no idea how difficult parenting a baby or toddler can be sometimes. Some toddlers are just fine. Others, despite the best of love and care and proper parenting from their parents… just aren’t.
Children that young aren’t fine or not. They are young children still undergoing rapid development. Crying is the only tool that they have for coping with all the confusing and frustrating stuff going on.
Adults have a whole toolkit to use beyond screaming at everyone around them, of course, if they are so inclined to use it. That guy wasn’t and was being an asshole. I know you weren’t defending him, I just felt the need to say it.
The point I took from @derioderio’s post is that children are very much individual, unique humans from the moment of birth and therefore present different challenges at different times. They’re “fine” in different environments or not.
Edited to remove a few lines as I think I misunderstood your last half originally.
Oh, if that’s the case then I misread the intent there. Yeah, children will react differently to different environments, and the same child might react differently depending on the day. They’re going through a lot.
I think it’s mostly that. They assume anyone with misbehaving kids is because of parental failure. And to be fair, that is some times the case when you make zero attempts to get them to behave at a restaurant or engage with them on a long flight or take any of the thoughtful preparations you took.
But you can do all of those things, and trying to calm or distract, but it just is not working. That’s life. Anyone who thinks you can avoid this all of the time clearly hasn’t had a kid. My kid was extraordinary well behaved overall, and she still had her moments.
I’ve been amazed to see how many people like to complain about the presence of noisy children, strollers, etc. even in places where their presence should definitely be expected, such as Disneyland. For example, the author of this article about visiting Disney parks decried the “entitled” attitude of a young girl who asked him if he could get out of her way so that she could see a performance of a show called “Operation: Playtime!”
I am not part of the community that believes children/babies shouldn’t fly HOWEVER, I do believe certain communities do not properly manage their children in public
Care to expand on that, I Jews, Please dont close my accounts. (@LaCienegaBlvdss)?
On a complete tangent, I was helping my brother do some work on his house when one of the small children came up to us, with a face like a bulldog chewing a wasp, and said, “This sweet tastes horrible!” When asked to stop chewing and spit the offending sweet out, we were greeted by a used foam earplug.
I’ve found it a lot easier to cope with crying babies since this fact was pointed out to me.
We just took a three hour flight with our kids & their tiny offspring, and both Mom and Dad were well-prepared with all kinds of distractions in case a little one broke down mid-flight. And they did remarkably well–nobody had a crying fit during the entire trip. Mom and Dad planned as much as they could, as far in advance as they could, such as picking a flight time that meshed with naptime. But there’s always the possibility that a toddler will lose it anyway, and then you deal with it.
While not every parent has the experience or foresight to prep as well, there isn’t a parent on the planet who wants their child to cry any more than the strangers on the plane. I don’t know what Hissy McFit expected to happen as a result of his outburst, because the parents were almost certainly already doing everything they could. Maybe he was hoping for a comp ticket. Or maybe he was just super-stressed from his travels, and popped a fuse. $(DEITY) knows I’ve had stressful trips that put me on planes while in sub-optimal condition, but that still doesn’t give me license to blow up.
As long as the parents are trying I honestly barely register that it’s going on. My subconscious, I think, just soothes me with the fact that the person most likely to help is helping. Anything at all I do to get involved will reduce the chances of success. So I MMOB.
Our son had terrible colic as a baby and was hyper-sensitive to bustling crowds. We did everything in our power to ease the way both for him and for everyone else when he had a meltdown. Sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn’t. Our son is now in his thirties and doing just fine, but I’ll never forget the dirty looks and the accusing stares we got from strangers. It’s hard not to feel guilty and helpless when half the world is silently calling you a lousy parent. To this day when a kid melts down in public I remember what I felt like and give the parents the benefit of the doubt.
Jews, Please dont close my accounts. (
