abranz

owj,
your experience was what i dreaded the most while travelling with dd.
we started traveling with her when she was less than 3 months and traveled all through her young years.
like you, i also took every precaution and fortunately for me, dd was extremely well behaved and i could breathe easy.

many times i have encountered situations like yours and i can only imagine the embarrassment as you tried to pacify your baby amidst scowling faces.
i have so much sympathy for the poor suffering baby who cannot explain what is wrong and the parents trying unsuccessfully to pacific the baby.
i would imagine any parent would be empathetic to such a situation and offer assistance.
on the other hand i have no patience with parents and kids that have never heard the word 'no' and allow their kids to wreak havoc.

Sentrif

I want to comment on /every person next to me is sneezing/ - seems like it can be your perfume.

Also I am thinking about section for parents with children.
Last row will not have kickers and this is unfair to those who's seats will get kicked So those should cost like a first class.

Overall I think there is a solution for every problem - maybe instead of drunks next to you. No! There is one for that too - order yourself a scotch and make a friend! Happy traveling!

Sentrif

I meant 'except drunk next to you' not 'instead' sorry.

sf7307

<<<Mine is the lady in front of me who puts her seat all the way back and throws her long black hair in my face while I'm eating.>>>

Ha - that woman's long black hair would be back on her side of her seat faster than you can say "Get your hair the he** out of my space...." Gross (not just on airplanes either -- I think it's rude to do this at movie theaters, too).

I love babies and toddlers, but still get annoyed when there's a screamer near me. We flew to Hawaii when my DS was 3 months old, and he cried the entire way -- we didn't sit down except when required to. We walked him around, mostly the galley area, where he'd be less audible to other passengers.

As for wandering around the plane, once my kids were old enough to have their own seats, we told them they had to keep their seat belts on and weren't allowed to get up except to go to the bathroom. They believed that for years LOL!

Steelersfan

. Parents of young children should simply forego traveling until your kids are 6+ years old.


Well, that's a bit harsh IMO, but I do wish something could be done...a 'family zone' in the back of the plane or something like that might help a bit.
Anytime I'm flying alone, I pray that no one sits down next to me with a screaming child.
But when they're right behind you, that's just as bad.
I must remember to take earplugs.
Losing one's hearing from such screaming so close for so long is very sad.
I can sympathize with the parent of the screamer who is obviously in distress due to the pressure problem, but not the parent who just lets jr carry on and pretty much ignores it.
Kids can be great, but they're never as 'adorable'
to everyone else as they might be to the one who birthed 'em! (or a grandparent, LOL!)

portiaperu

We used the same ruse as SF7307 with our children - to this day they tend to stay in place, buckled in, and they're 22, 21, and 18. We began using this "rule" for safety reasons. Before I had children I was witness to an awful incident - a young child a few rows ahead of us was standing and bouncing up and down on his seat cushion. His mother, was seated next to him, her attention engaged elsewhere. Other passengers were grumbling. The boy somehow got his foot caught in the inner workings of the seat. He began to scream and his mother began to wail and it lasted for well over 30 minutes until one of the crew could disassemble the seat and release him. His shoe was damaged, his foot appeared to be fine. This REALLY made an impression on me.

We actually had minimal rules of behavior for relaxing at home but emphasized civility and politeness whenever in public or entertaining guests. Children can certainly understand the difference. That's not to say just any behavior was acceptable at home, we had standards but allowed far more idiosyncratic behaviors than might be appropriate in public, and certainly on a plane. One of our favorite admonishments when they were young: "you're not at home, there are different rules here". It's simple and it works.

Our difficult flights always seemed to be on the return when one of the children had contacted an illness and was uncomfortable. In our family we have a tendency for someone (or multiple someones) to pick up germs on the outgoing flight and be sick by the time we are on the return flight. We postponed flying twice with a young child over health concerns. Little ones can really suffer in plane cabins. The screaming could be due to pain.

I believe most parents are doing their utmost to manage their baby, child, sibling conflicts, and even sometimes an unhappy adolescent (I've overhead some amazingly heated family arguments on planes, of all places.)

I also believe that no one sets out to be a problem for other passengers.

Life sometimes requires us to grin and bear it. In this case "it" is a screaming baby.

MLF611

"People have to learn to take up less space (trash and just being a nuisance) and teach their kids the same IMO."

Clifton, it seems to me that more and more people behave like total slobs on planes. I am shocked by the state most planes are left in when people get off.

and I so agree with the perfume thing. I can always wear earplugs to block out noise, but when someone goes overboard with perfume, it's hard to stop breathing for the duration of the flight...

sf7307

<<<I believe most parents are doing their utmost to manage their baby, child, sibling conflicts, and even sometimes an unhappy adolescent>>>

Ha! I was on a plane and the child across the aisle from me was kicking the back of the seat in front of him non-stop. The person in that seat asked the mother to do something and she actually said "He's a kid. What do you want me to do?" It takes all kinds.

RedStater

Other Peoples' Children can be an issue, sure, but I don't think it's a traveler's worst nightmare. I've lived that. That would be the time when, just after boarding a long distance bus in Mendoza for Buenos Aires, I reached down and discovered that my pocket had been picked just before I'd boarded the bus. With all my travel cash. And my passport.

Long, long ride to BA. I didn't sleep much.

Bobmrg

Can I take issue with the idea that small children cannot adjust to changes in air pressure? In flight training we teach students to yawn, hold their noses and blow, or take similar action in order to open their Eustachian tubes (they connect the mouth to the inner ear) in order to equalize pressure. A screaming child certainly meets the "open your mouth wide" condition.

One avenue of relief that is not available to airline passengers but is to general aviation pilots is to take the plane up to 10,000 feet or higher (airline cabins are pressurized to about 8000 feet); believe me, the kid will soon fall asleep.

Maybe if the passengers petitioned the flight crew to raise the cabin pressure to 10,000 feet? It only takes the turn of a dial.

NorCalif

An extremely astute poster back on a thread in 2001 (before registration) wrote this on a similar thread complaining that babies should have separate areas on planes;

"As a baby, I couldn't agree more with the idea that there ought to be separate seating areas on planes for us. In fact, I would feel a lot safer if there were actually separate planes. Let's examine the track record of both babies and adults…

BABIES have been known to:

1) cry and have tantrums

2) get sick

3) have smelly diapers

4) kick the seats


ADULTS have been known to:

1) swear and have tantrums

2) get drunk and then get sick

3) have smelly BO

4) have sex in the seats

5) have fist fights

6) exhibit air rage and force the plane to turn around

7) hijack planes

8) take guns and bombs on planes

9) kill people


Geez, I hate to discriminate against all you adults, but you have to admit your track record looks pretty bad. Some of you may protest that all the babies you fly with are always commenting on what well-behaved adults you are, and that you personally do not get drunk, have sex, or take bombs on planes, but I say your status as adults makes you suspect nevertheless. Boarding denied."

suze

A "travelers worst nightmare" is getting arrested on false charges, getting arrested on true charges, going to jail in a foreign country, getting very sick alone and a long way from home, being robbed of your money, being attacked on a dark street late at night, even just losing your passport... crying babies on planes, not so much.

Clifton

LOL, well said NorCalif. I'm sure the underlying point will be entirely lost on some, but well said all the same.


I'd think a travelers worst nightmare would be to find themselves still strapped to a seat, but realizing the plane is no longer surrounding them.

I think I saw that in a disaster movie once. Must have made an impression. Even then, for a minute or so, you'd have quite a view.

ncounty

My son once commented when he was about 5 years old about a screaming baby at the next table at an eating establishment, "why do parents even bring babies out to a nice place like this for dinner?" I informed him that this didn't really rise to a "nice place" (it was Rubios, a fast food place for fish tacos) and that he himself had been coming there since he was 3 months old.

nanabee

Yep, crying babies low on the list of terrifying travel nightmares.

sf7307

True, I would call it "traveler's annoyances" rather than "travelers worst nightmares"...

MissGreen

Peter... travelling in business class dones not mean there will be no kids. A recent trip had me travelling next to dad and directly behind me was mom and 2 year old. Fortunately she slept the whole way!

A friend of mine in first class complained to the flight attendant about a continual crying baby in first. She said she knew she would come off sounding like a "stuck up snob" when she said "I pay a lot of money to sit up here, can't you do something about that crying baby! I suppose at least there is room to walk around with bub!

Steelersfan

I believe most parents are doing their utmost to manage their baby, child, sibling conflicts, and even sometimes an unhappy adolescent (I've overhead some amazingly heated family arguments on planes, of all places.) portia


Good point, portia, about the teens! When they're in a mood, let them stick the earphones in and ignore them while they sulk from NY to Paris or wherever. Save the lectures and arguments for later, perhaps at the hotel (in your own room, not in the lobby..)
As to the littler ones, I must disagree if you truly believe that most parents are doing all they can. I believe that some are, but way too many need to wake up and address the situation. Too many parents engaged in things other than watching their little ones and controlling what they are doing.
If more of them actually did what they should, perhaps there'd be less of those sullen angry teens---although that's no guarantee, cause teens are teens.

Steelersfan

BTW, I thought when you said "Traveler's Worst Nightmare..."
you might be talking about someone dying, being raped, murdered, the plane crashing, etc.


Going deaf is pretty bad too IMO.

NorCalif

Clifton - thanks.

Sadly, that post quoted above from 2001 was the month before the 9/11 attacks, so the comments about the threat that adults pose on planes turned out to be all too apropos.

Later events put even more perspective on just how big a deal crying babies are vs. insane adults.