I was chatting with a co-worker after Christmas, and she told me she and her husband and 3-year-old girl had flown back east for the break. She said with great regret that she felt "so bad" for the person sitting in front of her little girl because her child spent the entire flight repeatedly kicking the seat in front of her. When I said (in a friendly way) "You're the mother, you're in control of whether there is kicking or not," she replied, surprised, "Not on a 4.5 hour flight, I can't."

Are there are parents out there who CAN control the kicking of their children? If so, how do you do it? Am I being unreasonable to suggest she COULD control it (if she were sufficiently motivated)?