Originally Posted by
BenjaminNYC
So I guess I don't need my seatbelt on a plane? I mean, if it's safe enough for an infant to go without a seatbelt, it must be safe enough for me, right? Or it must just be more acceptable to risk the lives of infants, right? So long as mommy is buckled in, we don't need to worry about junior!
:ROLLEYES:
In theory, it would be best if every airline passenger was strapped in 100 percent of the time with a five-point harness. In practice, the wisdom of traveling with a child on one's lap comes down to a cost-benefit analysis, like virtually every other decision we human beings make.
I'm sure you don't stay seated and strapped in at all times on your many flights. Surely you get up to stretch your legs, visit the galley, and go to the bathroom? On how many of your flights did the aforementioned activities prove calamitous? On how many of your flights have you seen anyone -- child or adult -- suffer any adverse consequences from not being seat-belted?
If you want to pay for an extra seat that may or may not get optimal usage for your children (assuming you have any), that's fine. But there is no need to castigate others who would make a different choice. If your concern is not for the well-being of a kid not of your own making, but rather for the possibility that such a kid will become a projectile if not assigned his or her own seat, then maybe you should start your crusade by demanding that laptops and the like remain seated and belted at all times, in a seat paid for by their owner, of course. And if your real concern is a general aversion to children on airplanes, then you have my sympathy, but no need to cloak it in a shroud of phony concern for the safety of the offspring of strangers.