I have my first child on the way. I was brought up in an extremely strict household and plan to do the same. I don't agree it's me not wanting them to do it, it's purely bad behaviour. For example, toddlers dancing on tables in a restaurant, drawing on walls in public places with crayons, spitting on carpeted floors in public places, eating food in supermarkets only to put the empty wrappers back on the shelf, playing 'duck duck goose' with strangers on a plane, swearing at people as if it's normal language, touch every bit of food with bare hands in a buffet, shoplifting, pointing at old people saying 'you're going to die soon', shouting and screaming in public, having a food fight on an aircraft, making holes in the seats with the cutlery, and smearing boogers on the seat. In the grey area I have witnessed pooing into the sick bag at the seat, masturbating at your seat (well handled by the crew just to add), standing on seats jumping from one side of the isle to another, climbing over the seats, peeing into one of those plastic cups and then handing it to the crew because 'your parents are asleep and you're scared of the plane toilets.'

Crying babies or other annoying child things all children do at some point in their lives i don't mind. It's on the blatantly bad behaviour with the worst of the worst in the grey area I get annoyed at.

I am only in my late twenties so I wouldn't call it entitlement in my advanced years. I would call it more knowing the difference between right and wrong, continually using manners and not doing anything to attract unnecessary attention.

I will try more polite requests but I find myself so angry by the time at such vile behaviour I can't help but rant sometimes. That's somewhat ironic I suppose as my remarks can't exactly be polite to the recipient but they did provoke me.

The one thing I've learned about complaining is give the other party a way of rectifying the situation without losing face. So - rather than 'Switch that bloody Ipad movie off, we don't all want to hear it!' - 'I'm finding the sound of the movie a bit difficult with the work I'm trying to do. Do you have some headphones you could use?' works MUCH better. OK, so not an example related to kids, but it's a recent one from a train journey that worked a treat.

This is important in most negotiations I find ... :)

:D:D:D

Is that a GGL benefit?

Oneworld related, but not on BA. My girlfriend and I were traveling to Berlin for her birthday. Being the travel savvy guy I am, I scored us a few J seats with airberlin from JFK-TXL. I was also able to obtain the 'coveted' honeymoon suites in the new business so we could sit together.

After boarding had completed, there was a lady who complained that her and her husband were not seated together. Being so, there was no way they could talk during the flight, this presumably being why she was so irritated. She insisted that she flew on airberlin all the time in J and the seating was never like this (being the somewhat new staggered J design even though this was back in May 2014). The FA's were in a tight position as all the J seats together were taken, meaning that no two seats would really be next to each other considering the staggered layout.

One gentleman obligingly offered his seat, which the wife took him up on. Still, the couple would find it difficult to talk because of the layout of the cabin.

I went into so much detail on this because not once did the couple say a word to each other during the flight. I admittedly did sleep for a few hours, but I also noticed the couple. The husband fell asleep before I did and woke after myself (to my observations).

Long story short, the wife had a fit about not being able to talk with her husband during the flight to which neither of them even said a word. The icing on the cake was after we deplaned onto a bus. I overheard the wife bragging about her family traveling to Berlin. The lady she was talking to however had traveled to Berlin for the airshow; her husband a pilot and son a journalist covering the event. I just thought to myself how humble the other lady was the entire time even though, in my opinion, her story was far more interesting.


Maybe not a DYKWIA, but the same attitude nonetheless.

Beat me to it

;)

No. Having someone else beat you is a Premier benefit.

This is a common response to someone who comments on the behaviour of children.

I have children and mostly agree with WeAreFlyingHigh - although perhaps my comments to the parents of badly behaved kids would be more subtle.

Just because someone doesn't have children, this does not preclude them from expressing their annoyance when kids are not being appropriately supervised by their parents.

I was merely suggesting that someone with children has an ability to tone the sound out and just relax. Telling someone to be sterilised is way over the top and asking for trouble on any form of public transport. Until the European airlines understand that there may be a need for separate cabins for monsters and adults then sometimes its better to use a pair of headphones.

Whilst we are at it, can we stop snoring as well.

I take it you don't snore? If you did you would be better at tuning the sound out and relaxing ;)

Have any of these altercations met with someone's fist meeting your face?

IMO your response is even more juvenile and out-of-control than that of the children. At least you should know better.

One of the most sensible and well thought-out posts I have ever seen here.

Children aren't to blame; it's the parents. I have 2 young boys and I am happy to say that have taken them everywhere with me, including restaurants, planes, lounges etc and they have been able to act appropriately in all situations since being toddlers. This isn't easy, and it requires love, attention, coaching, and explaining the impact of behaviour. I'm zero tolerance on this. Consequently, my children often point out the bad behaviour of adults - only last week (while in a rather smart and famous Chinese restaurant in London) I heard "look daddy, there's a man over there miming drumming with his chopsticks" "yes you should never play with your cutlery" chimed in the youngest. Yes, children can be better behaved than adults.

WeAreFlyingHigh is spot on - there is NO grey area. Children don't understand grey areas and will push their luck unless given clear boundaries.

Taking this at face value, as something you really did say rather than something you later wished you had said, I wonder that you don't seem to see anything worrying in your behaviour.

As a manifestation of an individual's understanding of boundaries, social awareness and interpersonal skills it could spell trouble ahead.

Congratulations. It is for most people the biggest life change but also the most rewarding experience.

Just one tip for flying with infants, is always have something to top into the babies mouth, dummy (even if you don't use one normally), bottle of milk, clean finger if worst comes to worst. Most infants find the rapid change of pressure uncomfortable and having something to suck on helps a lot.

You can also buy breastfeeding covers, allowing mum to discretely breastfeed. Looks out for mumouflage I think one brand is called.

And it's the job of a third party to achieve this by advising the parents that they shouldn't have procreated in the first place? Really?