ginger50

I think that the OP has a point. If the Lounge had a notice at the entrance stating something like:

Then there is a clear code of conduct in place. This is much like a dress code in a restaurant, it simply states "please respect our standards if you wish to enter".

orbitmic

I've been asking for quiet areas in lounges for years, sadly, unless the new lounges surprise us, BA seems uninterested.

benjai

I agree. Our child is 7 now so is easier to handle but it was so stressful flying with him when he was younger, constantly having to worry about him disturbing others in the lounge/flight.

It would be so good to have kids/family areas in the lounge and plane itself where you don't have to worry about getting dirty looks. Then quiet areas for everyone else. Win/win.

Incidentally, I no longer have any problems with other screaming children/babies now.

benjai

Please also try to remember that children at airports tend to be well out of their comfort zones: new locations, different environments, weird hours, jet lagged, very possibly ill, tired.

It's easy to judge but even normally well behaved children can act very differently whilst travelling so please do have a bit more patience.

orbitmic

To be honest, I mean them more to protect me from people who speak loud on their phones/skype than from kids. I've been confronted to unpleasantly noisy kids in lounges/planes, but they really have been the exception by any standard. Phone polluters have been a far more frequent occurrence. I just wouldn't worry too much about the dirty looks!

Ber2dca

The phone thing is just one of those things people say to make parents feel better about themselves (probably said mostly by other parents). There's no comparison between a person talking loudly on the phone (mildly irritating) and screaming/wailing little children (so irritating it makes you think you're going nuts).

I think evolution has wired us to have a particular sensitivity to the sounds of distressed children. This is generally a positive but, of course, little children can be distressed by a myriad of mostly harmless factors and will not necessarily cease making such noise when objectively speaking they are entirely safe and sound.

In a lounge, at least you have the freedom to simply leave (and let's face it, the regular ambient sound of an airport terminal is less annoying that a screaming child), but the plane is a different story...

I don't blame children for being children or parents for not being able stop them from being children, I do think parents should think twice about whether a little kid *needs* to fly everywhere as well. I don't think vacationing closer to home for a few years would be the end of the world either for the kids or the parents.

HIDDY

Good post. ^
If people think hyper children are bad they should hear our dogs when someone rings the door bell....it's bedlam!!

BRITINJAPAN3

I think this is simply your opinion of what the lounge is for. And many lounges are full of hussle and bustle ! The lounge is there for all customers, there is no right to P&Q. While i agree in basic norms of respecting others I find it extremely arrogant that you feel there is no point for patents with kids to visit lounges they have a right to visit.

BRITINJAPAN3

Yes, stop kids travelling so you can have a peacefull time, totally fair and not selfish in any way !!

MSPeconomist

Yes, but when someone rings your doorbell, they've already chosen to enter your property.....and presumably (hopefully?) you don't often bring your dogs into an airport lounge and let them run wild, nor do you fly with them, especially in premium cabins and also without any restraints such as leashes and carriers.

Dambus

Gawd help us....

I do wonder sometimes if the world will collapse under the intolerable suffering imposed by noisy children, limited menu options and less than instantaneous call center pick-up times. Millennials and Snowflakes will be the first to crack I fear.

dylanks

As a parent of 3 (currently ages 12, 9, and 3), I will say that ages 3-7 are the most challenging, in part because kids are out of their element, tired, hungry, jetlagged, excited, etc.

In my recent trip report ( http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/trip-...ter-break.html ), I touch on this briefly, mostly in the posts about the first and last days of travel.

Generally, my advice to parents is as follows:

• Be attentive. If you're not paying attention to your kids, and they have nothing to do, their behavior is probably going to impact others. This usually means less time on your phone or laptop than when you travel without your kids.
• Be mindful. If your kid is starting to have a meltdown and you don't have an easy way to calm them down or distract them, then a walk outside the lounge usually helps. This is especially important in small lounges. Also make sure that you have enough fun things for all your kids to do them so that your youngest doesn't feel left out.
• Be happy and kind. Generally if you're nice and polite and friendly to your kids and the people around you, things will go smoothly.
• Be open to change. If all else fails and your kids don't want to be in the lounge, then find somewhere to let them run around in the airport.

Anyway, that worked well for us, hopefully minimized any impact on our fellow passengers, and still gave us some time in the lounge for food and to relax a bit before our flights. Certainly LHR T3 GF is easier than PHX First (which is about the size of the kid's room in T3) where one loud kid is obvious to the entire lounge.

Finally, I'm not going to apologize for kids being kids (especially when we're all flying in F!), but I'm going to do my best to minimize the impact on those around me in both the lounge and onboard. My feeling is that if it's obvious I'm doing my best, I hope that my fellow travelers will respect that and cut me some slack.

And to those that disagree about passengers on the phone and/or Skype/FaceTime/etc., there are certainly passengers at LHR that are as obnoxious as any children I've ever heard in a lounge. Especially when someone has their FaceTime ring volume set to maximum, receives a call every few minutes, and is talking loudly without a headset. That time of behavior shows a complete lack of respect and common sense for those around them, especially given that it's completely avoidable.

LTN Phobia

After a number of very bad flights with very unruly children with parents who couldn't give a damn about their children's behaviour to/from Australia, I strenuously avoid travelling straight through because it literally forced me to go without sleep for 36+ hours (I have to connect domestically in Australia) and I couldn't do anything useful like work despite the noise cancelling earbuds with isolation and wearing BA-supplied noise cancelling headphones on top and playing music fairly loud - partially because children were running around the cabin and interfering with passengers.

I couldn't escape - I even asked about downgrading all the way from F to WT but there was no spare seat. Even jumpseats were taken! What can anyone do in this situation? I of course couldn't get off.

It was very miserable and affected my work afterwards because I arrived absolutely exhausted by the noise - I can stay up for 36 hours fine, but not when subjected to loud noise most of the time.

After two consecutive returns from Australia to Europe, I gave in. Unless I really, really, can't do so because of time pressure, I stop over in Singapore so that I get the quiet period in a quiet hotel room.

At least in a lounge I can escape. I can't escape from an aeroplane. I wouldn't have minded so much if the parents made some efforts, but they didn't - none at all. Their behaviour was so bad it in fact distressed other children - I gave up trying to block out the noise and played with a fellow passenger (the poor stressed child) from F in the galley with cabin crew because the poor child couldn't cope with the noise either and was really grumpy about it (and his mum who was trying to keep him de-stressed got exhausted too).

Mind you I've also heard of very badly behaving adults on the route too, so I can't really say it's just kids!

MSPeconomist

How many kids were in FC on that flight?

LTN Phobia

One of them had 3 or 4, others with 2 or 3 from memory. Mostly 'seatless' ones which rendered the situation extra galling!