Wozza2404

I've taken my kids on plenty of flights in J/F, from the ages of 3 months. I've been in J and F cabins on my own when other people have their children in the cabin.

Sometimes babies cry. Sometimes a 3yr old is simply so excited about going on holiday they just can't spend another second in their seat after the end of the second film. These things happen, and a bit of 'live and let live' goes a long way.

Now, if a child is being ignored by parents, or running wild, then I'm perfectly ok with asking parents to sort it out.

But when it's just kids being kids, then it boils down to this... YOU chose to book with an airline that chose to allow children to fly in premium cabins. As such, your opinion on whether they should be there or not is worth the square root of FA.

PUCCI GALORE

Interesting - I am similarly minded, indeed I really do not see what this has to do with flying on British Airways. This can happen anywhere.

My sister married a man who became a millionaire. I mention that simply because she has flown F for years. Her little boys would cry, and assuming that it was not at take off or landing, she would vanish into the lav with them so that they disturbed as few people as possible. Indeed, she even went in there wit a blanket and pillow and, on occasion drinks. My Brother-in-Law would do likewise to let her sleep. We were of a generation where we were raised to respect the the well-being and requirements of others came first. It was called being polite. It wasn't all about "ME" and "I", it was about "Us". Indeed, when they were small, she would have no more thought of sitting in a different cabin to her children then throwing them out at 30,000 ft.

Personally, I understand that babies can cry for all sorts of reasons. Noise, pain, hunger, thirst, fatigue and nastiest of all teething can all play a a part. What I do not understand is why it took 1.5 hours to actually take the child out of the cabin, or the first few minutes if they were crying.

As to the individual who swore - whilst nowadays people are becoming routinely foul mouthed, it is the exception rather than the rule on aircraft. Whilst I do not condone it, I wonder if this was someone who wanted to sleep, who had paid for a cabin where sleep is the norm and was exasperated beyond endurance. I suspect that somewhere in this story the truth lies, but I would give a lot to know their side of the story. What I also cannot understand is if you were so affronted by his language, and the crew were reluctant to intervene - why did you neither get the CSD/CSM or go and talk to him yourself. Telling us how shocking it was does not help resolve an issue. Had that been my child, I certainly would have done so, but then I am not afraid of conflict as I have dealt with it all my working life.

I can tell from here that there are those who consider that they are the centre of their Universe, but as someone said here the complete indifference of some parents to the nuisance of their offpring beggars belief. When two or more set of self-entitlement collide and when you have Mr or Mrs Most Important on Planet Me, and the Parents of the Eighth Wonder of the World on collision course - particularly here. In eighteen years I have never read one parent on here There never will be agreement so apart from airing problems nothing is achieved. It is a sad truth, it is a sorry truth but it is a truth that most people in the western world cringe when they see babies and infants boarding in their cabin or vicinity. I think that it is a space issue C-W-S. People is premium cbains resent its intrusion by anything especially noise. People down the back have precious little so it is a bit less of an issue. However a screaming baby in WT is the stuff of which nightmares are made.

Worcester - I liked what you said very much. A little tolerance goes a long way.

PUCCI GALORE

So what do you propose that they do with them? Stick them in the hold?

pauldb

The OP said the baby cried for 15-20 minutes; the rest of the 1.5hrs was babbling and laughter - unlikely to have been more disruptive that adults chatting.

The problem with your general sentiment is that it depends where the boundaries of acceptable/unacceptable sit. If I go for a walk in the park, my peace might be disturbed by cars. I might be disgruntled about that, but I would say driving is "fine"; blaring music out not so. On the flip side, asking them to turn it down would be acceptable but throwing rocks at them?

I'm sure we can agree care-free parenting of a constantly crying child is unacceptable, but a baby crying for 15-20 minutes? And depending on the catalyst, a quiet word from the disgruntled passenger or a request to the crew is fine, but aggressive swearing?

Beltway2A

Agreed, it's a public plane. Kids are going to be noisy. Adults will swear. It takes a certain level of chutzpah to expect everyone to accommodate you while remaining oblivious to your own party's affect on others.

LTN Phobia

Soundproof box.

frandrake

There aren't that many J/F babies

And btw, I was not suggesting to dump the kids in Y and fly with your spouse in J (as I have seen doing). I was suggesting to travel in Y+ as a family and enjoy the time together. I never bring my QC35 when I travel with my family nor I book J flights. I'll wait to be old and sick to travel in J and leave my children in Y (or perhaps by then they will be in F and I will be the one piling up avios for a J upgrade, who knows!)

PUCCI GALORE

I could propose that for some of the supposedly grown-up passengers. God help us the day that they can make calls from an aircraft!

LondonElite

LTN Phobia

The drunk guy who sang very, very, VERY badly on one of my flights to the extent that I thought he was crying needs to go in one of those too.

msm2000uk

It makes me laugh, that on the front page of the BA Forum today, is a thread about a passenger crying, and a passenger with bad body odour. Which is of greater upset I wonder.

Fly private, and there may not be as many issues; public transport means you encounter all sorts of people.

However, as someone who has spent far too much of his relatively young life on a metal tube, I would say that there are far more issues about adults on the BA Forum, than babies - either they're:

Using their phones in the lounge
Pinching stuff from the lounge
Drinking too much on the plane
Being loud on the plane
Snoring loudly on the plane
Displaying poor hygiene on the plane
Using their phones on speakerphone on the plane
etc etc etc

I have flown with my little one a few times, she's even had a bespoke omelette made for her in the CCR, and I do my upmost to keep her occupied and happy. It's hard work, it really is.

However, on a recent flight she screamed for 10mins on landing. I was embarrassed, frustrated, and yet I was desperately trying to get her to stop. However, nothing worked.

At the end of the flight, the passenger behind me approached and said "Well done. We could see you were trying your best, but sometimes there's nothing you can do. I'm guessing it was her ears?".

Communication goes a long way, and it's worth remembering that there are few harsher critics of the actions of a parent, than themselves.

M

PUCCI GALORE

Oh you are taking me back. We had a Russian woman once who made Baby Jane Hudson look attractive. A gargoyle in drag was how one crew member put it. She actually sang the song from Baby Jane in Russian with the sort of grimace perfected by Gloria Hudson in Sunset Boulevard. Some idiot actually clapped her and fearing an encore, put a stop to it.

I'd settle for a screaming baby any day.

PUCCI GALORE

What a lovely dad you must be!

Re: Ear pain - I am certain that this is due to tonsils. I used to suffer dreadfully as a little one but I am of the generation when removing them was practically a Rite of Passage. I never suffered since, and am furthermore convinced that part of the problem with resistance to antibiotics is that they are given so freely and ear infection is one of the causes.

Mordac

Imagine if it was an adult crying? Now that would be much worse!

Wozza2404

My wife was sat on the UD on the way to Vegas and, being too polite to tell him to eff off, sat listening to an older chap's life story as he got drunker and drunker and started sobbing.