On the occasions when I've asked a child to quit kicking my seat, the child complied. For about 15 seconds.

On the occasions when I've asked a parent to ask the child to quit kicking my seat, the parent did, and the child complied. For about 15 seconds.

I've never appealed to the FA, but I'm sure that if I did ...

After the FA has talked to the parent with no results, what exactly would you like them to do?
Has anyone ever encountered a FA who has dealt with a crying child with notable success?

Thats exactly what happened to me, but they didn't do anything. Oh well....Anything for the children right?? :)

My response was to the OP's description of the child sitting on the floor between his seat and the OP's seat back and hitting the seat back throughout the flight, not to "crying."

With respect to the former, if the FA doesn't know how to handle it, she/he should get the pilot. If the mother won't listen to the pilot, the little brat should be physically restrained, with duct tape or ties if necessary, the pilot should land the plane and both should be put off, sued by the airline for the costs incurred and banned from flying. If the mother interferes, physically restrain her and arrest her when the plane lands.

I don't see why this is the least bit difficult. If the kid can't sit in its seat and, instead, insists on being on the floor and physically interfering with other passengers, it is a hazard to itself and others. It doesn't get a pass because it's a kid, and it's mother doesn't get a pass for being stupid and selfish.

WOW, you are amazing... I love your respond.... "duct tape or ties" ....

This remind me so much when my mom said " Back in the old day, if you did something wrong, the nuns will hit you, then your parents will hit you"

It's no news FAs use duct tape on unruly passengers. This is the most recent example (UA Flight #645).

Isn't that why we fly C/F, and load up on the pre-departure-booze??

Bus with wings, that is all you are on. Noise reduction headphones work nicely.

I am usually successful with children and I RARELY have misbehaved kids onboard.

**Crying infants are not in this category**

When I DO have a misbehaved child (as I did yesterday on a long-haul) I say something to the child, NOT the parent.

In this case the child was screaming and hitting her mom and grandma and appeared to be around 7 or 8. I figure it's pointless to speak to the parent, if they had control at this point they'd use it. SO, I kneeled down and got the girl's attention. I said,

"How old are you? You look FAR to old to be acting like this and people are staring at you right now because you're being rude. Now, if you cause trouble ONE MORE TIME I have a place downstairs that we'll seat you until you quiet down. It's dark down there, there's barking dogs and spiders and I don't think you want to go there. If you can behave I'll let you stay in the cabin but if I hear one more thing you're going downstairs... are you going to behave?"

The child quieted down, the mom was relieved and all was DONE! I've used this threat MANY times in the past and it always proves successful.

To those who think it's MY job to quiet children, WRONG! While I don't mind intervening for the comfort of my pax, if I can't help or fix the problem then unfortunately that's as far as I can take it in the air. Bring the CAPTAIN our of the FD? WHERE have you been living the past 7 years? The captain would most certainly NOT come out of the FD to worry over some insane child.

We would obviously let the captain know the situation were it out of control, and then possibly have someone meet the aircraft (less likely security and more likely some Customer Service Manager). We would NOT duct-tape a child to any portion of the aircraft and or muzzle them. COME ON!

That would have worked with me when I was eight--had I been a little terror. Good work! I'm interested to know if you ever receive any trouble from the parents after making this sort of "threat" to their little innocent baby.

Only in the opinion of parents of bratty kids. You can get off a bus.

Noise reduction headphones don't work at all. They are designed to reduce low-frequency periodic sounds, e.g. the rumble of the plane in flight or the "whoosh" of the engines. They don't work at all with percussive, non-repetitive sounds, nor do they work in the frequencies of human speech. The cries of babies and young children are much higher in frequency.

NEVER received anything but a "Thank You!!!" Plus WHAT are they really going to say, I just defused a lot of HATE coming from the pax around them. It's not as if their parenting skills weren't already in question.

If your child is old enough to KNOW better then they should ACT better.

You didn't do anything wrong and you handled things well IMO. Sometimes there are just things that are beyond your own control.

Sounds like you handled it just fine. But for the sake of clarity...

In your original account of what happened, you addressed the young man directly, at which time he complied. The child's mother then made dismissive remarks to you in return. But at that point, had the matter been settled? I'm trying to understand when the FA was involved.

I have to agree here. I love my noise cancelling headphones, but they don't help for crying kids or nearby loud midnight conversations. I rely on Hearos earplugs to quell the cabin noise esp on my long haul flights. You can get them at your local drugstore/wallyworld/etc... (tip: get the BLUE ones! they have the highest noise reduction rate available -33dbl)

I was introduced to these on a transatlantic once where a couple boarded with a baby and sat a few rows ahead of me. As soon as everyone was seated, the Dad stood up and said "we're really sorry, but our baby has colic and is probably going to be crying alot. we brought earplugs for you all if you'd like some". Then they handed out unopened packs of the Hearos to everyone who raised their hands (which were alot of us)...

That gesture alone went MILES for everyones tolerence of the situation. And I made note of it... if I ever end up flying with my baby neice. hehe