If you want the guarantee of no kids on your plane, rent your own plane or charter a plane. If you want the guarantee that you'll never experience the inconvenience of a screaming a kid, just stay home and isolate yourself from all of society. Being around people that you find inconvenient is part of being in a society. I find stupid people on the road to be extremely bothersome to me. However, they're there and I deal with them.
In principle, Amber, I agree with you. And I do like kids, and I do have a relatively decent tolerance for them. But I also fly a lot, and unfortunately, ill-behaved kids is becoming more the norm than the aberration, in my opinion. Then again, I am getting older, too.
Personally, I don't fly with my kids. They're typical toddlers in that they're prone to tantrums every now and then, and while I do my absolute best to circumvent tantrums, I can not guarantee their behavior. Nor do I want to deal with all of their 'stuff', stroller, carseats, etc in an airport. For me, it's easier to drive with them. They're not old enough to 'get' anything out of leisure travel yet, and our travels are pretty much limited to trips to the farm to visit my parents.
And that kind of consideration for others is probably evident in your kids' upbringing. Good on ya.
For all of you who say "drive with your kids", how is a military family who'd been based, say, in Germany, supposed to get home when their deployment is up? They can't drive home from Germany!
Obviously, that is a different circumstance. We're talking about a domestic flight here.
Me thinks there is a sense of entitlement on both sides of the issue. Those other people also have the option of going by car if they don't want to hear a baby. Works both ways.
Yes and no. There are fewer children than grownups on a plane, barring a large school or group trip. I do believe that the general comfort and convenience of the majority of the passengers outweighs the convenience for one child on the plane.
I have no problem with well-behaved kids. I like them - and like I said, I even cut them a lot of slack. But the problem is that an ill-behaved child in those close, confined quarters is a magnified issue; there's nowhere to escape to, no other table I can pick, etc.
Babies are one thing - toddlers/small brats quite another. You don't know if there's going to be one on the plane until you board. Their parents know well in advance.
You can't please everyone all the time. You know what annoys me? People talking like they are in a hurricane, people blasting their music for all to hear, people who smell, people who constantly get up and go in the overheads, etc. But I do not let that ruin a short flight for me.
I agree with you on all of the above statements. We've got that going for us.
You just ignore it and read, sleep, etc. I didn't know that public airline travel had turned so elitist. Don't like babies, fats, drunks, etc then charter your own plane.
It's not about being elitist, man. It's about basic common courtesy - and yes - ill-behaved children, massively obese passengers, in-flight drunks - all of those are problematic. We're on the same page there.
