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Replies to '03/06 Etiquette Dilemmas'

 
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September 17, 2007, 6:55 am PDT

09/18 Etiquette

Quote From: lamc74

Child behaviour is one of my soap boxes. My oldest daughter was two years old the first time I had her on an airplane. She alternated sitting  in her seat and sitting in my lap. Otherwise she behaved like an adult. We talked but she was not loud or disruptive to others on the plane. When she had to go the the bathroom she quietly told me and held my hand as we quitely  walked to the bathroom and back.  No child can be expected to be an adult but at that age children have the capacity to be able to learn right from wrong to a greater extent than most parents realize. Maybe they don't want to realize this because it puts the responsibility on them for their childs' behaviour. Both of my children were taught to have manners in public at a very young age. At one time my two daughters, who were teenagers at the time, and I were in public having our senses assaulted by a screaming, crying, kicking brat. The mother was doing nothing with this kid to let him know that you shouldn't  behave that way in public or anywhere else. I looked at my daughters in astonishment and said "You two never acted that way." My oldest daughter said they knew they wouldn't like what  happened if they did act that way. You don't have to beat or abuse a child in any way to teach them. But it does take work and thought and I feel most parents don't want to be bothered. They would rather cruise and let the kid do whatever he or she wants and somehow that parent has the abiblity to ignore the brat. I can't ignore it. I doubt I would have been able to ignore the brat on the airplane. I did not force my bratty kids on others and I do not appreciate it when someone forces his or her bratty kid on me. That mother and child should have been removed from the airplane. I remember hearing about that incident on the news. My daughter that has a little boy heard about that, too. We three flew from Dallas to St. Louis. My daughter was scared to death fearing she and her baby would get thrown off of that airplane. The baby was 22 months old at the time and he can be a handful. But I wasn't worried. I knew she disciplined her child. He was a little testy and fidgity but he was not noisy and unruly and disruptive. He did fiine. That is my proof that very young children can behave on airplanes without disturbing others. I recall a trip I took on an airplane sitting across from two little girls. One was under a year old and I think the other was three. Ay first I thought "Oh, no." But those children behaved. They weren't perfect little adults but they did not create a problem. I commended the parents for obviously disciplining and training their kids. More proof that children can behave on airplanes. Again, don't force your bratty kids off on me.

 

Did you actually listen when you heard the story about the mother and child. Because the child was not being disruptive or as you say BRATTY. He was only saying Bye-Bye plane. And not only was the mother upset, quite a few of the other passengers were too. One even went so far as to refuse to fly because the mother nor her child did anything to deserve being thrown off the plane. What would you have done if you hand been told to sedate one of your precious little angels? According to the other passengers the mother remained calm and DID NOT create a scene and the child was NOT being disruptive at all.
 
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September 17, 2007, 8:03 pm PDT

09/18 Etiquette

Quote From: lamc74

Child behaviour is one of my soap boxes. My oldest daughter was two years old the first time I had her on an airplane. She alternated sitting  in her seat and sitting in my lap. Otherwise she behaved like an adult. We talked but she was not loud or disruptive to others on the plane. When she had to go the the bathroom she quietly told me and held my hand as we quitely  walked to the bathroom and back.  No child can be expected to be an adult but at that age children have the capacity to be able to learn right from wrong to a greater extent than most parents realize. Maybe they don't want to realize this because it puts the responsibility on them for their childs' behaviour. Both of my children were taught to have manners in public at a very young age. At one time my two daughters, who were teenagers at the time, and I were in public having our senses assaulted by a screaming, crying, kicking brat. The mother was doing nothing with this kid to let him know that you shouldn't  behave that way in public or anywhere else. I looked at my daughters in astonishment and said "You two never acted that way." My oldest daughter said they knew they wouldn't like what  happened if they did act that way. You don't have to beat or abuse a child in any way to teach them. But it does take work and thought and I feel most parents don't want to be bothered. They would rather cruise and let the kid do whatever he or she wants and somehow that parent has the abiblity to ignore the brat. I can't ignore it. I doubt I would have been able to ignore the brat on the airplane. I did not force my bratty kids on others and I do not appreciate it when someone forces his or her bratty kid on me. That mother and child should have been removed from the airplane. I remember hearing about that incident on the news. My daughter that has a little boy heard about that, too. We three flew from Dallas to St. Louis. My daughter was scared to death fearing she and her baby would get thrown off of that airplane. The baby was 22 months old at the time and he can be a handful. But I wasn't worried. I knew she disciplined her child. He was a little testy and fidgity but he was not noisy and unruly and disruptive. He did fiine. That is my proof that very young children can behave on airplanes without disturbing others. I recall a trip I took on an airplane sitting across from two little girls. One was under a year old and I think the other was three. Ay first I thought "Oh, no." But those children behaved. They weren't perfect little adults but they did not create a problem. I commended the parents for obviously disciplining and training their kids. More proof that children can behave on airplanes. Again, don't force your bratty kids off on me.

 

Your child "behaved like an adult"....? How sad for your child. My daughter went through a stage where she would comment on everything she saw. She was not bratty, she was not rude, she wasn't even all that loud, but she would say goodbye to things, hello to things...she was fascinated (and still is) by the world around her and that should be encouraged.

When did kids being kids become bad? How SAD for this world!
 
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September 18, 2007, 4:00 pm PDT

Long ago flight attendant

Quote From: lamc74

Child behaviour is one of my soap boxes. My oldest daughter was two years old the first time I had her on an airplane. She alternated sitting  in her seat and sitting in my lap. Otherwise she behaved like an adult. We talked but she was not loud or disruptive to others on the plane. When she had to go the the bathroom she quietly told me and held my hand as we quitely  walked to the bathroom and back.  No child can be expected to be an adult but at that age children have the capacity to be able to learn right from wrong to a greater extent than most parents realize. Maybe they don't want to realize this because it puts the responsibility on them for their childs' behaviour. Both of my children were taught to have manners in public at a very young age. At one time my two daughters, who were teenagers at the time, and I were in public having our senses assaulted by a screaming, crying, kicking brat. The mother was doing nothing with this kid to let him know that you shouldn't  behave that way in public or anywhere else. I looked at my daughters in astonishment and said "You two never acted that way." My oldest daughter said they knew they wouldn't like what  happened if they did act that way. You don't have to beat or abuse a child in any way to teach them. But it does take work and thought and I feel most parents don't want to be bothered. They would rather cruise and let the kid do whatever he or she wants and somehow that parent has the abiblity to ignore the brat. I can't ignore it. I doubt I would have been able to ignore the brat on the airplane. I did not force my bratty kids on others and I do not appreciate it when someone forces his or her bratty kid on me. That mother and child should have been removed from the airplane. I remember hearing about that incident on the news. My daughter that has a little boy heard about that, too. We three flew from Dallas to St. Louis. My daughter was scared to death fearing she and her baby would get thrown off of that airplane. The baby was 22 months old at the time and he can be a handful. But I wasn't worried. I knew she disciplined her child. He was a little testy and fidgity but he was not noisy and unruly and disruptive. He did fiine. That is my proof that very young children can behave on airplanes without disturbing others. I recall a trip I took on an airplane sitting across from two little girls. One was under a year old and I think the other was three. Ay first I thought "Oh, no." But those children behaved. They weren't perfect little adults but they did not create a problem. I commended the parents for obviously disciplining and training their kids. More proof that children can behave on airplanes. Again, don't force your bratty kids off on me.

 

There are always two sides to inflight stories. I was a flight attendant in the "good old days" of full meals served in 45 minutes each on three legs of a four-leg flight. On one particulary warm summer day a mother got on board with her son who was about 5 years old. It was a DC-8 with 99 passengers in the rear cabin with two flight attendants to serve dinner on a leg from Atlanta to Dallas. Shortly after takeoff the 5-year old rang the call button. (As a good flight attendant who is trained never to ignore a call button, I stopped stacking trays for delivery and ran to see what was wrong.) The little boy looked up at me and said "Hi!" I asked if something was wrong and he said, "no, I wanted to see what the buttons do." His mother had left her parenting responsibilities at the door and, like many other mothers of that era, she considered the flight attendant her personal babysitter for the next hour and a half. She barely glanced up from the novel she was reading when I spoke to her son. I said, "Please don't push that button again, ok? It's supposed to be for emergencies of if you really need something." I smiled and went back to the galley. I was no sooner in the aisle with my four dinner trays (this was before the days of carts)...the call button rang again. I went to the 5-year old and made the same speech...SIX MORE TIMES! Each time the mother made no attempt to tell her child to stop. At one point I wondered if she was the mother, but I knew she had to be because he didn't have unaccompanied minor paperwork. On the 8th time, I went up to the little boy and said, "I've had to activate your call button. If you push it one more time, your seat will slide down in the bottom of the plane where all the bags are and it's VERY DARK!" I left. The mother finally looked up and appeared outraged. He didn't push the call button again. (My apologies to the 40-year-old man out there who is afraid of call buttons.)
 


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