To think children should be banned from long-haul flights in economy?

I would like an area free of noisy boosezers on all public transport. I had this at the weekend on a nearly 2 hour bus journey. 1 woman moved further down the bus they still didn't shut up.

I wouldn't travel long hall with my kids anyway. The most we have done is 2 hour's. But at least with young children we know their usually crying because they're ears are popping and don't understand why. Adults can choose to act like absolute tits or not.

Ear plugs work wonders!

I have travelled long haul with 2 ( now thank fully teenagers)The oldest was 6 weeks on their first long haul flight.

I blame the parents and that included my Ex who did not get that you can not just get on and relax if you have young kids.
Make friends with the cabin crew, tell them what you need and roughly when always after food service - never during!
If they are awake, you are awake, if they are asleep you are asleep. Rules are set and enforced, no screaming, no crying unless you broke a bone, no fighting no biting and no kicking seats - all had immediate consequences ie, treat box had something removed - ie chocolate. They were given lots to drink, so had to get up and go to the toilet regularly, when up they could walk up and down the aisle and come back, sit down and watch the ipad, read or we would quietly talk, read a story etc as age appropriate. They carried their own rucksacks which they put things in they wanted. Soft toy and favourite small plane blanket.Always went for the row at the back as more space and less people to annoy.

There is no healthy eating on a long haul flight. They both got a treat box, exactly the same and they had to make it last - amazing how they work it out quickly. Long haul to NZ twice per year takes a military operation with 2 under 3!

When babies always start drinking half an hour out on the descent, lots of cuddles, stretches and walking, I loathed dummies but they were essential on planes till 1 yrs old.

Once one child cried on descent as a baby, two occasions of puking and never had a complaint.

Now as teenagers they comment on badly behaved children who do not know the "rules" and say the parents are soft!

So much is down to the parents

I think instead of banning kids, parenting should be policed. If said parents can't make their children behave and not kick seats or listen to Baby Shark on full volume without headphones etc then the whole family should be moved to the non-reclining seats at the back, next to the loo. That would stop it.

I mean you pay hundreds for the flight but it’s a way of getting from A-B of course you can’t ban children from long haul flights! They’ve as much right to be there as anyone.

I’ve been on flights before when grown adults have acted a pain in the arse. There’s always going to be an annoying situation when you’ve a few hundred strangers packed into a plane each with different ways of thinking/doing things

If kids are misbehaving and parents aren’t doing anything to stop it then absolutely it is a pain in the arse. But if there’s a baby or toddler crying then sometimes there’s nothing the parent can do.

If a child was interrupting me regularly or kicking my seat I’d have a word with their parent/guardian first and then tell the staff and would expect them to have a word too.

I’ve flown long haul loads pre kids and thankfully never had an issue with kids on the flight, they’ve been well behaved. I remember a mum with her baby who cried a lot at the beginning and the end of the flight but because I knew the kid wasn’t purposely doing it and the mum was trying her best so couldn’t get worked up about it and stuck my music on.

I had an adult repeatedly kick the back of my seat when flying long haul. I think she was trying to rest her feet on my arm rests and kept kicking me and shoving her feet into my space. It was horrible.

The one time I had a child kicking the back of my seat I popped my head round and (smiling, kindly) said “oh hello! would you stop kicking my seat please! Thank you!” and they stopped.

Also flown business class with children - there are kids in ‘business’ and in premium, as well as economy.

Our kids have travelled long haul from 4 months old - which is what you have to do when your family lives on another continent.
They have always been well behaved, and didn’t disturbed anyone else.
Give me kids on a plane over drunken adults, or over entitled people who seem to think that public transport is for themselves only , any day of the week.

My DC have flown long-haul lots of times, from very young ages, and have been fine.

Nobody should be letting their DC kick a chair. That’s just shit parenting.

'The problem' is parents who won't tell their kids when to shut up.

There are kids in business class as well you know. I have had 3 of them all under 9 on an Auckland to Doha flight which is nearly 17 hours. They were good as gold by the way

Tanked up inconsiderate adults are the issue, not kids

It's part of travelling, just like the way you can't control how much turbulence there will be, or if the person next to you smells bad or talks loudly or gets tipsy and keeps leaning on you when they nap.

Parents usually try to keep kids quiet and entertained, who wants their own child shouting and wriggling for 2 hours?

A goady fucker with the inability to think anything through to it's logical conclusion. When you ban children from anywhere you're operating a de facto barrier for women.

I have been caused more issues by the behaviour of adults on flights than children.

Classic Mumsnet, where banning is the answer to everything.

Ban this, ban that.

Can we ban the sale of Easter eggs in lockdown?
Can we ban the sale of Easter eggs, full stop?
Can we ban people who don't take their shoes off?
Can we ban people who do take their shoes off?
Can we ban door knockers who don't give three months' notice?
Can we ban MILs?
Can we ban Trump or Johnson (now those would be worthwhile)?

I've never been disturbed by a child or baby on a flight. I've had a couple of flights become quite unnerving because of grown ass adults being drunken twats. I would therefore support banning alcohol before banning children.

I would kindly suggest that you're a goady f*cker who doesn't like kids.

Either suck it up or don't go on a long haul flight. Or any flight.

Inconsiderate parents my arse! You're just back tracking now to hide the fact you don't like kids.

Depends on Airline policy, some require the traveller to be over 12, others there are no restrictions...

Surely in business class the seats are far enough apart that you can’t kick the seat in front.

i took an 18 month old in business class and have no regrets. Mostly they were very quiet and slept or relaxed.

Probably, although I expect it would have to be a choice between that and the deliberate overbooking of flights that some airlines engage in.

I think it's kind of looking for a solution to a problem that doesn't exist on the scale that you think it does?

I've flown a lot - as a child to visit family in Argentina where my dad's family is from, and as an adult, with and without my kids. I've not really encountered wide spread seat kicking and parents doing nothing but am aware it's a scenario which mumsnetters seem to encounter on a disproportionately high level 🙄
The thing is if you lump all the families together then all the kids and their families are affected by the ones who don't discipline their kids. Why is that fair?

The worst flight I had was on the way to Florida. People decided the best way to stretch their legs was to stand right beside my seat talking shite for endless hours. The overhead announcements were incessant. It was just a generally noisy flight with a lot of families and you're trapped there which makes it seem worse. Its bad enough on the bus when people are watching their phones with no headphones, but equally being on a train with a hen party after a flight back from Florida was a physically sickening experience. The heart of it is adults with no awareness or consideration for people around them. I'm really surprised transport operators in general don't have terms of service about it and corresponding notices ON the transport. Every bus and train and plane should make it clear that it's not acceptable to watch devices with no headphones and that obnoxious behaviour won't be tolerated.

I think family zones in aeroplanes would be reasonable.

Knowing the way airlines like to charge for everything, maybe it would be more a case of them introducing “adult only” zones and charging people extra to sit in that zone.

No, my nearly 3 year old managed perfectly well flying to USA as did my 6 and 8 year old. But then I parent ny children.

If there were enough demand to make this viable, it would be happening anyway without need for government intervention. Get out of the way of businesses pitching to the customer base they want.