Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. A phone that grows with your child.

Meet the Other Phone.
A phone that grows with your child.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To put DC, aged 8 and 9, in Economy while I fly in Club with a 2yo and the nanny

250 replies

firemansamisnormansdad · 02/11/2012 20:38

OK, so it wasn't actually me. But I boarded a flight from the USA yesterday and was shocked that this Mom did this to her own children. I have heard that people do this. Is there ever any real justification? My DH was sitting next to them and the little girl was getting quite scared at the turbulence. The Mom said that she would send the nanny down and swap places with DD during the flight, but she never did. I could never do this - I want my precious ones near me during a flight, especially an 8 hour one!

OP posts:
iago · 02/11/2012 21:29

I can remember my ex brother in law used to fly first class to the States whilst his wife and children were in Economy. (They divorced)

LivvyPsMum · 02/11/2012 21:32

Selfish, selfish, selfish!

LizzieVereker · 02/11/2012 21:33

I will admit that I might not have the clearest view of this scenario, because I have pulled my judgy pants up so high that they are covering my eyes, but this is one of the most selfish things I've ever heard. Not only is Mum affording herself mort comfort than her DCs, I feel there is an assumption on her part that some other cattle class sap will look after them.

But as I say, I have got knicker elastic in my eyes...

TidyDancer · 02/11/2012 21:35

Really Flatbread?!

What if they get scared? What if there is turbulance and they just want their mum? What if they need to pull down oxygen masks? What if one of them feels poorly?

There are a number of reasons why this is a very wrong thing to do.

squoosh · 02/11/2012 21:36

Maybe at 8 and 9 they were a little young to be all by themselves, if they were 12, 13 I'd say it's absolutely fine. It's not like they can come to any harm.

Original poster
firemansamisnormansdad · 02/11/2012 21:37

LOL iago

OP posts:
HazleNutt · 02/11/2012 21:40

If they did get sick, the Club class is just a few meters away, not on another planet. My niece, 7, often flies as an unaccompanied minor - according to this, DSis is very wrong to let her do that, as she's not even on the same aircraft.

MrsBungleScare · 02/11/2012 21:42

Wow, I really can't understand why any parent would want to do this.

WearingGreen · 02/11/2012 21:44

I have a 9 yo who is very well behaved, polite and quiet. He is a total bookworm and would happily read for 8 hours straight but there is no way that I would inflict him on strangers completely unchecked for that length of time on a plane and I definitely wouldn't inflict the 9 yo with the 7yo on anybody for 8 minutes. It would be 8 hours of giggling and absentmindedly kicking the seat in front and telling each other to shut up.

WearingGreen · 02/11/2012 21:47

Unaccompanied minors are a different thing. They have a steward to tell them where the sick bag is, help them with their tray thingy, tell them to stop the constant low level disruption. They are not dependent on the kindness/tolerance of strangers.

MrsBungleScare · 02/11/2012 21:48

As kids (in the 1980's) my db and I often flew unaccompanied from Edinburgh to London (for visits to my dad).

We would be dropped at the gate by mum and picked up other end by dad. We had special VIP things round our necks and were looked after by cabin crew.

It was fine (short flight).

I don't get why a parent who was travelling with their children would sit apart from them in a different class. Is it just cause its cheaper?

steppemum · 02/11/2012 21:49

we lived overseas when I was a kid. We flew backwards and forwards all the time to school, as unaccompanied minors (those poor air hostesses who were responsible for us) anyway point is we were seasoned travellers

One easter my dad had hepatitis. he had been ill for a while and was now well enough to travel, needed to see a conultant in uk and had been given told to take 2-3 months rest, so was travelling back to uk with us as we returned to school.

Mum and Dad sat in first class (paid for by his company as part of sickness benefits) we travelled in economy (at front, so only a few seats back)

we were as usual pretty annoying children let loose without an adult. Mum and dad were oblivious strategically ignoring us and actually dad was struggling as he really wasn't well.

wasn't really an issue for us.

HazleNutt · 02/11/2012 21:53

UMs don't have a dedicated person sitting with them though, just someone taking a look every now and then. The same way the cabin crew would take care of any passenger.

I do find a bit odd that she took the nanny to Club though in this situation.

VerySmallSqueak · 02/11/2012 21:56

To not want to sit with your children of that age is quite awful.

It'd have to be very exceptional circumstances to force me to do that,and I would quite simply never choose to do that.

NuclearStandoff · 02/11/2012 21:57

I agree with what Squoosh said.

perfectly fine for parents and older kids to travel in separate classes on a plane. Kids don't need the extra space/comfort that adults do, so why waste the money?

As long as the kids are old enough to behave properly, and not inconvenience the other passengers, without the parent supervising closely it is fine.

Original poster
firemansamisnormansdad · 02/11/2012 21:57

BTW lovebunny this IS true!

OP posts:
hmc · 02/11/2012 22:00

I find it rather unpaternal

MidniteScribbler · 02/11/2012 22:07

Makes me stabby when people do this. I got stuck next to a kid about 8 years old one day on a long haul flight. Mum walks him to his seat, plonks him down, looks at me and says "he gets a bit airsick, so hand him a bag if he looks like he's going to vomit" then swans off to business class. I'm not your flipping babysitter, look after your own damned children. I made the air hostess move me, because I wasn't going to look after a pukey kid all flight. Not my job.

mrswishywashy · 02/11/2012 22:08

When I nannied I did a return flight to New Zealand (from London) with three children sitting in economy while their parents sat in first class. It was rather frustrating when the mother came down to visit and complained that "they only give drops of lavender oil out and not the whole bottle like last time" and the father when he came down to visit saying "why haven't you put their seats back" - um, I have we were in row 64 the seats don't go back very far. The parents didn't want their children to fly business/first class as they had to work hard to be able to pay for their seats and they didn't want their children growing up entitled.

I know stipulate in my contract that I fly the same travel as the parents if traveling with children:-)

lovebunny · 02/11/2012 22:14

firemansamisnormansdad i'm shocked.

lucyellenmum · 02/11/2012 22:19

Some people are just cunts

hhhhhhh · 02/11/2012 22:23

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

halloweeneyqueeney · 02/11/2012 22:23

I don't really see the difference between that and unacompanied minor travel. I travelled unacompanied a lot as a child and had a member of staff with me from check in to gate, and through departures, but on the actual plane I was generally sat near a "nice" looking female or family and left to it, there wasn't an extra memeber of cabin crew on just for me

hmc · 02/11/2012 22:27

Spot on Monthly!

MummytoKatie · 02/11/2012 22:28

I have flown maybe 30 times since dh and I got together 12 years ago. On those flights I have had serious (more people vomitting than not) turbulence (twice), an aborted landing (once), being sat next to a very aggressive drunk bloke (once), all the lights suddenly going out in the cabin (once), been really ill for no reason whatsoever (once). So assuming I'm not just really really unlucky that is 6 out of 30 flights where something happened that I, as an adult, found a difficult situation to handle. Strongly doubt an 8 or 9 year old would be able to.

Assuming the flight is somewhere and back there is a 36% chance that something would happen on one of those flights.

Personally I wouldn't risk it with my kids.

(And that doesn't allow for the fact that if there is a true emergency what the lovely "cute" mummy would do to save the lives of her own children.)