To not book reserved flight seats for us and the kids?

[LittlePudding1]

Hi, I have a 6 year old and a 3 year old and was under the impression that even if we weren't all sat together together on a plane they would sit me with 1dc and dh with the other but a couple of people have told me they can sit you anywhere. Surely they wouldn't sit a 3 year old away from a parent and next to a random stranger, would they?

Okay nicetabbard then your next actions are easy. when you next book to fly with your kids....... reserve the seats in advance, and don't rely on people you dont know to take responsibility for your kids if there is a crash.

Do you have any kids, nicetabbard? take many flights?

why does this make you feel shakey?

NiceTabbard why is this thread upsetting you when you say you don't even take your kids on flight holidays?

I am terrified of flying, and in answer to the question of being asked to move, I simply couldn't. I pick my seat very, very carefully ages beforehand and I'm on a lot of anxiety medication so completely out of it while DH holds my hand and comforts me until I fall asleep.

Therefore since I've had DC, I haven't flown because it's too much for me. Hypothetically if I did, I'd have arranged everything down to the most minute detail I'd spontaneously combust with stress if someone else's child was next to me and demanding attention.

If I'm honest with myself, I'd be snappy and tell the child to be quiet because I'd have my own fears, the twins and my SEN child to think of. I know^ I'd lose it and feel awful.

So because I never want to put my family in the situation of me being so stressed, plus I don't want the guilt of roaring at a misbehaving toddler because I was so damn anxious, NO flight holidays until kids are much older!!!! Even then it will depend on DSS's progress.

But yes, in the past DH has probably looked like an arse aggressively refusing to move - If you didn't see me weeping uncontrollably holding on to him for dear life!!

Luckily our holidays are some of my happiest memories, so worth the terror!

Oh fucking hell, I had just shrugged off the prebooked seats option (at an extra £80 which frankly could be better spent elsewhere) but this thread is making me seriously consider it for the outbound flight at least. Travelling with a 12 yr old who has flown a few times (and tbh would be fine on his own) and a 7yr old who hasn't flown since she was a baby - don't fancy her having to spend 2hrs on her own really.
Shitballs.

People don't necessarily help lone children in an emergency!

During the evacuation of the Airbus 300 display flight the three people to die were two unaccompanied children and one woman who did try to help one of them,

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_France_Flight_296#Crash_and_evacuation

It is sad, but in an emergency people panic and their own survival (and the survival of their family) is paramount over someone else's child. Also, as in this case, the evacuation isn't done row by row, people all rush to the nearest exit and have actually trampled over the seats in front to get out.

I can't understand why anyone would risk it

Sorry Airbus 320

Christ tmae, that's a horrible account.

Fucking hell. Just fucking hell.

I've paid my £80 and chosen my seats. It told you what seats an infant could sit in. We'll see what happens next week.

I watched that air france crash episode of Air Crash Investigations :(

Unfortunately self/family preservation tends to take priority in potential life or death situations. There's no way I would leave my dc with strangers who are highly unlikely to think to help them in an emergency.

would also feel horrible if a person died because they tried to help my unsupervised dc

It is unbelievably sad, those poor children and woman, I genuinely believe that I would help but then I can't know how I would react in an emergency situation.

I just can't see that it is worth the risk, your child's safety is worth more than at most a couple of hundred pounds or getting to an airport early.

I really shouldn't have read it - I'm a bad flyer anyway and that was just so bloody sad. Not even a 'proper' crash. Horrible.

I think that, in a way, that horrible account has proved eveyones point on this thread.

The children died because they didn't have the help of an adult. The adult died because she turned back to try to help a child. There are some that will help, some that won't, but why take that chance?

It's made me even more determined to be with my family TBH.

That account is chilling. We have 3 DC. We agree who will take which if there is a problem on public transport before we set off. (In a boat, I have 2, he has 1 as he is a poor swimmer, elsewhere he would have 2). I will be checking each can undo their own seat belt from now on, in case something happens to us and not them.

That article also made me think that I would ask to be offloaded if I couldn't sit next to a young dc.

That is very sad. I would never take the risk of not being seated with my DC in case something happened. I wouldnt be able to live with myself if I got swept out by a surge of people and one of my DC was left on the plane. I know it is unlikely, but there's no way I would take the chance, and if preventing the risk of separation costs money, then I will pay.

I don't even want to know after seeing the reactions. :(

So glad I don't fly. When we eventually have to, I intend to have counselling beforehand, pay every fee I have too and be kicked off the plan rather than move.

Yeah it was beyond tragic, I'm a bad flyer too so research aircraft safety as I like to be best informed of the dangers.

It just baffles me that some people are willing to risk it, the airlines should automatically sit children with parents but they won't necessarily, but as a one person protest I wouldn't play with the safety of my children some things are just far more important.

I can't see where in that Wiki link it says the children who died were unaccompanied?

Anyway, in a situation like that people carrying babies, disabled people, people with children and so on will be last. In a stampede / panic type situation it is the young, fit and strong who get out. I wouldn't get out because I am not very mobile. That's how it goes. Similar to what happened with that cruise ship in Greece.

Certainly in the event of an emergency on a plane / cruise ship / anything like that it is dependant on the staff to organise and prevent a panic. That's not always possible and in a survival of the fittest situation then, well, all bets are off.

peachy I have two children aged 3 and 5. We don't go overseas very much but are having our first family holiday abroad this summer, and we took DD1 on a plane with us when she was about 7 months. Why do you ask?

I get shaky because the thought that people sitting at home in safety would perfectly happily say, I wouldn't help anyone, is terrifying. In most emergency situations people do help others, even people they are not related to (believe it or not), and the idea that someone would sit on their sofa at home (ie not in the actual moment) and say, yes I would leave a 2yo strapped into a plane while everyone else evacuate, irrespective of whether it is orderly, or whether people around might be able to help.

The conclusion of most posters on here seems to be that it is normal to only care about you and yours and stuff everyone else and not even bother trying, in a hypothetical situation. Until I read this thread I imagined that the vast majority of people would try to assist others, in theory, while obviously no-one knows what will happen in practice. The fact that actually the majority of people wouldn't consider helping even in theory has come as a shock. Certainly the people I have known who have been caught up in dire situations have talked about people pulling together so where the difference lies I don't even know.

I think maybe it would be a good idea for people who are not going to do anything to tell that to the steward so that at least there is a chance for that child. The idea of climbing over a 2yo to get out and not even unbuckling it's seatbelt is just, I can't get my head around someone deciding that is what they will do when they are not even in that position.

specialagent it is upsetting me so much because I am worried about other people's children being in this situation.

What is so strange about that? Do you really have to ask why i would be upset at the idea of unaccompanied toddlers being left while everyone else evacuates? Why I would be upset at the idea of no-one there to help them? i mean, do you really not understand that?

Would it help to say that there is no way I would leave an unaccompanied child to struggle alone in an emergency, NiceTabard?

I mean, in that air france crash it says a lot of people hit their heads. Even if you are sitting next to your child, there is no guarantee that you will be in a fit state to get them off the plane - you may be injured or unconscious. In that situation would you honestly and genuinely expect the person in the 3rd seat just to get up and leave? For everyone going past and seeing that, to just keep going and go on past? And you're all just OK with that, well it's human nature?

But it's not human nature, people do help, really they do. When did you lot decide that people aren't like that? Or is it maybe that if you think that way yourself you assume everyone else does?

This thread is so weird and, frankly, distressing.

SDTG thank you yes it does. And I am sure that most people are like you

of course there is another way to tackle the airlines

Refuse to be seated unless you are next to your child. They will offload you..... but if enough people do it, it would send a message.

It means missing your holidays because you wont pay thought!

No matter what anyone says.

They were unaccompanied, their parents weren't even on the plane

Also I agree the idea of just not even trying to help a random child is odd, I would love to think I would be helpful to anyone I could be.

I find it distressing that people wouldn't do everything to protect their children

Thank you for saying that as well tmae.

This has been playing on my mind so much the last couple of days, for some reason.