to be horrified by children´s behaviour on flight?

[Happy36]

Am I unreasonable to think that one should keep an eye on one´s children during a flight and try to ensure that their behaviour does not upset other passengers unnecessarily?

Just had a horrendous experience with what felt like a whole plane full of children (not toddlers - children aged between 5 and 15) screaming, shouting, running around, dropping rubbish, bouncing over the seats, ignoring the airline staff. Children will be children, that much can´t be denied, but what horrified me was the parents´ total oblivion to the situation.

Also I felt sorry for the airline staff and wonder whether there are any possible ways for airlines to encourage passengers more strongly against indulging in anti-social behaviour.

I have not flown long haul for a few years now. Do the big airlines now charge you to sit together? We may be going to Australia next year - does anyone know if BA, Qantas, Air NZ charge for this? Thanks.

BA now charge to sit together (although you can take a chance and wait until check in). Virgin were going to start charging but it's been postponed and you can still book a seat 60 days before the flight.

If Virgin start charging before we fly next year I will pay the fee as I want to sit with DH - I'd rather pay than risk not getting seats together or being moved later on.

(BTW we're not joined at the hip, just both very nervous fliers!)

I think BA are a shower of shits for charging you extra so you can sit with the people you booked with. If train companies can manage not to charge you for seat reservations, then airlines bloody well can too.

We have very recently taken a short flight with the ultimate Mrs Entitled (not a phrase I would usually use but having heard it on here it fitted her perfectly). Flight was delayed and she kicked up such a fuss the police were called to her-whereby she lied her way out of trouble denying everything! Then on the flight her toddler screamed for almost the entire trip, stopping only when he was allowed to run up and down the aisle chased by his 5 yr old sister. Mum made no effort to quieten him, had no toys, gadgets, books, treats etc. She obviously expected a toddler to just sit and do nothing for 2 hours! Then on landing he wouldn't stop howling unless he was standing on her lap looking backwards and she was totally uncooperative with the stewards as they tried to belt him on her lap! She only passively allowed it when she was told the flight wouldn't be able to land unless her child was strapped in. Seat area was a disgusting mess when it came to disembarking! Would have made great telly-particularly her antics in the airport! So YANBU-people need to plan to keep their kids amused when travelling!!

Seems like I am in good company!

Tryharder I really don´t think I am lacking in empathy. Yes, children get excited or behave poorly, however parents should be ensuring that their children don´t upset others around them unnecessarily - those parents are not showing much empathy for their fellow travellers. I didn´t say anything in my original post about our children, but first flight or millionth flight or anywhere else in public I would expect the same conduct from our children as any other and would remind of that if necessary. Certainly there was no intention to comment on how frequently families fly.

HolySchmoley Personally I have never complained about any of the things you listed and I agree with you that it would be unreasonable for passengers to complain about them.

I make sure my kids are eating, sleeping, reading or plugged into in flight entertainment on long haul. It isn't that difficult to keep them from annoying other passengers.

I'll polish my halo and out myself as Mrs Smug from Smugsville and tell you that several times I've had other passengers come to me after a flight to comment on how well behaved my then toddlers were on the flight.

My pal was cabin crew for first class for a major airline. Madonna travels in first with her entourage while her kids are in economy with the nanny.

Flying in about an hour so fingers crossed for a better experience :D

My top tip is to take a packed lunch for the kids (and the adults if you hate plane food). We started doing this a few years back. It means the children will eat food they enjoy when they are hungry.

I would love tips from everyone saying their DC don't annoy anyone on planes.
How do you stop them kicking seats, screaming, fidgeting, shuffling, wanting to walk around?
What do you do if they have a tantrum?

My older two and my youngest just don't do the kinds of things I have mentioned above, and even if they did I would only have to ask them once and they would stop.
My third does all of the above and more, if you tell him not to he either looks at you defiantly and carries on or closes his eyes and screams at you.
In any other situation, I have to just pack up and leave but on a plane that is obviously not possible.
So how do you deal with it? Or do you all just have DC like my other three?

My friend who has a son that definitely would kick would try and book a front of section seat or if that wasn't available ask for her DH or her to be sat in the seat front of their boy.

How do you stop them kicking seats, screaming, fidgeting, shuffling, wanting to walk around?

Leave 'em behind

I would consider it if anyone was willing to have him BadLad a holiday with DS2 requires a second holiday to get over the first one. If I only had him I would never go on holiday.

That's a good idea WhatTheFork we sat where we were told last year which was the 6 of us along a row. It would probably be best to try and book the back and the one in front or the front and the one behind next time to annoy the minimum amount of people.

I can sympathise - my younger nephew is an absolute horror if the world stops revolving around him for a microsecond. I'd absolute hate to be on the same plane as him. Fortunately he doesn't fly yet.

Parents sat in First Class?
Just imagine if there was an emergency situation and your children were left with nobody to comfort and reassure them. I've never understood this practice on any level.

Hello Notso I sympathise and I don´t know a magic formula. Really my original post was talking about children aged 5 and above - I do understand that toddlers have tantrums and babies cry and whilst that can be a bit of a headache it´s part of life and sometimes the parent cannot do much to stop it from happening occasionally. However once children are school aged I don´t really expect tantrums and our own children would be told off severely if they had one on a plane and punished when we got off, in the expectation that the bad behaviour would not be repeated. HOWEVER, as a teacher I do know that there are children who seem to be impervious to tellings off and punishments so I just hope I don´t have to be in an enclosed space with one of them when they decide to let rip!

Boarding shortly

HorseTale I have never been charged to sit with my children while flying long haul (Singapore, Malaysian or Emirates airlines) & I wouldn't use any airline that made it compulsory to pay! I pay enough to travel as it is & to me, it is pretty bloody obvious that young children NEED to seated with their parents.

We flew with Emirates recently & we weren't together (going by the seats they allocated when I went to book in online) for the first leg, so I told them that we needed to be. They seated 3 together, one across the aisle. It was fine, and because I was with the girls, they fell over themselves to help the whole flight. As soon as we took off they gave me a bag full of snacks, a 2ltr bottle of water, plastic cups, mini cokes, lemonades, etc & a pack of cards! It meant that I didn't have to ask for anything for quite a while & really impressed me.

AuditAngel - BA do charge for seating because there is a demand for it and people are willing to pay. You don't have to pay for seats if you don't want to and can choose seats when you check-in on line. I fly 4-5 times a year and have always managed to find seating with my family without paying for it beforehand. BA also had a rule at one point with very young children that they allowed families to checkin online 2 or 3 days in advance (so before the usual 24hrs opened to everyone else) and their seating policy ensured that one or more children are seated with a parent so that when it came to checking in online the children had pre assigned seats with at least one of their parents.
A lot of BA staff with families won't get seats together if the flight is full as they are not commercial passengers but you won't know they are staff.

There's only demand for it because BA purposefully make the whole thing hideous so that you always find up not sitting together unless you pay. They've engineered the demand themselves on purpose.

There is absolutely no need to charge. The rail companies manage to allocate you seats on booking without charging extra (and some even let you choose your seats).

CW - BA didnt engineer the whole thing actually. People wanted the ability to book seats together like the exit row seats (with the extra leg room) and then other seats together. i know someone who worked on the project the return on investment was very quick. As I have explained before I have never paid for my seating and neither has any of my close friends or family when travelling on BA because when you check in 24 hours before a flight there are loads of seats available! Plus they already pre allocate you seats together which you discover when checking in so have no need to pay extra if you don't want to.

Just got back from a flight where I don't recall, when booking, being given the option of paying extra to sit together, and we were strewn about all over the plane - even though I checked in online as soon as I could. No option to move seats with paying £50 a pop. Plane was late and staff were horrible. Fun. No vile children, though.

On the return leg, we checked in at the airport and the lady at the counter managed to sit us in pairs (though not near each other). Again, no vile children, though the woman next to one of my DCs spent the entire flight puking at hourly intervals (yay! It was long haul) and managed to get puke on DC's sweater and pillow. Did not apologise either at the time or when she saw DC as she got off the plane. Astonishing.

I have experienced badly behaved kids on flights. I had flights when my DC were younger when I expended vast amounts of energy, nervous and otherwise, to keep them at least contained. I can really understand why shouting, bouncing, kicking children annoy people, because they annoy me.

However, there was a time when we'd been on board for about ten minutes, still at the stand, and my DC were still wriggling about deciding what they wanted out of their bags and working out the seat belts (and, consequently, bouncing the seats in front) when the woman in front moved round very pointedly to see between the seats and gave DC and I a real death stare. Still haven't forgiven her. Miserable cow. Would have understood it perfectly if they were still being PITAs after takeoff, but give em a chance to settle, at least!

CalamitouslyWrong - well, you're living up to your name with the anti-BA propaganda. In fact, do you work for Virgin? I worked for BA for years, have never paid for seats together since leaving (and travelling lots) - and we often travel with kids and GPs too. I often wonder if I live in a parallel universe as all these things just don't seem to happen to me or my friends on the flights we frequent...

I haven't really experienced many problems with kids on flights but YANBU OP to find that behaviour unacceptable.

My pet hate is the seat recliners on short haul flights where there's very little room between rows as it is. Surely on a two hour flight you can manage to sit upright for the duration, instead of crowding out the person behind you?