Aibu on flight

[perroy]

I was on an plane today. Family of four were travelling. One child with father in the seat in front of me and mother with another child in the seat behind me. Children were shouting, beeping a fictitious horn, making motor noises all through the flight. The parents were tickling them and making them squeal with laughter. It was a plane full of children and this family was noisy throughout the flight. All the other children had settled down in some time.

After the fifth time the child with the mother had got up on his seat and squealed in my ear I turned around and said SSSh quiet to the child.

The mother used profanities, showed me the finger and told me her child was only two.

Was I wrong to address the child when the parents were not taking any efforts to settle the children?

What if an adult passenger was autistic and had the child screaming in their ear. I know a couple of autistic adults who would find this behaviour very distressing and could respond aggressively?
Completely agree.
So @SiberianCake what if the OP is autistic? What would you say then? Judgemental people like you are the reason people with special needs avoid going out

Why is it your right to discipline a stranger's child?
If the parents aren’t stepping in and the OP is unhappy with the behaviour affecting her, why should she not?

Of course you weren't unreasonable. The mother wasn't doing anything to make her child behave appropriately, so you said shh - a totally appropriate way of quieting a toddler. If you'd yelled or being rude you'd have been unreasonable, shhing is how you speak to a toddler.

I’d have launched the kids out of the door to their doom! Little shits! Nothing worse than children on flights or to be fair any mode of transportation. If possible booking a seat in First/Business class is a good way to avoid them! That’s what I always do!

It’s no wonder that some children are brats with parents like some of the posters on here. Jesus wept.

PapaShango

You aren't a valid opinion on anything. You had 3 NT children. Lucky you.

Telling a child to stop screeching into your ear is hardly “disciplining” them, come off it. Parents of brats are outing themselves big time...

So basically we should ignore any bad behaviour/lack of discipline just in case the person has special needs?

You can't just discipline special needs out of a child.

For heavens sake, that’s not what the first quote was saying. What it was saying that why should we assume the child has special needs? Should we put all bad behaviour down to special needs?

YWNBU. You need to practice your death stare, stops a child dead at 20 paces.

Too many children these days have never been told NO. If the parent can't be bothered to parent their own child, it doesn't mean you should put up with screaming etc.

The parents defending the plane parents on this thread remind me of why I left teaching. Their little darlings can do no wrong! Never mind the rest of us who have to put up with it.

@SiberianCake
A coping mechanism ? Standing up on their seat screaming in someone’s ear?
That’s a new one to me!!

Really? Squeeling down a strangers ear in a confined space is OK now?
Holy cow I hope I don't end up on flights with some of your toddlers. Mine we encouraged to settle and be more quiet, using toys, crayons or the tv in the seat back in front of them. They are not the center of everyones world, only the parents world.

So many judgemental, nasty and ignorant people here. You can wear headphones. You can't tell people who have nonverbal, severe autism children to never travel. You cannot tell people who have moderate to mild autism children to never travel. No one is going to announce their health history to you and they don't need to do it for their child. If you had children who quieted with a shush then consider yourself blessed but that's not the case for everyone.

@piggywink aka miss trunchbull

Just kidding

Terrible to let kids loom over the seat in front and squeal in people’s ears.

But before shushing the kid you would have done better to say “that’s quite loud in my ear so if you could get him to sit down or talk quietly I’d be ever so grateful”

You shushed the child when it??? Stood on the seat. What’s wrong with he/she? Would you like to be referred to as it?

You were really rude. You absolutely shouldn’t have shushed someone else’s child. Particularly such a young one.

@SiberianCake
Bore off, this was not special needs, the parents were encouraging the screeching!
Be a martyr elsewhere

If the parents aren’t stepping in and the OP is unhappy with the behaviour affecting her, why should she not?

Exactly this. The only reason amprent would react the way she did would be because she was embarrassed, why would she be embarrassed? Because she is letting her child behave like a brat and she knows it.

MN isn’t the xxxxx and ❤️❤️❤️❤️ type of place.

No it's not.

aka miss trunchbull
The kids nearly drove me to it.
When I was young, naïve and newly qualified, I was Miss Honey

Non of us were on the plane so we don't know what key or what decibel the screaming was

Could've been worse

You could've shouted back SHUT THE FUCK UP

You were really rude. You absolutely shouldn’t have shushed someone else’s child. Particularly such a young one

And the behaviour that the parents of the child were permitting? What about the behaviour of the mother hurling abuse at the OP? what about how that was affecting the OP? Was that not rude?

Op I’d have done the same. Ywnbu.

Hell really is other people.

HE WAS 2!!! He wasn't 12! You have literally NO right to tell someone else's child to shhh.
What you do, as an adult, is turn to the other adult and say 'hi, I'm really sorry but I'm struggling with the noise - I've got a banging headache - would you mind keeping the noise down a bit?'.
What you don't do is wait until you're properly riled up and then shhh the child instead. How was your behaviour any better. Granted, the mother should have been trying to keep the child a bit quiter. But you should have approached it like an adult too.
And all these people quoting 'it takes a village' stuff. Yes, it does. A village of people who know the child, the family and the community. Not a bunch of random strangers on a flight. 'It takes a village' doesn't mean 'you've got every right to tell off any child you come across if you don't like they're behaviour' FFS.