Should 1st class babies and children stay in 1st class?

[user30]

Long haul flight, economy on lower deck, business/1st class on upper deck.
From the moment the fasten seat belt signs went off there were between 1 and 7 women (I would guess nannies but I do not know) juggling babies and toddlers in economy as well as badly behaved children aged 3-7 running around and making a huge mess in the bathrooms. I was on the front row and was repeatedly tapped and asked to tuck my legs under my seat to give them more space.

Cabin Crew seemed irritated (at one point 2 children threw handfuls of rice down the stairs onto a Cabin Crews head!) but only said something when a boy started throwing (unused) sanitary towels at economy passengers.

AIBU to think that everyone including children should stay in their own section of the plane? It was a nightmare and I am very tired so may be a bit cranky 😂

They should have been asked to step outside for a few minutes to calm down.

I think I would have stuck my feet out more and told those kids to get lost and out of where I was sitting

I have flow. With my toddler upper deck and then taken him down for walking laps but have never let him run amok without me closely behind! Bad parents, it’s not really ok on a plane or anywhere else to let your children run wild

Frankly the crew should have spoken to the parents of those children and warned them that if they did not control their children they would be blacklisted from ever flying with their airline again. Their behaviour was no more acceptable than drunk adults kicking off. Have had flights with the odd screaming child/kicker of the back of my seats, but nothing like this.

You should complain to the airline, as they need polcies in place to empower their staff to deal with this kind of thing.

Absolutely

Emirates crew will never do that to Arabs. They know better than that.

I'd have told the children off, held their hands and taken them back upstairs, asked them to point out their mummy/daddy and insisted they parent their child properly. If they came down again I'd have asked crew to sort or gone and argued with the parents. Wankers.

We take our toddler to the other side of the world to see grandparents at least annually. I won’t fly Emirates as I find their staff to be totally ineffective and the other passengers can be awful. They tried to use me as a free baby sitter for 2 unaccompanied children when I had a babe in arms and I ended up having a bit of a row with them as I wanted to sit on the aisle, and have my husband between me and the two young teenage boys.

Singapore Airlines on the other hand is brilliant and by far our preferred airline on this route.

Ah great, the parents wanted some peace in first class so they sent the Nannies off with the kids to annoy the plebs? What entitled arseholes.

If that's the case why weren't the nannies being spoken to I wonder?

'...juggling babies and toddlers...'?

I'm not sure I believe this, you need quite a lot of head room for such an opeation (see photo) and I don't think there would be sufficient on an aeroplane - even in First Class.

I tutored a family with two boys. They had a nanny each, 2 housekeepers and a driver. They also had a lot of wasta.

I asked my husband which airline this was and he said Emirates straight away.

This.

We stayed at Lapita over a weekend and were shocked to see the nannies having breakfast with the kids. Then the tantrums by 10 years olds - I want a golf buggy you can’t expect us to walk!

It's nothing to do with ill treatment it's to do with basic standards, safety and decent behaviour towards others.

Believe me my child would get very short shrift if he was running about an aeroplane, endangering himself and other passengers (because if there was an emergency then a herd of wild children would make things harder) AND / OR stamping on a complete strangers foot.

Frankly I'd have been tempted to frog march the stamping child up the stairs and confront his parents. If it had been anything but an aeroplane I'd have been chucking him off never mind telling him off!!

Is there really a society in which assaulting people is considered an acceptable way to behave? Really?

The nannies won’t discipline the kids. Think super indulged children.

I've seen this on other flights though, but usually where the parents are seated in 1st/Bus and the nanny and the children seated in economy. The brass neck of buying children and presumably nanny seats in 1st and then sending them to economy to play is next level.

Down being the operative word?

Just trip the kids up, and claim blind it was accidental. The kids will know it was not and hopefully stay away from you.

This thread is horrible. So full of thinly concealed racism and jealousy.

I posted this. It was not racism or jealousy. But if kids are running about, climbing over passengers and no one will do anything, what do you think you should do?

No it isn’t

And criticising the behaviour of someone who happens to be rich can be simply criticising their behaviour. There is a certain kind of rich person who thinks anyone criticising their behaviour is just jealous.

OP a friend of mine was a Nanny for a long time and frequently had to travel economy with the children while the parents stayed in 1st class. She’d sometimes fly with 3-4 young children solo. So this story isn’t surprising to me!!

Just put up with it and smile sweetly at the children presumably.

@Fluffybutterfly So you'd be OK with that kind of behaviour being directed at you - or are you one of those mums who super indulge your kids and frankly couldn't give a damn about their behaviour because you farm it out to someone else?

I couldn't give a flying f*ck if the kids were Arab, European, Asian, African or Chinese ...flying first class or economy... if they were behaving like the OP and others describe I'd react. It would be nothing to do with jealousy and everything to do with them being unpleasant little sods and disturbing and endangering me and my family.

Not sure how that fits in with racism or jealousy?

(Note to self - I don't think I'm suited to flying Emirates)

Because most parents here do not have nannies who are too scared to discipline the kids for fear of being sacked.