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 😂

I would have gone up to 1st class and spoken to the parents myself!

They wouldn’t have cared.

They should be supervised by their parents. I would have complained to the cabin crew

The parents don’t care, or it wouldn’t be happening.

Seen something similar on Emirates though we were flying business and all the shitty kids went down to play in economy so for us it was good. That being said, I know where you're coming from, we used to live in Dubai and I always said if you are on the fence about having kids go to a Dubai mall, instant birth control. Some of the shittiest kids I've ever seen live there and their parents are beyond useless.

This is very common in the Middle East and India, the kids are horrible and usually entitled with parents who won't do anything.

Good luck with that…

@notanotheronenow 😂😂😂 I work with the parents, my job isn't bollocking kids for doing what they're being allowed to do.

Oh yes, I've flown Emirates, Etihad and Qatar airlines a lot and this is absolutely the norm.

@Emz1212 I work mostly with neurodivergent children. Sleep training/hygiene, improving diet and behaviour around food, sibling bonding work etc. its very rewarding.

Yep. Worth writing a public review of course.. but doubt it will change anything, the crew aren’t empowered to do anything.

That might not have been wise..

But certainly they wouldn’t give a shit

What happens if the kids hurt themselves

Does everyone think serves them right

Or having acid thrown at them. When I lived in Dubai I saw multiple stories of nannies and maids having acid thrown at them. Horrible place full of horrible people.

That is horrible

YANBU - but from the view of being a safety purist I personally don’t agree with any walking around on a plane other than to the loo. If you hit turbulence it’s very easy to get a serious injury or worse.

Was going to say the same, career ending probably, I worked for a major UK airline and one girl I trained with left to go to Emirates and said the same thing about the culture over there

This is mainly why I stopped flying Gulf airlines, some of the passengers are awful and make regardless of what class you're sitting in they can make the journey very unpleasant.
I prefer now to use Asian airlines even if the connections aren't quite are convenient for us.

Absolutely missing the point of the thread but if you're going to pack your kids off to the nanny in economy why wouldn't you book them into economy with the nanny in the first place? At the very least they'd have their own seats then.

Would do absolutely nothing to solve the OP's problem though.

Not the least bit surprised it was Emirates.

We flew long haul with them 6 years ago (2 seven hour flights through Dubai) and the behaviour was disgusting.

On those flights all the men disappeared upto business class and left the kids with women in economy.

It started with a girl of about 6 putting her bag down and turning to cabin crew saying "you put that up"

The kids were running up and down the aisle during take off and landing and were generally obnoxious throughout the whole thing

I knew it was an Emirates flight as soon as I read the opening post. The nannies were also most likely from another part of the world. One of many reasons I could not live in Dubai/UAE

Everyone on the thread, or the parents?

I think most people on the thread would think it is the foreseeable consequence of their bad behaviour, so maybe not “serves them right” as much as “play stupid games, win stupid prizes”. Fuck knows what the parents would think, would probably blame the nanny.

You would not be allowed upstairs. Plus, you cannot insist anyone parents properly unfortunately. Nor can you expect crew to intervene in a situation they have no power in.

A huge lack of understanding here about Arabic culture and ‘parenting’ generally, but having lived in ME fro many years and flown frequently to and fro, they also do not give two hoots about air safety either. Many a flight I have been on when they have been wandering up and down the aisle during take off and landing whilst the crew gesticulate wildly and implore them to sit down…