flight etiquette

[CaptWingoBings]

Just back from hols, 7hr flight with DC age 5 and 2. Bemused by flight etiquette as I got glared at by the woman in front for reading my DC stories. I was not speaking ridiculously loudly, just conversational! My goal for flights is to keep child based disruption to a minimum but I consider 'normal' life acceptable eg my children talking to each other about their drawings, my reading stories... Not loud parenting & I don't do accents ... Did I miss a memo?

If it was an overnight flight then yes, that would be unacceptable. But on a daytime flight perfectly fine (and much better than them running up and down the cabin).

Daytime flight!

She probably wanted you to sit in silence !
We read with me in the middle and a dd either side - and we do sound effects as well .. Hope I don't find her on a flight soon !!!

I thought you were going to say you reclined your seat back as soon as the seatbelt sign went off. You would've had a death stare

dh has a friend who recently flew back from the Caribbean and a couple were very rude about their children. The first officer had to come out of the cockpit to speak to them. The kids were just a bit fidgety.

next time start letting a story about fat ugly old bag on a plane who gets smothered/eaten/thrown out the window...

There is always someone on a flight who is miserable and will moan at the slightest thing. She would have been even more upset if your children had been restless and bored because you hadn't kept them amused.

I would have started reading louder and put on all kinds of silly voices just to give her something to really glare about!

ignore. There is no 'selfish whiner' check when plane tickets are booked. And most planes provide headphones.

At that point I would have contemplate telling my kid to kick the back of her chair for the rest of the flight in silence assuming day flight.

Aren't planes quite noisy? Can the person in the row in front really hear you if you're speaking in a standard talking voice? Or is that just the cheap flights I'm used to?

Sailors, did the first officer have to speak to the parents or the complaining couple? what was said?

I'd have swapped you for the selfish parents we had behind us on a flight recently.

The dad had the PFB on his lap, he used the lap tray as a drum and the footbar, under my seat, as something to bang his feet against to keep baby amused! Mother moaned about being in a middle and window seat for a fucking hour so the man next to them offered to swap. She refused! She, also, had a very loud moan at the air hostess because there was no where to put her sunhat without it getting squashed!

When we came home they sat on the otherside of the plane, thankfully. When we got off after them I have never seen such a mess in all my days.

Behind us though, coming home, was an oldish woman, who moaned and groaned for the whole flight about how children under 5 shouldn't be on planes! They were making less noise than her!

I think quite often just the sight of a small child on a plane causes people to lose all sense of perspective, so every tiny sound is magnified in their mind.

I'd rather a wee one than a hen night...

"Aren't planes quite noisy? Can the person in the row in front really hear you if you're speaking in a standard talking voice? Or is that just the cheap flights I'm used to?"

I was wondering that as well. Someone sitting behind me on a plane would have to have a very loud voice for it to disrupt my journey.

She had reclined her seat so it did feel like she was quite in our story space!
Maybe she just didn't like our faces...