The Great British Travelling Public are such child hating wankerish gits and if I could slaughter them wholesale without incurring a penal sentence, I surely would

[handlemecarefully]

I don't know if anyone else experiences this - I am talking about hostile attitudes towards children, and their parents when travelling. I never encounter this more acutely than when I am on a plane with the kids or a train.

Just got back from a trip to Paris on Eurostar. Travelled in first class and had misfortune to be adjacent to late middle aged couple on outward journey. Oh how they heaved, sighed and tutted and exchanged highly significant glances in passive aggressive way when one of the lo's so much as muttered anything. I have to say my 4 and 5 year old were pretty good but they had the occasional grumble during a long boring and confining journey as young children are inclined to do.

When ds momentarily (all of 30 seconds) shrieked his disapproval about something (he was upset with the food provided, lol) there was a loud 'shush' from someway amongst the wankerish fellow passengers. So I might have let rip with a rant (just possibly -certainly dh told me to calm down)

Same thing on return journey in 1st class with Eurostar. This time next to 30 something Essex couple (snob alert - elocution like Jade Goody btw) who were obviously (i) childless and (ii) full of own self importance being owners of car clamping business - thats a guess btw (lots of stroppy mobile calls to recalcitrant employees telling them they were not good 'enuff'). 30 something woman looked like she was sucking lemons most of the time - I think my playing hangman with dd was a gross imposition (although she probably wouldn't know what that meant)

Strangely the travellers on London Underground were the nicest and most ammeanable (smiling at the children etc)

Does anybody else experience this when travelling?

sorry to hear your all too common tale of rudeness HMChad the misfortune to fly from Italy with 2 ole gumpers swearing, moaning all the way about "wimmin, kids, blah blah in my day" oh and they stank of piss

I recently took then 14 week old DS to London and had a generally good experience.

Both ways on the train DS was pretty noisy (no real crying but he burbles and shoutd at people) We had a few tuts but mostly smiles when he caught people's eyes.

on the way there at Marylebone a nice man carried my rucksack off and helped me on with it. On the way back nobody asked me to move DS who was happily propped on the seat people-watching even though the train was packed. Not sure how they would have like sitting so close to a breastfeeder though :-)

On the tube each time there was no seat I got at least one offer - though its more hassle than its worth to take off the rucksack for one stop!

I was pleasantly surprised though I'm not sure what reception I would have got had he cried more

My worst experience was travelling alone with three children on Easyjet to majorca. Dd2 was about 6 months, the others 4 and 9.

Easyjet staff let us board first, but when we got to the aeroplane steps, and in the time it took me to collapse dd2's buggy a perfectly able-bodied couple in their mid-fifties pushed in front of us and bagged the bulkhead seats with extra legroom. Bastards.

Normally I'm very conscientious about preventing my children from kicking the seats in front, but on this occasion I just let them get on with it. Oh and dd2 got into that 'hysterically overtired but can't get it together to fall asleep so I'll just wail loudly at my lot' mode. Justice.

i was travelling alone from up north, high summer no a\c, packed train as loads had been cancelled.

i noticed a woman with a very young baby and a toddler crouched near the door, she was breastfeeding. nobody offered her a seat she looked very distressed.

i went to tell the guard and he said go and tell her to come to first class. so off i went , took her toddler, buggy, bag, still no help from anyone, and plonked her in first class. both children then started crying. a young s* then remarked that he hadnt paid all that money to listen to brats. to this day i kick myself i couldnt think of anything to say to him.

My approach when going on a long flight is this: when we get to our seats, I stand and face everyone around us. I say loudly: I sincerely apologise in advance for any disturbance our children may cause. We'll try our best to keep them quiet but they're small boys...

So far, I've never had a bad result. Everyone is sympathetic and smiling and tend to help more.

Oh - unrelated but a train story so thought I'd share. My DH was doing his return commute from london, standing in the bit between carriages and some very unlovely people got onto the train and proceeded to light up cigarettes. (this was two weeks ago so no smoking laws have been around for some time)

DH says: excuse me, could you put those out please? They give him a whole bunch of attitude along the lines of: what you going to do about it?

So DH leant forward, pulled fags out of their mouths and threw them out of the window. He's six foot five and ex-military. They shut up after that and everyone else in the immediate vicinity thanked him.

I'd never have been brave enough - too many weirdos around who might pull a knife or something - but I thought well done him.

My DH was unfortunate enough to encounter a male idiot child hating nutter on a London Underground train. This person who was in the process of getting off at his stop leant over before disembarking and told DH off in a nasty and threatening manner because my son (who btw had paid for a ticket) had the audacity to be seated next to my DH!. He felt that my DS should have given up his seat. Well the train was half empty at this point so there were seats available anyway. This bloke's girlfriend was with him - she to her credit looked horrified. TBH if there had been any LT staff in the vicinity I would have reported this man.

Have been in Club World on BA with my son also and have had no bother from any pax at any time. The only crapola I've ever had from a fellow pax was this child hating woman a few years previous who took an irrational dislike to my son walking past her on the flight. She literally pulled herself back into her seat every time he (or any other child) walked past. Stupid cow!!.

Have also travelled Leisure Select on the Eurostar to Brussels and have never had any bother from any child hating numbnuts. Infact fellow pax have been understanding. This is also perhaps because we've used this service in the evening.

Top tip for Eurostar: book over the phone. Ask for the child carriage. This is a carriage that is mostly people with kids, so they all run amok. Very easy journey, ime.

Yes, there are a few childless people in there, presumably they were rude to the people on the phone?

I use public transport in London all the time and find people generally friendly and helpful. Planes I hate, long distance train journeys I feel tense, like I have to keep the kids really well behaved. I haven't experienced anything as outrageous as you describe - perhaps something to do with First Class = Highly Intolerant ??

I've never experienced anything like this. Perhaps I'm just very thick skinned.
Or my DC are incredibly well behaved
Or perhaps it's because I always travel economy...

I always get old ladies on buses telling me how lovely they are.

Most people are pretty nice really...

i must say travelling on the underground is a pleasure, last time dd and i were walking down a huge flight of stairs, i noticed no one was passing us, 2 transport police were behind us making sure no one overtook us.

i remarked to dh that dd gets so many comments and smiles, mostly from tired commuters. surprising really after incessant i spy.

I've travelled first class Eurostar and it was fantastic. The only problem was we were with MIL and FIL who had bought DS lots of toys to "occupy him on the journey" which were incredibly noisy and annoying. They spent their whole time cringing at every noise, electronic or otherwise, made by DS.

I was fuming as I find the best way of handling it is to have the hide of a rhinoceros and serenely rise above anything that isn't actually offensive. I don't even notice if there are passive aggressive tutters. They are not there, only my delightful child.

I do ensure he keeps the noise down, doesn't fidget, bash or invade others' space but I refuse to apologise for the simple fact of his existence.

Ds and I are going to Paris in the summer holiday. I think he'll go down very well in first class . I shall warn you before we go.

"I was fuming as I find the best way of handling it is to have the hide of a rhinoceros and serenely rise above anything that isn't actually offensive. I don't even notice if there are passive aggressive tutters. They are not there, only my delightful child. "

Agreed - excellent strategy - but far easier said than done!

A bit surprised everyone has had such a good reaction on the underground, although it maybe has got better recently, lots of stations near us and on my trips between work and schools have escalators out of order including one long one and I did get offered help several times (although I am travelling wiht a toddler, baby pushchair and bag. I just wish LU would put up a sign before you go throught the gate (and fix them once and for all one station was shut for ages a few years ago)

The very worst reaction I have had was on a flight leaving USA.

AMerican airlines I think.
We were about 9 hrs late taking off,no news/updates given at all. I think we had spent an extra hour or two on the tarmac again with no news

ds in sitting down pushed with his feet on the seat in front, I told him not to as you do.

I think the stewardess saw him, she literally turned on me hissing and spitting and said if he did that agian she would have us thrown off the plane (what a relief I thought ) and proceeded to yell and shout at me. I asked to see her supervisor so they sent someone up from ground crew who wanted to talk about baggage. I asked again they ignored me.

They refused to serve him any food.

Several passangers around (including Americans) said they thought she had been outrageous and would speak up for me when the supervisor came.

She never did, writing this I realise to my shame I never wrote to complain.

The sad thing was

a) ds was asleep before takeoff
b) even stretched ds was too short for his legs to reach the seat in front

American airlines are foul I personally their staff steal twice from passangers in 2 flights, when I conplained to dsis she told me

Everyone knows americal arilines are c$%p, why do you think I never fly with them?

At which point I thanked her for warning us

1dilemma - what a horror story

Shit I am flying to the US in August - dh booked it. I hope to God it is BA rather than American Airlines

I hope so to but it sounds like you'll be the match of most stewardesses!
Enjoy your trip

Absolutely shameful On last long haul flight, announcement was made that there was a child with a serious nut allergy on board (my ds) so there would be no nuts on sale and could passengers refrain from eating their own. Man sitting across aisle from my ds said loudly "FFS, it's all fing allergies nowadays, what a load of bull*"

I've got a story to add.
We've moved to Sydney and DH went ahead of me (cunning) to set up his business/find us a house etc.. So, I had too travel from Heathrow to Sydney with DD (11months) on my own. Singapore air helped me get to the departure lounge and then I was stuck amongst the most po faced British twats I have ever encountered. DD was amazing, but it was the 1st flight for the airbus 380 (double decker plane) so there was a party to wave it off. We actually got nudged out of the way by some disapproving overly made up Chanel clad face lift bints, with bubs the one being nudged the most. Someone else nearly trod on her and NOBODY offered us a seat. So we sat on the floor and got glared at by people sitting on seats. She was pretty good all the way except when she couldn't sleep and the tutting...oh the tutting... Do we really want this reputation? No wonder we're called whinging poms over here.
Dreading going back to face it all over again!

BTW Scottishmummy your post made me laugh!
Forgot to say that I was told off for breastfeeding by two oldies in Bedford last year. So I offered them some in their tea - hoho!

What I really hate is when I am in a restaurant having a meal, someone chooses to sit near me and then huffs about my children

The way to rise above it all is to drink large amounts of gin

I second Littlelapin on the Far East... the only problem is having to slow down so often for your children to be adored. Took DDs on Eurostar and had a middle-aged stoney-faced woman next to us on the hot and delayed journey home. There were plenty of single seats for an unburdened single person to move to but of course she just scowled at us every time DD1 so much as moved. After lots of whispered directions to keep still, behave etc I had an epiphany and just whispered to her not to do it because the lady that doesn't like children doesn't like it... I then sat back and enjoyed 3-year-old DD asking me intermittently for the rest of the trip in the only voice my Dad can hear without a hearing aid "where's the lady-who-doesn't-like-children?", "why doesn't she like children?" etc. She didn't offer to help with our bags when we reached London.