Flying with the baby from hell

[Twiglett]

\link{http://www.timesonline.co.uk/newspaper/0,,2766-2157701,00.html\for some reason this Jeremy Clarkson article made me LOL}

it's Franny

:) handlemecarefully

Why do people take children in trasantlantic flights???? Why Franny, is that now perceived as the new form of child abuse? just puzzled...

Hear hear Milward
Hear hear Popadum
We live in Oz, I am British and DH is Aussie so wherever we lived we would need to travel with kids to visit rellies.
Believe me I would rather not have to, but it's a necessity for us.
And it's a bloody long way I can tell you.
Am due to make this journey by myself in the next 3 weeks with a 1 yo and am really looking forward to it.

Some very sarky and defensive replies on here.

ive travelled lots with little babies. and without, whilst others had their babies. and its always the parents who have annoyed me, not the screaming babies.
theyre babies remember?
what a nasty areticle

Yep if you don't like kids on planes - go on a boat or like somebody else said get a private jet. Then you wont have to mix with the likes of us. You'd hate me - I've got 3 of them and frequently take them on planes. I couldn't give a shite if you don't like it..............kids aren't second class citizens you know and sometimes a lot more polite than drunken yobs or tutting old fogeys. How do you manage to avoid those as well?

Seems like a touchy subject this doesn't it?

Personally, I have avoided travelling by plane, boat, train, bus with my kids, and just use my own car. Reason? So when they get hacked off with travelling I can stop, take a walk about with them, have something to eat etc, all at my convenience, to make things a little more pleasurable for them and for me. To take them on a transatlantic flight to me would seem like madness, and if DH had to travel for work (in a few weeks he's going to do some building work in Brittany for 3 weeks or so, which would be a fab holiday, I'd rather stay home than put the kids through a long journey). IMO it's not fair on them. Another reason? I chose to have my kiddiwinks, and I know they can be a handful and def. very noisy when they get a strop on and I don't feel it's fair to inflict them on other people who have paid for their ticket to wherever and just want a nice pleasant,quiet journey/holiday.

I think leaving the children in Economy and going business class myself is a fantastic idea. Will definitely try that next. I personally am much happier for other people to listen to DS screaming than for me to have to so it seems my problem is solved. It may not be fair for others to listen to my son screaming but I'm not sure life is 'fair' isn't that something very small children say when they don't get their own way?

Excuse me? why do we economy class travellers have to cope with first/business class travellers' children? we have already enough with our own!

Probably I should send DS in first class, it offers many advantages, more space for him to sleep and movies to chose from to keep him entertained, and hopefully a nicer and more polite fly attendant who will go the extra mile to avoid further disturbances.

What I understood from the article was that he was having a go at the parents who chosed the flight as the scenary for a bit of parental power struggle which sounds more like "it's your child not mine", the complain was baout the parent not about the baby... although the suggestion of the baby being eaten by sharks makes me wonder if I got it right