Did anyone read the Jeremy Clarkson column re crying baby on the plane???!!!

[oliveoil]

\link{http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2092-2157701_1,00.html\arse}

bit long

Why are you fuming? Why DO people have to take their kids on long haul flights? I appreciate that some people have relatives a long way off (and that they can't all come and visit you if they are infirm) but why on earth do you have to go for holidays in NZ, USA etc? Wait until the kids are older and not just awkward baggage (and will remember the holiday too) and stick with Europe until they are 4-5 ish at least. I went to NZ when I was 2 and can't remember it so I didn't want to do the same to my ds.

And it is especially mean to go in club class with crying babies....the people there have spent a lot of money to sit there. They are not all rich businessmen - for some of them it might be the trip of a lifetime and then it's ruined by some crying baby (actually it's not normally the babies that are the nuisance rather than unruly toddlers since the aeroplane engines are so loud you can't really hear the babies crying).

If you know or suspect your child won't behave please please please - just don't do it and definitely not club class. My ds is ok on planes but we have only flown shorthaul to Ireland (once) and Germany (4 times) with him so far. Next year we're planning a trip to the US (East Coast) - when he'll be approaching 5. Hopefully he'll behave nicely - but we've a flight to Scotland in September and then we'll decide whether to go before he starts school or not.

actually rich businessmen (and even women) need a bit of P&Q in club too.
Generally they ain't on a jolly, they are working.
I seem to remember....

It made me laugh I'm afraid. I like his un-PC approach in this PC age.

What I have never understood is why they don't have a special children's section for the kids, who would behave much better if they had company anyway.

Flying out all my relatives to see me here? I would have to be a millionaire to afford that.

But hellywobs, you sound as if you only have one child, in which case what you're suggesting is a temporary inconvenience spanning say 4 or 5 years. But for those of us who go on to have more than one child - what then? Are you expecting us not to travel outside of Europe ever? Or should we just leave the baby at home, so that the rest of the family can still see their relatives?

And just to warn you - ever if your ds does survive another trip to Scotland, that still won't necessarily prepare you for a trip to the US. Sometimes people just have an off day - he could have a cold or soemthing. Not that that shoud worry you, but you make it sound as if there is a timetabling solution that will mean the perfect flight - there isn't. Yes, you can be better prepared but travel delays etc can still get you on the day.

Just noticed my typo - my husband used to get me stressed on planes not plains !

Hellywobs - our trip to Greece was a "dummy run" for the trip to South Africa, where we were going so that his great granny had a chance to meet ds. Even if he won't remember it, we'll be able to tell him that he learnt to climb stairs at his great granny's house.

It's a chicken and egg situation - some of the "delightful" children that you see, that are seasoned travellers, may well have been the horrors that are talked bout here - but have been travelling for long enough to have got used to it.

And in my expereince ( a vast one consisting of one ds), short haul flights (eg within Europe) can be just as much of a nightmare as long haul Ds always used to go to sleep on the long (overngiht) flights - wheas day time flights, we have to try to keep him occupied.

I agree with him too

I went on a 12 hour plane to America, I was only about 14 or 15 and their was a baby in front of us who cried the whole time. i thought it was really cruel of them to take a baby with them. obv this was pre kids.......so i was biased

The first time dd went on a plane she was 6 months old. It was all a tearable rush, and my Father died suddenly and we had to get a fight asap to get to my mother.

DD cried and cried and cried, thankfuly it was only and hour long flight.....and by a quirk of fate we were place in among a group of people who were all profoundly deaf.....you can't make things like this up. They could tell I was distraught, and were kindness itself to both dh, me and the wailing infant!

Erm, why especially not in club class?? It is okay to bother the poor people but not the rich? I would assume that if a family is in club class then they have paid for it too and deserve to be there... sheesh.

Thank god I don't let other peoples annoyances get in the way of me and my daughters life.

I remember wanting to 'sort out' a charming 6 year old (or so) who kicked the back of my seat for the whole 8 hours of a flight to the states. His mother ignored him totaly....nice!

Hmmm, one wonders if children should fly at all? After all many teenagers are loud and obnoxious, younger children are cheeky monkeys and babies just cry!

Agree littlesarah. I have only been on one long haul holiday ever (have also flown long haul to USA to work as au pair) and that was our honeymoon - we flew on the Sunday, the day after our long and exhausting wedding day. But we flew cattle class. Why would our special trip be less important than someone who flew club class?

With your 4.16 post, that is!

I wasn't cross with the child, so much as the mother who did nothing to stop her child's annoying behaviour.

She just sat there and did nothing to help the child entertain himself, so he amused himself by kicking my chair for 8 hours. By the end I could have comitted murder or the mother!

What are people getting their knickers in a twist about?! Of course it's annoying to sit next to a yelling baby for hours and hours. He had to do it, was fed up and wrote a column about it. I laughed.

That would be a PITA martionbishop... it always comes down to the parents in the end doesn't it?

Oh and Bozza... exactly!