Stopped at McDonald’s for a quick lunch yesterday. Sat down at one of the tables that shares a long bench with other tables, once of which has some sort of light up colored grid on it.
Older than me (pretty sure) gentleman parks his granddaughter there (4-6? I’m terrible at kid ages), tells her the lights change color, goes to order.
She gets bored of course, scoots over on the bench, asks what I’m doing (eating and playing a word game on my phone). She ponders a bit, then asks if I’m a stranger. I admit that I am, and she scoots back to her play table.
I say that was probably a good idea, and she smilingly nods agreement. Then shortly thereafter scoots back over and we chat some more. She points out her poppa, then, since I apparently look a bit slow on the uptake runs over to him and points to make sure I know who she is talking about.
One thing I didn’t grasp until I had a child is that kids are objectively pretty adorable. Especially at that age where they’re guileless and everything is something new to discover.
Children’s behavior is pretty universal globally. They haven’t yet learned prejudices. The are normally very positive on their outlook, as long as their very basic needs are being met. This has been my experience in all of the countries I have visited, and children are my basic hope for humanity.
Kids are enormously gullible, too. My brother used to tell my niece and nephew the most outrageous stories when they were little that they completely swallowed. We all laugh about it now.
Yeah. Kids are ‘too’ cute!
They can turn on a dime, tho’
I was behind a lady with the most adorable and sweetist looking little girl who was having a complete melt down. Having a fit, throwing things, hitting at her Mom who was good at catching her flying hands.
I’ve lost patience with that behaviour, of late.
The grandwrex can be really obnoxious. I can walk out of the room on them. That’s a nice upgrade from my own kids.
This morning we’re boarding a flight from Miami to Mexico City. I’m back in the galley getting a coffee and the FO is up in the cockpit. I start to head back and there’s a little Latino boy in there talking to the FO who’s Caucasian but speaks good Spanish. OK; we do kids in the cockpit all the time. I was surprised to not see a Mom or Dad with a camera at the ready, but it’s all good. Anyhow, they finish a couple sentences back and forth I can’t quite hear and the boy comes out smiling bigly.
FO says: "I asked him if he wanted to be Captain today. He answered “I can’t; I’m only 5.”
But other than that minor obstacle he was ready to give it a whirl. Yaay kids!
My three year old son doesn’t even have tantrums like this. He calms down really quickly when upset. So at worst, he might throw himself on the floor and cry, but twenty seconds later he just chills back out. However as I have learned about the realities of having a kid with a developmental disability I am a lot less quick to judge how other people’s kids behave in public. Tantrums are a pain in the ass but they are for the most part developmentally normal, and in cases where they seem extreme there’s probably a little something extra going on there. That’s easy for me to say when I don’t have to deal with them, though.
We could probably start a whole thread about pilot interactions with little kids. I’ve got a few stories like yours…
Flying charter, we have really good snacks and drinks on board. One time we had a family with a little girl of about three. During cruise I went back and asked if anyone needed anything. Everybody said no, they were fine, except the little girl. When she thought no adults were looking she said to me, very politely, “Cookies please.”
Unfortunately, Mom was listening and put the kibosh on that immediately. I told the kid, “Good try”, when I thought nobody could hear ME.
Nowadays I get a lot of cute kid interaction via my grandkid. Just at the age where you can get semi-intelligible complete sentences. The latest cutism: “Whacha doin’ grandma?”
We have a whole rigamarole after Mom & the kid are out of earshot based on that movie. If the parents only knew.
I can’t speak for all airlines, but we stock them. I personally don’t bother, but some pilots and many FAs do.
I think it’s especially rewarding when a little girl or little non-white and/or non-US kid comes up and can interact with a non-cishetwhitemale’Merkin pilot. Cishetwhitemale’Merkins still being frankly the vast majority of us, but less so all the time. You can see them realize: wow, somebody who’s like me can do this. Makes my day to see them light up.
Rode with a buddy and his 2 kids, 10 and 12 yesterday. 10 YO looks like 6 and can barely touch the ground, but was totally game. We were talking about the Stark Varg, 80 hp electric dirt bike, and she quietly says “Dad, you have to get that!”
I like the a way kids are just totally in the moment. You see them dragged along shopping with a parent and they may be singing or dancing to the music playing in the store, or sometimes just that in their heads. Totally oblivious to the world.
A few days ago I saw a boy about 8, down the aisle in the supermarket, dancing away happily until he saw that I had glanced his way. He abruptly stopped. So, as I was walking past him and his mother I said to him, “Some cool moves you’ve got there.” He happily replied, “Thanks.”
About twenty years ago, I was on a Southwest Airlines flight on Christmas eve. As I boarded, I noticed three little girls in seats 1A, 1B and 1C, the first portside seats next to the door. They were wearing matching Christmas sweaters and candy-cane-striped leggings or long socks. They were also happily munching on cookies. They were really cute. (I imagined that they were on their way to grandma’s house for the holiday.)
