Oh, I know, it’s so terribly sad I may cry right now.
Actually, I wasn’t talking about opinions I don’t like, I was talking about completely moronic opinions. If someone tells me that they are a birther or a creationist or whatever, that pretty much tells me everything I need to know about them.
You said it was unfair that you had to pay for your perfect puppy while the squalling brat flew free. Ignoring for now that babies are *people *and dogs are more like … cargo, so the cost of bringing them is in no way comparable, you clearly implied that perfect dog and bratty kid was the expected, standard way of things. If you actually recognized that either one can be annoying and either one can be perfectly fine, then why didn’t you say anything even remotely like that?
Well I’m sorry that you are too fucking cheap to pay for a seat in first class. Guess you don’t really want to be free from babies as bad as you claim.
When I had babies and flew, I would pass out those foam ear plugs to the people around me before the flight started. There was only so much under my control.
Now that I no longer have babies, I fly with the same ear plugs in my briefcase just in case. However, I find that I don’t need them. A crying baby doesn’t bother me, because I am secure in knowing that IT IS NOT MY PROBLEM ANYMORE!! WAHOOOOOO!!!
I fly every week for work. I fly through John Wayne airport, the gateway to Disneyland and other Orange County attractions. My flights are full of kids. If I had to list my issues in order:
Not getting my aisle seat.
Stuck in the middle between two other big guys (by big I mean shoulders - where someone has to sit forward).
Fighting over the armrest.
Loud mouths.
Drunks.
People WAY too large for their seats. Yes, I mean fat. Where their thigh is on my seat.
People who can’t lift their luggage (scares the shit out of me when they are getting it out and I am sitting in the aisle seat). Buddy lost a tooth that way.
Loud video games.
Crying.
Thank you. I’m just trying to get to understanding, rather than dismissing posters out of hand.
I should mention one rather pleasurable flight that I had a year or two ago. I got stuck in the middle seat. Better than the aisle, which I hate because I keep getting hit with drink carts and bathroom goers and Ambivilad. I like the window seat because I like the view and the relative privacy.
But I really respected and admired, for whatever reason, the aisle-seat mom for keeping her newborn baby quiet. And I made sure to thank her for that. The baby slept like… a baby!
So the real issue is my children flying for free? On the airlines I fly, I am charged 10% of the adult fare for a baby on my lap, and the full adult fare for my 2 year old who requires her own seat. The baby is supplied an extension seat belt by the airline, but I’ve voluntarily shelled out an additional $80 for an aviation safety harness for the 2 year old, to stop her being sucked out of a hole in the fuselage or becoming an inflight projectile. I’ll be bringing a range of quiet activities for the toddler, plus raisins and ear drops for takeoff and landing.
I was planning on breastfeeding the baby to help with her ears, but then I remembered that you are horribly offended by public breastfeeding. (Is mentioning the word breast OK? I forget.). So can’t decide whether letting the baby cry or embarrassing an entire plane with the occasional sight of a portion of my breast over the top of the baby’s head is less considerate. Decisions, decisions…
Nobody likes having to fly with thier infant child. So as much as you hate it, I’m sure the mom and dad hate it even worse. It’s probably 10 times more stressful for them as it is you and it is more than likely an unavoidable situation.
It was supposed to be fucking grating, though you took a little farther than I intended.
The difference between the infant and a person with one of those problems, is that the grown person can reason out the situation. Baby? All they know is that they are unhappy. Adult? I’d like to think that they can say “Ok, I just got fired so I’m in a shitty mood. So the crying baby is annoying me more than it usually would”
i get the difference between how babies and adults cope, believe it or not, but that really wasn’t my point. there’s a tendency in these types of threads for some to paint the single/childfree person’s life as being a constant party, with no real problems or responsibilities. (if only!) that’s what i take issue with.
i know most parents do the best they can, and i feel for someone who has to take an infant on a plane. sometimes you can plan ahead for any situation and you still get stuck with a crying baby you can’t console. i get that. i guess my whole point is that i don’t presume to understand what it’s like to care for a baby, so it would be nice for others not to presume that my(or anyone else without kids) biggest worry is sleeping off a hangover. i probably did make more of it than you intended, but that general attitude has long since been a pet peeve of mine.
Honestly I think that the flight attendants should be armed with tranq guns to deal with anyone who’s being a pain in the ass, no matter what their age. And while several people have complained about drunks, I’d volunteer that there would probably be fewer drunks on planes if there were fewer children.
Last flight I was on, my friends and I were surrounded (literally) by a couple and their six children under the age of ten. I can only assume they were crazy quiverfull people (she was visibly pregnant, and the youngest couldn’t have been much older than six months). After listening to the kids argue about who was going to sit next to who for twenty minutes while the parents pretended that the kids were equipped to work this out peacefully, you’d better believe that when the flight attendant showed up we asked her to bring us three drinks each and check back in each half hour.
Which of course I haven’t done. All I’ve done is expressed the opinion that having children doesn’t make anyone special and that society should quit making excuses for what too often passes as “parenting” these days.
For me, no they are not comparable. That puppy is mine and a baby is someone elses so obviously the puppy is more valuable to me than any given baby. Dogs are not cargo - cargo is not a living breathing thing. Also, the puppy was not in the cargo area, it was under my seat, so it wasn’t taking up any room that the airline planned to use for something else, and it weighed less than a baby. No, they are not comparable.
Because that wasn’t the subject. The only reason it is now is that you continue to make incorrect assumptions about what I post, due to your extreme bias.
Uh, what? I already have to pay more to fly many times than a baby, not wanting to pay for a first class seat is not even close to “too fucking cheap”, there can easily be babies in first class AND I was responding to someone suggesting that all babies be put in first class. Your response makes zero sense.
And I respect your right to complain about those things even tho almost none of them bother me. However, there is rarely any respect for people who dare to complain about children, even if there is no excuse for what they are doing.
Actually, comments here and elsewhere seem to indicate that most of the time parents are flying with babies to take them on vacation, to see relatives or other of that sort of avoidable situation.
Particularly since the children I complain about are the ones that the parent involved is not trying to do diddly about and obviously could not be bothered to plan ahead. I’m well aware that there are times when there is going to be crying that cannot be stopped, but all too often they just let the child cry, or run screaming down the aisle, or kick the seat or whatever without doing one damn thing. Or even better, get pissy when someone does something like insist the kid take it’s seat. Look at the comments in here - the OP complains about a baby that squalls thruout a flight, and the usual posse jumps all over him for daring to express irritation.
It’s hilarious that you have your panties all in a bunch about this, because it was your own vile quote with just a few words changed. Shoe’s on the other foot now that it’s your money*, huh? I know, I know, “but they don’t have to fly - they’re just going to visit relatives, those family-loving bastards!”. Well, you don’t have to fly either, so why don’t you learn to deal with it or stay home?
Please. Quit being such a drama llama. Nobody is angry that he dares to express irritation, they’re annoyed with him (and you) because he wants infants banned from flying and because he (and you) are basically calling all parents incompetent boobs who are complete fools for even wanting to take their own children with them anywhere. I know you like feeling persecuted, but there’s a difference.
As I’ve said before, it’s not a coincidence that you are surrounded by such annoying people - and it’s not the fault of the airports you fly out of, or the welfare queens in California, or your bouncy-castle neighbors. It’s because for some reason you delight in looking for the worst in people and decrying the state of the world today. News flash - the world is no worse than it was when you were a kid. If you just let things roll and didn’t always assume the worst about everyone, you might find that magically you will be surrounded by nicer people. But you won’t, because you inexplicably like being a bitter old bag.
Oops, sorry, that was just my ‘extreme bias’ against morons showing. I’ll try to keep that under control.
*well, sugar-daddy’s money anyways
Oh thats funny. :rolleyes: When my wife and I flew with my one year old daughter, normally a very quiet, well behaved kid, we booked a seat for her and brought a car seat for her to be strapped into on her own seat. However, the flight staff insisted that this could not be used during take-off, and I had to hold her on my knee, with an extension seat belt around her. She screamed and screamed all through take-off, and until the pilot turned off the seat belt sign, a long-long time, that seemed very much longer. Then eventually, we were allowed to set up her car set in the seat we had booked for her, strap her in, and she became her usual quiet, contented, well behaved self.
Maybe the finger of blame should not be pointing at kids or parents but at stupid and inflexible safety regs. (I can’t imagine that she was safer on my knee than in her car seat, even though it might be true that the car seat wold have slowed me down a tiny bit in getting to an an emergency exit, in the very unlikely event that that would have been necessary.)
Again with the stretching. There is a huge difference between being too fucking cheap to pay the price of a coach ticket, and being too fucking cheap to pay the price of first class, not to mention that apparently there are some airlines who charge less than coach for a young child in a seat. Not to mention that I am not bothering anyone (and if I was I’d do my best to fix it) whereas a squalling baby has the potential to bother quite a few people who cannot do anything to get away from it.
HA! This is hilarious. As for drama llama, it isn’t me who is characterizing words as “vile” and it isn’t me who is exaggerating what folks have said. Look at the title of this thread - infants fly free. Not ban the suckers, its “why are they free”. I’m not going to go back and read the whole thread again, so I’m sure that at some point there were posts about banning them totally, but for the most part we have addressed the OP - flying free.
I have also not called all parents incompetent boobs or complete fools. I have specified those parents who fly with babies who cannot be bothered to plan ahead - the fact that those parents are getting more common does not mean that I said all parents. Who is it that is feeling persecuted here? Hmmm?
Wow, talk about fantasies - what planet do you live on again? Also, more drama. Tsk.
Nope, it’s your kneejerk reaction to anyone who doesn’t agree with you that we should allow mothers to do whatever they want to do, no matter how many people it inconveniences, irritates or costs money. No, the world is not the same place it was when I was a kid if for no other reason, kids didn’t get away with being annoying little shits back then. “Seen and not heard” was real back then. Parents weren’t trying to be friends with their kids, there were no awards for just showing up and bad manners weren’t excused as self expression.
The only problem is that punishes the bad kids/parents as well as those of us who actually TRY to teach our kids to behave (no matter where they are). Since Stickman and I have both worked in retail/customer service and Stickman’s mom once worked as a stewardess for a short period of time, we’ve tried to teach him how to behave in public.
Generally, he does quite well. The only time I can remember he ever caused any sort of a problem on a flight was when he was 5 and he was SO excited that he stuffed his mouth full of crackers and managed to choke himself, then puked up the chewed up crackers on Stickman.
On the return trip, Stickman and I had both fallen asleep and Slim asked the stewardess for a Coke. She wisely woke Stickman up and asked if he was allowed to have one (he wasn’t..he got an apple juice instead but I had to give him points for having the balls to ask, yanno.:D).
No it’s not. I imagined them all the time for my own kids. Still do, at times (though nowhere near as often). We won’t discuss what I imagined for other people’s kids.
How best to demonstrate how stupid this OP is? Ah yes. Curlcoat agrees with you. I don’t think you could ask for much clearer proof that you’re talking absolute shite.
$35 buys you a set of decent, in the ear, noise blocking headphones. Combine that with the general engine noise, and you’re laughing, even the shoutiest of 2 year old tantrums becoming just a small part of the background noise to whatever you’re listening to. That’s all. Or alternatively just acknowledge that children are an essential part of the human race are children, and bloody learn to deal with it, rather than whining about them like a spoilt gobshite.
I spent a grand total of 23 hours across four flights on my recent vacation. The number-one most annoying thing that happened: A 20ish girl sitting diagonally from me had a friend seated way in the back of the plane, and this friend immediately hopped out of her seat to take a squatting position in the aisle to laugh and squee with her seated friend about all the awesome and hilarious hijinks they had had on their recent vacation. This was a 10-hour flight. Annoying Loud Squee Girl was camped next to my seat for around 3 hours of it. If you’re going to have a special noiseproof Baby Hold, I want to throw Squee Girl into it.
Second most annoying thing that happened: When I boarded the final flight of my trip, I was seated next to a guy who kept nudging me and trying to get me to commiserate with him about the people across the aisle who had a small child. “THIS should be good,” “ugh,” loud sighing, etc. It was fucking annoying. The kid was completely quiet through all of this, incidentally.
So, grand total for me in the Annoying Bullshit on Planes scorecard is Adults 2, Kids 0.
I like the window seat because I like the view and the relative privacy.
Fair enough!