Good parenting is something that, if neglected, screws a kid for life. It’s pretty sad, actually.
My boys (6 & 9) will be flying cross-country in a week or so, in first class. I will call my shot right now and say that there will be no complaints from fellow passengers about their behavior. Guaranteed. Good behavior is second nature to them because we do it all the time, like I said upthread. Starting when they are extremely young, you take them lots of different places with different standards of behavior. They learn by observation and repetition.
Forget the airplane- if your kids have no manners, I don’t want to see them in a restaurant, at the mall or at the park, either.
Well, this stuff was drilled in from an early age- shopping trips, doctor’s appointments, you name it, we were expected to behave. If we weren’t well-behaved, that trip wouldn’t have happened…there had been a long discussion whether the littlest one was ready.
My parents used to give us each a surprise present on the day of a trip- it would be some toy that would keep us occupied for the duration of the travel time.
Probably the worst kid experience I’ve had in a plane was toddlers running up and down the aisle yelling and chasing each other. One also developed a fascination with the ash try on my arm rest, and would pause in his running to play with it. The parents didn’t do a thing to curtail their children.
There are, I believe, three play areas in the terminal of Oslo’s airport: one in the arrival hall (for kids waiting for arriving passengers) and one each in the domestic and international departure halls. They are small, but they are well-marked, and pulled back a little from the traffic areas. The two in the departure halls are near windows that offer views of airplanes, and what kid doesn’t think that’s cool?
The play area in the arrival hall is just as much of a godsend as those in the departure halls, if you’re waiting for Nanny and Pop-pop with an excited three-year-old.
That’s similar to what I do with my kidlet - whether we’re going by car, plane, or train. I wrap up a bunch of cheapie dollar-store offerings, one per hour we’re likely to be trapped in small surroundings like a plane and such. Simply having gifts to unwrap gift adds both quiet time and fun, and really who can resist silly putty or color-changing stickers?
That being said, my child also is aware of the Hairy Eyeball of Doom should she get annoying and was quite shocked when we were on a plane trip that included an unmanaged rugrat. There’s nothing quite like a five year old’s voice sounding like a disapproving school marm saying, “Doesn’t that child know any better?!?”
Weft
Come to think of it, the last trip (car) I didn’t even need to offer several of the gifts so they went back into the Caught Being Extra Good basket. I’ll miss this age.
Heh. It’s even better than a big ol’ flying bus. It comes with added turbulence, ear drum agony, a giant security circus before you’re allowed on board, and you’re not allowed to change your mind and get off half-way if your fellow passengers become unbearable. And as an extra bonus, sometimes you have to ride a normal bus to get to the flying bus!
I hate planes, but they’re the only practical way to get to some places. I have come to the realisation that if I hate them at the supposedly mature age of 34, it’s only reasonable that I would have hated them when I was a toddler, so I’m relatively philosophical about the odd screamer. However, concentrating enough of them together that a group howl could overwhelm my earplugs - that seems unwise.
I don’t think this would work because there just aren’t enough families traveling at any one time to fill enough of the plane to make it worth the airlines’ effort–it just seems that way.
They still have to tell people to take their car keys out of their pockets before they go through metal detectors–you want to introduce enforced family-only zones on airplanes? Not gonna happen. And, as somebody mentioned above, if there are ten seats left in the kidzone and ten people travelling alone, hoping to get on the flight? People are already paying full price for those seats next to kids anyway.