I was not there but I suspect that the parents weren’t really attempting to calm and seat the child. As she was crawling over and under the seat and hitting her parents.
My point? Those of us that are non-parents can tell when the child rules the household and when the parent has checked out. The first situation seems to to be this cause celeb. The second situation is illustrated by the following:
I worked in Ivey’s ( a fine department store) with the wide open design-no walls just dividers separating departments. So one could if one liked shout from one side of the store to another and be heard quite well. And one day a family came in and it was a Mommy w/ a bun in the oven, a Daddy, a toddler, and a (5mth->8mth) baby in a carrier on Mommy’s back. This baby was CRYING to be fed. The poor thing was crying for over an hour. The place nearly came to a standstill. I have never given birth but I have had three younger siblings and BY GOD! I know what the cry was for , “FEED ME!” The group went from one side of the store to the other with the child wailing. Both parents had completely tuned the child out. And the only reason I did not say anything is that I had never been a parent and could not mentally put myself in their shoes to understand. And there was no way for me to help-I didn’t have a bottle or filled breast to offer the child.
Not the same situation as with very young kids, but the subject is leading me down memory lane…
My brother, sister, and I, at ages 8,6, and 10, would fly cross-country, NY to LA, alone, to visit our Dad.This was back in the 70’s, when you still dressed up to fly, and, granted, airports weren’t as crowded as they are now. The airline staff was notified you were flying alone, and helped out, making sure you got to your seat and were picked up by the parent at the end of the flight.
We just never imagined you could act up on the plane. Even my brother, dignosed as hyperactive in the earlier days of that diagnosis, just made a couple of trips to the bathroom because it was cool to see the whooshy toilet flush, and get some “free” soap, but when I told him that was enough, he went to reading the Mad and Cracked magazines Mom had sent us off with. We weren’t goody goody kids at all, but just knew not to act stupid in a public place. Maybe it was a simpler time, as, when we got on the plane, the pilot would show us the cockpit, and the stewardess would then give you little plastic Jr Pilot wing pins. Does that happen anymore?
Gahhh, I’m feelin’ old…
IMO the parents’ behavior is very important with regards to how such a situation is perceived.
I ride the train to and from work every day. It’s not unusual for the return run to have folks who brought kids downtown for the day.
No, it is not a church or a library, but is it a public accommodation in which I believe all passengers ought to act in a way that minimizes their disturbance of their fellow passengers.
Lots of these kids are tired and cranky - others are excited and boisterous. In either case, it makes all the difference to us fellow riders if the responsible adult is at least addressing the situation, trying to quiet down the loud kid. Instead, you often see a couple of adults sitting on the end of a long line of rowdy kids - or the adults will sit down below while the kids party on the upper level. The adults chat among themselves while essentially ignoring the “kids being kids” other than perhaps directing an occasional ineffective word in the kids’ direction.
No, I don’t like having to hear a bunch of rowdy or whiney kids on the train, any more than I would like to hear a bunch of rowdy drunken adults. But I will cut a ton of slack if it appears that the adults are at least trying to instruct the kids on proper respect for others.
Is This the thread you were thinking about?
-Lil
No, even older. I remember where I was when I wrote some of my replies in the thread I’m thinking of, which puts it in 1999 or thereabouts. I’ve tried various search strategies, but it seems to be one of those that’s been lost along the way.
Heh-heh. That was one great thread. It had everything: drama, humor, invective, passion, you name it. If I had something like that to read every day, I’d NEVER get any work done. 