I don’t recall ever seeing anyone in one of these types of threads saying, “Gosh…they’re kids. Let them do what they want, you heartless cow!” when the behavior was as undeniably shitty as you’ve described. I don’t think any parent on these boards would call that behavior even remotely acceptable. The hyper-defensive way you started out your rant says a lot about you, in my opinion.
Nonetheless, I’m sorry you had to deal with that. People are assholes everywhere, it seems.
Una, your rant was beautiful. Made me think of this. for some reason.
That’s also one of those times it good to have a shaved head and look like some kind of Generic Evil Bastard™
What are you, new? Naturally we have the mealy mouthed “won’t someone think of the children” folks that show up in these type of threads.
Shit, we already have DaddyTimesTwo implying that there is some character flaw on Una’s behalf because she doesn’t like children in general.
The sad truth is people with children in public are high impact. They are louder, take up more room, slower and except in rare cases where the parent has made an effort to teach the little newts to behave in a civilized way, they make things suck for folks that do not have children.
So, thanks for projecting your priceless DNA in to the future, parents, but how about a little consideration for others around you?
Yeah, I haven’t tried it yet but I’m hoping that being 6’2" with a goatee and a short haircut could achieve the same effect.
This always drives me crazy. How, how, how can some kids be such little shits?! I acted up when I was a kid, but I sure didn’t do it when I was in public with lots of strangers.
Gundy and DaddyTimesTwo - I think y’all should lay off Una here. It’s not a crime to dislike kids in general. It’s a personal preference. She’s not saying people ought to be sterilized because she doesn’t like kids, fer cryin’ out loud. She seems willing to at least tolerate children in spite of the fact that she’d prefer not to have to deal with them. On the other hand, children (and their parents) who behave the way the kids in the OP did are sure as hell not giving her any reason to change her mind, are they?
Unless you wind up looking like Dr. Evil.
Ah, yes…well, that’s a Specific Evil, which oddly enough, doesn’t have the ™ after it.
Gundy, I vaguely remember a thread from a while back where someone ranted about kids acting up in restaurants. The behavior wasn’t as bad as that described in the OP, though. But some people said that the behavior should be excused because it was possible that the kid might have some kind of learning disability, might this, or might that, and how dare anyone criticize the bad public behavior. It got pretty ugly. That’s the type of reaction Una may be probably thinking.
Don’t flight attendents have more control over passengers that are acting unruly?
Even if they are cute widdle darling baby wabies?
I’m not criticizing Una for not liking kids in general, LifeOnWry. I just don’t see the need to come out of the gate swinging like that. How does that help her story at all? It just makes anyone who might disagree with her look like an asshole. And for the record, I don’t disagree with her in this instance.
Porc, I remember that thread – you’re right, I’m wrong on that score; there were apologists for shitty kid behavior. As I recall, those opinions got smacked down pretty soundly, though, didn’t they?
Yeah, but it’s a timewaster thing - if you can make it clear up front that you’re not indicting all kids and parents, just these specific sets, hopefully your thread won’t be hijacked by that sort of thing, which can go on for a good page and a half.
I think Thug Sr. and Thug Jr. should have been greeted at the landing gate by the local police and hauled off for assault. No, I’m not kidding. Screaming and kicking seats is one thing, but groping and shoving is absolutely unacceptable.
I agree. Some people seem to buzz around hoping for the opportunity to pointlessly pontificate like Reverend Lovejoy’s wife.
::shrug:: Okeydokey. I think it was overly defensive, but since I have yet to have such crappy experiences, I’ve never felt the wrath of scorned parents.
I have ADHD, and my parents NEVER let me use that as an excuse.
In fact, they were even stricter with me because of it, so I would behave.
Not to excuse the kid, Una (in your situation, I would have been explaining to the kid, in my nastiest voice, that if I thought I could get away with it, he’d already be dead), but on the second flight, why didn’t you ask to switch seats with Dear Old Dad? Seems the flight attendant (there was a flight attendant on that flight, I hope) could have arranged that switch.
From the PoV of the OP, clearly the kids and parents were jerks, and I think Una gave enough objective points of reference(spilling drinks on other passengers and their computers) to say there were definite problems on board. The question is, how much malice/gross negligence was there from an objective standpoint. From her own, personal viewpoint, clearly she found malice on flight 2 and gross negligence(at least) on flight 1. Given her own predisposition towards children, as she admitted, these findings of malice and gross negligence are suspect. Is it possible that the characterization of “halfhearted” when referring to the mother’s attempts at restraining her children on flight 1 was applied because of Una’s bias instead of it being objective fact? Certainly she could have been halfhearted about it and the results, continued bad behavior, could support this analysis. Still, we don’t have an objective picture of the situations. We are seeing it through Una’s, admittedly biased, eyes. Nothing wrong with her report, and it had enough objective facts in it to say there were definite issues here, but the level of malice/gross negligence in the behavior of her fellow passengers should probably be taken with a grain of salt. I personally do my best to never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity. A “disturbing look, like he had never seen me before, and then snorted in my face with some sort of expression of disgust, and then ignored me” sounds very much like stupidity and poor social skills. Not necessarially malice.
Enjoy,
Steven
Okay, Una, so why did you not contact the police? I can’t understand why the authorities were not contacted.
I had a really great post all written out, full of personal opinion and anecdotes, and on preview I see that Mtgman has said in a calm, logical way all that needs to be said.
I wish I could think like that.
These are the times that I would call a flight attendant and threaten legal action. That’s pretty much the only way to motivate anyone these days.
I seriously would’ve started screaming RAPE (or at least MOLESTATION) the instant that man/child started touching me. What that kid was doing is sufficient basis for a criminal complaint.
And as far as the kids kicking my seat–I’d probably tell the mom that I had spinal problems and that if she didn’t stop her kids from kicking my seat, that she’d be paying my medical bills for life. If she didn’t stop them, I’d tell the same thing to the flight attendant.
Yes, the second suggestion is pretty “assholic” in and of itself, but sometimes you have to fight fire with fire. No one should have to put up with either situation.