You know what bugs me the most? My absolute crushing paranoia that I am annoying someone unintentionally because I don’t travel often enough to know all the conventions and what things are annoying.
Perhaps my brain has been rotted by watching too many sit-coms, that much should be obvious, but it should be incumbent on the person sitting behind a kicking kid to kick the back that kids seat. Maybe put your hand up to signal that the kid is kicking again and needs some kicking of his own.
Of course this could escalate and end in violence, in which case you didn’t hear it from me.
Indigestion, especially during turbulence. Have yet to encounter screaming children or leaky headphones.
Earbuds. Kids don’t have volume controls, music players do, so if you can hear the music it must be way loud. And kids do finally shut up. And I agree about almost being able to identify the song.
Haven’t been exposed to the loud music, and the crying baby on my Saturday flight didn’t bug me at all.
Between a shrieking child and leaking music…the child would drive me nuts. I can put my own headphones in and block out the music.
If it’s just a chatty kid, no problem.
Sound deadening earphones. Worth every penny.
Fat people bumping my shoulder as they walk by when I have an aisle seat. (And I’m completely in my allotted space; I don’t spill out into the aisle.)
Recently I had a toddler seated next to me on a flight. He wasn’t ill-behaved, just a toddler, curious about everything and wanting my attention, asking me question after question, wanting to get up and move around, wanting something to eat.
He was cute and I didn’t mind talking to him for a while, but his mother was out cold asleep on his other side, which left me in the position of child minder for the entire flight. I wasn’t sure if I should feel guilty or not, but I really wish that mother had awoken after about 20 mins or so. Two hours of entertaining the little guy wore me out.
The baby/child - I don’t blame anyone, but it just bothers me more.
It’s not just large people; it’s also people with backpacks who can’t be bothered to remove it while walking in the aisle. They turn to say something clever to a friend and bash you in the head.
The last annoyance I experienced on a flight was actually the mother of 3 only slightly annoying children. They would have been bearable but the mother was constantly screaming at them to shut up or she was going to smack them around.
But between shrieking children or other people’s earphones, children are worse.
Children, oh my god, the children. And really, most of the time (though not all) the parents are desperately trying everything they can and it’s just not working. You can’t reason with a child. Sometimes none of the tricks work, not holding him, not playing with him, distracting him, giving him new toys. I saw this poor frazzled mom desperately try to comfort her toddler through a whole trip. She was near tears. I felt bad for her but man that kid was LOUD.
Then, the plane landed, and as we were waiting to get off, the kid finally shut up. I was right behind her, and as I was standing, the kid was looking at me over mom’s shoulders with the biggest teary blue eyes ever. I kind of think she shouldn’t have brought the baby - it was real trauma for the poor tyke. I understand she felt she had to, though.
Kicking kids is just inexcusable. Your child should NEVER kick the seat in front of him, and you should be vigilant to make sure this doesn’t happen. I should NOT have to ask you to make it stop.
The MOST annoying thing I have ever seen on an airplane is this huge group of Spanish-speaking people. They were in almost the whole back row and they wouldn’t listen to ANYTHING the stewardess said, instead, mocking her in Spanish (I can understand enough) and mocking the people around them. She would tell them to sit down and they would literally laugh in her face. I wish she had thrown them the hell off the plane; they were rude and obnoxious the whole way.
Noise cancelling, over-the-ear headphones are the way to go. Plus, I have the ability to fall asleep the instant my ass hits the chair. I hope my snoring doesn’t annoy you, much.
For some reason about 20 of us GI’s were put on a jet to the far East. The strange part was that the rest of the plane load was nothing but young mothers with babies & little kids up to 4-5 yrs.
We all baby sat non-stop all the way across the Pacific to Japan where we parted with their company.