Respect is not a one way street. You’ll have to earn it, in order to receive it. I don’t care how natural the behavior of children or babies is on planes. I don’t care about the stresses of parenthood, the short attention spans or whatever might cause children to act like little hooligans. The behaviors described in this essay are unfortunately quite common and totally unacceptable. Condoning bad behavior of hyperactive children is totally unacceptable as well and, quite literally, savage. Ask yourselves a question: would you pay a $300 ticket if you knew a huge, smelly labrador retriever would be sitting next to you, drooling on your fine clothes and howling for two hours straight? We pay for service, too. I don’t take no for an answer. If your child dares to run wild in my row, or kick me in the back of my seat, or holler and scream for hours, I WILL file formal complaints and I WILL address the problem over and OVER again to the crew until the problem will be dealt with.

I absolutely think their should be a ’small children section’ on airplanes for babies and toddlers and their ‘handlers’. I for one am sick and tired of being a ‘nanny’ not only to children, but their incompetent, lazy and uncreative parents.

I have my rights. I am a customer and I have bought a product. I did not buy my ticket in order to be harassed, attacked, verbally abused or otherwise disturbed by small children or their defensive parents. I don’t see how a bunch of out-of-control children on an airplane qualify any differently from a drunk, for instance: they are both noisy, annoying and in your face. I for one hate being confronted by either. I just want to be able to travel in some relative peace.

I don’t feel the need to excuse myself for my opinions at all. I don’t hate children, I do hate their behavior on busses, trains and airplanes and the general lack of parenting that seems to be the latest trend among my age group.

A wake-up call wouldn’t hurt.

Second, some of us with young babies/toddlers etc, have no choice but to travel…we for example had to make a trip to the USA to visit my in-laws as they wanted to meet our children…would those who complain of kids on a plane rather that grandparents never got to see their grandchildren, and consequently thier own son/daughter until the child was 16 simply because some selfish morons on a flight can’t handle a little kid?

Thirdly, I think these people ought to go through a ‘class’ of their own, being given a doll that will act like a real baby/toddler the entire flight, and then ask them at the end of the flight how easy they found it to keep the baby/toddler/child quiet and entertained the whole way without driving the other passengers nuts? It is almost impossible, I can tell you.
Some of us parents actually do try everything we can think of to keep the child from fussing, and let me tell you, glares and snarky comments and complaints from passengers who are equally as whiny as the baby most of the time, do not help the stressed out parents. We’re already stressed out enough trying to calm our baby/toddler/child down, we don’t need you hammering on us too!

As for the complaints that the air stewards/stewardesses do nothing about your so-called problem, they seem to be the only one’s who are mature enough to understand that babies are babies, their only form of communication is to cry.
The plane is a hot, stuffy, confined and frankly most unpleasant space to be stuck in for such long hours…crying babies/toddlers etc are only expressing what everyone is thinking.

- Ban people who put their rollaboard suitcases into the bins sideways — the ignorant space hogs. Puh-leese, people. Wheels first. It’s simple.
- Ban people who stuff all of their carry-on items into the overhead bin without using any under-seat storage (space hogs, type 2). Purses and little shopping bags are notorious space wasters up there — and rob space from others who actually need it.
- Ban anyone in Y who reclines their seat . . . at least without looking behind them first to check for a tall person. (If you want to crush my knees, please at least have the decency to ask first — rather than just ram your seat down)
- Ban elite level frequent flier members who rush up to the gate as soon as the pre-board annoucement starts . . . all-too-frequently cutting off little old ladies and wheelchair passengers who actually need pre-board assistance. (I’ve seen this way too many times, and I’ve felt embarassed for these morons. They’re like George Costanza fleeing from the birthday party in “The Fire” episode of Seinfeld).
Finally – in those places with post-security ’smoking lounges’ – anyone who has smoked before getting on the plane. You stink like an ashtray, and your fellow passengers don’t want to smell you while we ride together in the tiny little closed-circulation metal tube to our destination.

BAN ‘EM ALL!!! Whew. I feel better now.

I like the notion of charging people extra money if they are overweight

in my travel experience during this age of the obesity epidemic I have had far too many fat asses taking up my air space during my flight

fat people who I would not want to rub elbows with not only steal the arm rest
but over flow into my seat

please…
have the fat people buy two seats so that I can have mine

About kids kicking the back of the seat – yes, the kid should stop but it may not be entirely the kids fault. The seats are so close together that a car seat puts the kids legs in a position that there is little else that they can do but hit the back of the seat. Still very irritating but the fault also belongs to the airline.

My now 12 year old has flown a lot of miles starting at an international flight at 4 months and he learned to behave well. He is one of the most annoyed people on a plane when another passenger misbehaves because he learned how to be respectful iof others and expects the same courtesy.