I had an experience on a plane not long ago where I was flying in a different row from my three friends. I sat next to a mother and her 2 or 3 year old daughter. The little girl was squirmy, and curious, and needed a variety of things to keep her occupied, but honestly, who could expect more of such a young child? Yes, she did babble a lot, as kids that age are wont to do, and for about fifteen minutes at the end, she repeated “bye bye plane” over and over, but for the most part, she behaved as well as I could expect such a young child to behave. The flight was only a few hours, and while I would have preferred to sit next to a quiet, well behaved adult, I was thankful that her mother brought along activities and acted responsibly.

While the occasional horror story happens, I think perhaps we could all benefit from a little patience! :)

We traveled with our daughter since she was 6 – she was alsways very good. My friend travels often with the 2.5 year-old son. She usually travels transatlantic. Guess what – the kid sleeps or she plays with him and reads to him. Another thing – many mothers breastfeed their kids. Pediatricians highly encourage this. Breastfed kids just eat and calm down and sleep. Therefore, for a mother it is way more convenient to have a seat in the business class cabin – more room, and much more privacy. Why not – they are paying for some privacy too!

Also – what do you mean “the kids have to earn their upgrades” – in my world (may be I am wrong) they have earned it by virtue of birth!

I agree with one of the post – we all became so self-absorbed and proad of what we earned. People who buy buisness class for them and their kids have earned their money too. On the other hand – why FC passangers can not be bothered, while economy passangers can? Second class, eh? What a shame!

Don’t have that kind of money? Well, tough luck. The world doesn’t owe you a kid-free flight. It’s not like all those kids fly for free, either.

A very expensively dressed, extravagantly bejeweled 30 something mother boards an overseas flight with her 5 children – the oldest, a boy age 9, the youngest, a girl approximately 18 months. Mother has a first-class seat. 5 children have tourist class seats scattered throughout the cabin, none of the seats together. 9 year old is seated next to me.

Mother has already downed several drinks while waiting to board. 9 year old is charged with taking care of his 4 siblings including changing the diapers of the 18 month old. All but the 9 year old are crying and frightened.

Before takeoff, the cabin attendants ask passengers to change seats so that the 5 children can be seated together – everyone agrees except for Mother who insists the children remain in their originally ticketed seats; claiming they will be less trouble if separated. Children continue to cry while the 9 year old runs up and down the aisle trying to comfort and quiet them.

Plane takes off. All 5 children are now in the aisles or climbing over seats as the 9 year old and the cabin attendants try in vain to gain some control with no assistance from Mother in first-class who is complaining about the quality of the champagne.

Cabin attendants attempt to serve drinks and lunch to the rest of us while crying children run rampant. After the 4 year old climbs over the seat in from of mine, landing on my lap, for the 3rd time, I lift the child back over the seat, clip him into his seat belt, tighten it as tightly as possible without restricting his breathing and tell him if he moves again there will be dire consequences. Another passenger somewhere forward follows suit and cinches 2 more children into their seats. At that point, a cabin attendant takes the 18 month old’s seat and holds her.

I go forward and retrieve the 9 year old and put him back into the seat next to mine, serve him his lunch, and tell him to take a break. The poor 9 year old was incredibly intelligent and we had quite interesting conversations for the remainder of the flight. Seems only 2 of the 5 children had the same father – Mother marries well and divorces even better. Multiple nannies had quit, the 9 year old had been caring for his step siblings with no help from Mother for several weeks.

All these hours Mother remains in first-class having a wonderful time with a naive businessman, nary a thought as to the welfare of her children back in tourist-class, more interested in the financial status of her seatmate.

Talk about a plane load of people and cabin stewards who had one of the worst flights of their lives……that was us. We were all turned into babysitters, diaper changers, and children’s entertainers, and had to pay the airline for the privilege. One disgusting mother and 5 scared, neglected, abused children held an entire plane hostage.

Why in the heck an airline would sell a mother with 5 small children one first-class ticket and 5 deliberately selected, separate seats in tourist-class is beyond me. When we mercifully deplaned at our destination, the complaint line that quickly formed stretched half-way across the terminal.

I am a father of a fairly well-behaved three-year old, and a million-miler business traveller. Upgrades are awesome, and I love the first class experience, so much so that I’ve come to loathe those flights where I’m stuck in coach because I didn’t “score my upgrade”.

For international flights, I find myself wanting to agree with those who suggest an age restriction in First Class, simply because of the length of the flight; but for domestic flights, I’m thinking this is no big deal, people. I’ve been in first class with plenty of WILDLY annoying individuals, none of whom have been kids. It’s almost like people think their first class seat gives them the right to be whatever kind of jerk they want. Sure, that cell phone rule doesn’t apply to ME. Neither does that seat-belt sign. Whatever.

Let’s not forget that in many cases, people don’t have any CHOICE but first class. I’m getting ready to book a cross-country trip for my family using miles, and the ONLY award tickets being offered to me are the expensive 50,000-mile tickets, which also happen to be in first class. There are no 25,000-mile awards, no award seats available in coach. Believe me, I’ve tried; I even called the airline. I have no choice for the cheap seats, and if I’m paying the 50,000 miles, I’m taking the first class, toddler and all. My wife and I do a great job of “handling” our son, and if he gets unruly, we can always breeze through the curtain and inflict him upon the coach passengers.

Here’s a tip for anyone who can’t stand children on airplanes: next time you’re on a plane and you have the opportunity to be stuck next to a mother and her child (this is especially cool if her child is between the ages of 1-3), try to INTERACT with them. You might even have fun, and in the process, you might cause that child a little bit less stress, and help to ensure the enjoyment of not only yourself and the kid, but the rest of the plane as well.

We all need to stop being so whiny about kids. People need to remember that when WE were all kids, NOBODY flew as much as we do today; I was 15 before I ever SAW an airplane up close. Now every kid in the country has been on an airplane at least once, some of them have more frequent flyer miles than me.

I have no idea what you are talking about. It seems as if these are two unrelated topics. The hope and promise of children has nothing to do with being well behaved. If anything, being well behaved increases the hope and promise of children as opposed to being self centered and ill mannered.