Gentle Readers,
I've been hearing some people on the news yipping in a very loud and obnoxious manner about children on airplanes. Some of them want children banned from first class; some want children banned from airplanes all together. A restaurant in Florida has banned children younger than six.
I haven't heard any mention of how old children would have to be in order to fly. Is six the magic age? Or 12? Or perhaps even 18?
I heard one particularly unpleasant fellow griping about how he shouldn't have to put up with somebody's crying kid when he's paid for his seat.
Well, I have news for you, buddy. You should stuff a sock in it and bite the bullet and learn some patience. You should "put up with somebody's crying kid" for the same reason I put up with you when you're drunk and boisterous on the plane, laughing too loudly with your buddies who are seated three or four aisles away and I'm in the middle, wanting to nap or read. I prefer children to YOU.
I fly first class, and all I expect when I get on a plane is that I will be treated decently. Obviously, children should not be running up and down the aisles of a plane. It's dangerous, and if it happens, then the flight attendants should deal with it.
But sighing, whining, rolling your eyes, more whining -- it's all just as bad if not worse than a crying child because you should know better.
Before Someone I Love was two years old, she flew from the West coast to the East and back several times. We always purchased a seat for her, where she took a load off in her FAA approved car seat. Most of the time she fell asleep or was content to look at a cloth book about a soft bunny.
But occasionally Someone I Love cried. She couldn't help it. She was just as uncomfortable as everybody else who has been crowded onto a plane and longs to escape as soon as possible. I have also cried on a plane because of an extremely rude flight attendant who harassed me. Should I be banned from flying?
What did you expect us to do when we needed to travel? Drive from Seattle to New York and back? Leaving my children behind on such trips was not an option. We did the best we could. Case closed.
Now suck it up, cry babies, and face facts. You have no more right to ban children from airplanes than I have to duct tape your mouth shut, no matter how much I long to do so.
Infinities of love,
Lola
My motto as an editor: Authors are the authority on their work. I'm a full-service editor. For a reasonable fee, I'm your writing coach from the first suggested revision to the correction of the final typo.
Hear Hear -- This comment is not mine. It's from LegalMist and she was unable to post her comment (a recurring problem many of us have), so I, Lola, am posting it for her:
ReplyDeleteHear, hear!
I have no tolerance for idiot parents on airplanes who don't even try to entertain their kids or enforce reasonable rules (no kicking the back of the seat in front of you; use a quiet voice) or help comfort and quiet them when they cry. Then again, I have no tolerance for these self-centered bastards anywhere else, either.
But the vast majority of parents on planes are just trying to get from point A to point B with their kids, and are at least trying to teach their kids to be a part of polite society by enforcing reasonable rules. They, of course, have as much right to their seats as the indignant self-righteous kid-haters who would ban them from planes, and I for one would much rather sit next to a kid than a self-righteous snob. Kids are better company. And I felt this way even before I had kids, back when I didn't even like them very much.
I wrote about some of my encounters with these smug and self-centered kid-haters here: http://legalmist.blogspot.com/2009/02/no-self-righteous-pigs.html
One of the stories is about my not-so-silent victory over the yuppie prig who sat in front of me and my 3 year old son on an airplane. I bet you'll love it. :)