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Kids on Planes OK or NOT OK?
Kids on Planes OK or NOT OK?
There was an interesting article on perthnow.com.au recently that considered arguments for and against children, mainly toddlers, traveling in business class.
I think the arguments for and against were relevant e.g. toddlers have tantrums, but drunk adults can be rowdy too, and most of the time passengers are settled back in their own private areas with their noise-canceling earphones on and wouldn’t have a clue what was going on with the rest of the passengers anyway.
So, this got us thinking about times we’ve been on flights where there were kids. The worst thing that I have ever experienced is a kid kicking the back of my seat repeatedly. I turned around, asked them to stop, and that was the end of it (by the way, I have sat near adults WAY more annoying than that). I have also been on a flight where a baby wouldn’t stop crying. Put my earphones on… no problem.
We were both actually really surprised on a recent flight from Melbourne to the Whitsundays. There was a family traveling across a couple of rows in front of us who had 2 children. The children were awesome through the whole trip, and when we got off the place, I said to Sam “how good were those kids on the plane?” to which he replied “…what kids?”. We could barely even tell they were there.
But THEN, we had that same family on our return flight back to Melbourne. I couldn’t believe it, that trip there was a dropped tray, a broken glass and vomit on the floor!
Sounds awful, right?? The funny things is… none of the kids were responsible for any of those incidents!
The tray and broken glass were compliments of the staff and the vomit incident happened when someone stood up with a baby, not realising it was about to vomit, and just didn’t catch it in time.
The thing I found even crazier was when the Dad got up at the end of the flight and apologised to us for having to travel both trips with his kids! Amazing, considering we thought they were awesome and barely even noticed them.
What I find even funnier was that there were actually 3 kids… I just didn’t notice the third one until the end of the return flight!
Based on these experiences, (I can say I’ve been on worse flights which have nothing to do with kids), I’ve decided that I am definitely OK with kids being on flights. Sam, on the other hand, thinks that it depends on the child. Some fly well, and some don’t. His personal opinion is that if they don’t fly well, don’t take them on a plane (we’ll see if he changes his tunes when we have our own kids, hey!?)
Personally, I have never experienced a flight where kids were rowdy or behaving in a socially undesirable manner in business class, and quite honestly, I am one of those people who keeps their noise cancelling headphones on the whole time (even when I’m sleeping), so chances of me hearing anyone (child or adult) have a tantrum are slim-to-none.
I was also thinking though if this is such a problem, why don’t airlines just split business class into two sections… one that has families with kids, and one that is “adults only”?
Easy fixed!
What are your thoughts?
Would you take your child on a plane?
If you were a passenger of a business class flight, would you have a problem with kids being there?
Have you taken your child on a flight? How did you find it? I hope you didn’t feel the need to apologise to anyone the way this Dad did!
Let us know your thoughts 🙂
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4 Replies to “Kids on Planes OK or NOT OK?”
I have travelled on a plane with my daughter who was a toddler at the time several times and we never had any problems! She always was an absolute trooper and of course some kids get weary or whiny on board, but that’s normal and life! If someone snores during an overnight flight or keeps coughing all the time it’s just as a disturbance as a whiny kid would be!
Having family interstate means a lot of travelling for us back and forth to Adelaide. Being a parent with a toddler on a flight actually gives me high anxiety. It’s stressful and draining being so conscious of everyone else and there reaction if your toddler decides to run up and down the isles. I 100% believe Sams opinion will change once you guys have your own. By no means is flying with a toddler fun and relaxing but your not, not going to go away becaus you have kids. Our flight to Adelaide chlo was perfect the best child the flight Brisbane to Adelaide was extremely challenging. They are very unpredictable.
I don’t mind kids on a plane! It’s funny because, on Southwest flights, where you can choose your own seat, people tend to find seats away from the kiddos. I, on the other hand, prefer sitting next to kids in hopes that we can just chat the whole time. (I’m an anxious flyer and enjoy talking to my neighbors on the plane to distract me from the fact that I’m flying in a metal tube above the clouds!)
I think everyone thinks it’s the worst thing in the world, until it’s your kid and you want people to cut you slack because – after all, they are just kids. There are some things you just have to deal with when you travel! I would never be annoyed at a child getting antsy, the parent is probably just as annoyed and doing their best!