Should Children Be Banned From Red-Eye Flights?

No matter how annoying a person is, they shouldn't be banned from any flights unless they pose an actually threat to someone. Besides, not all children are loud.

ok, but that child that comes on screaming across the walkway into the plane, should he or she be shown the door out?

That'd be mean D:

If the parents can actually keep an eye on their children, I see no problems.

The problem is: some parents just keep an eye when in public places, they don't give any limit to kids (try to control a brat outside is not easy).

You got it Cherry Pie. You only have to go to the pub for lunch and the parents let their kids run riot. How come parents can ignore the bad behaviour of their offspring and expect the rest of us to put up with it? If you ask them to control the brats they get aggressive.I once had a run in with a parent whose child was out of control. She said that it was clear I didn't have kids. In response I said just because I don't have kids doesn't mean I wouldn't make a good parent and clearly the ability to procreate doesn't automatically make them fit parents. It came close to fist a cuffs

PS ... my K9s are better behaved than most children Woof Woof Lick Lick

MIne are too. Many children behave like animals and most parents are unable to see that.

Well I raised two boys, and I can tell you I never let them act out in public. If I could not calm them, I took them outside. It totally annoys me when I am shopping and some kid is crying and screaming nonstop while the parent is just ignoring them. I have made a few comments, like had that been my kid I would of given them something to cry about lol. Most parents don't seem to appreciate that.

oh, you said some dandy words there. They didn't want to be told they were wrong. Sometimes I wonder about all the kids given the diagnosis of adhd aren't just wanting more "no's" and less "yeses."

No but they should know to keep their child quiet.

The simple fact is that they do not know.

Nope, that's discrimination and that's what Nyquil is for XD

There are many ways to disciminate and most people have no problem with it in other areas of their life.

ok, we've all heard the stories about rum on the pacifier and things, but how many people here on sodahead have actually done that?

I don't have kids of my own, so not me. But I think if I did have kids, I'd consider it.

It's not like I can sleep on airplanes anyway... people who fly a lot should buy a really good pair of noise-canceling headphones. My dad flies to Asia at least once a month and these block both airplane and passenger noise.

Good idea

Thanks :)

wow! Are you God?

Yes, I am dog, I mean god

If the parents pay then they have the right to have children on tht plane even if those little buggers are annoying

Everyone has a right to be on the plane. No one has a right to be intrusive on the rights of others.

I mean that is true. Adults, for one, have the right to be annoying too. Let's let the adults have the chance.

As a flight attendant, I'm in the middle on this one. I hate pax that complain about crying babies; hello? thats what babies do, get over it. All I can do when I hear a baby crying is feel bad for them for whatever reason they're crying, especially if they're screaming (thier poor little throats! That has to hurt them). But at the same time, if apt complexes can ban kids and babies, then I guess some concessions can be made on red eye flights as well. Still, I think parents with babies have a right to red eye flights, too, so I guess I'm just up in the air (no pun intended) on this one. But I swear, the next pax that boards and turns to me and says "wheres the farthest away from the babies?" and grins at me as if its funny, I'll probably smack him!

Huge Kudos to you for coping with all sorts on flights. My fiend Jillian is on BA longhaul and some passengers over the age of 18 are a nightmare too. There has to be some way to reach a compromise and for everyone's sake create a safe and stress free section for children. It's a win/win. A poll in the UK showed that the majority of business and other travellers would pay extra to have a child free area. Drunks should travel in the hold lol. Set up a bar down there and I'll just do a turnaround Hic

I would pay extra to be on a child free flight any time. Children in general even if they are not babies can be extremely annoying and disruptive in any situation. I have been on flights where they are running up and down in the ailses.

Many flyers are business people who are working on the flight, do have that kind of foolishness going on is outrageious at best.

thanks for the kudos, and kudos to you for making an excellent point:))

Being a flight attendant, why do you all never sit down when the plane is moving? It always makes me curious?

I'm not sure what you're referring to--are you talking about when we pull away from the gate and taxi toward the runway?

well, like ever. You all are never sitting down.

oh, no. We're required by the FAA to sit in our jump seats for take off and landing. Our whole purpose for being there is to evacuate the aircraft if need be, and we'd have to be in those jumpseats (next to the doors) in order to do that. If we're standing / walking during taxi, its to do the safety demo, and the final security walk through. Then we sit down for take-off. Then we get up and do service, then we go back and do re-fills, then we pick up trash, and then depending on the lenght of the flight, we go through and have evrybody turn everything off, etc, for landing, then sit back down on the jumpseat for landing---thats a short flight. On a longer one, we do all the same except once we've passed out re-fills and picked up trash, we sit down and read a book, eat something, or just gossip:)) Once we start decending, we clean up the galleys and just kind of straighten up until we've decended to 10,000 ft, and thats when we have to "prepare the cabin", which is what I described above--everything turned off, no bags at passengers feet, tray tables up, yada, yada....:)

Thank you for telling me about the "jumpseats" you all sit in

thats what they're called; we have to be there for takeoff and landing because those are considered "critical flight stages":)

I say yes, but with a caveat -- children under 12 or 15 should be banned from first class or business class only.

Parents, like everyone else, need to travel and sometimes they need to travel late. But why should passengers who pay extra, many of whom are flying for business/professional reasons, need to sit next to a brat who is screaming/crying/POKING OR HITTING other passengers?

This is a clear case of utilitarian judgement: ban kids so that the rest of the passengers won't be kept awake.

wow, I'd like to read your blog about that flight! A child hit you?

Yeah. It was a trans-Atlantic flight to Germany.

She was young (maybe 2 or 3) and her parents were distracted. She had these little toy doll things, and every time she threw them, the mother just picked it back up and handed it to her. I think the girl just did that for attention or like it was a game or something.

She didn't seem to differentiate between parents and other "grown ups" on the flight, and she hit me and a flight attendant while throwing a tantrum. She hit other passengers with the dolls, too. The mother sort of half-assed apologized, but then continued to do NOTHING to reign in her child. When we complained, the response we got was "oh, you know, children will be children" and while I can accept this reasoning in some cases, some parents take this as carte blanche to neglect disciplining their kids.

I'd hate to see what sort of woman that little girl will become, and it's not her fault, it's just bad parenting.

Your story is probably not alone.

Not BANNING them outright as the question itself suggests, but rather setting up a separate area of the plane for families with young children as the article suggests, or maybe a quiet zone that lets passengers who specifically wish not to be disturbed have a quiet place to spend the trip.

It'd also be a good idea to slap penalties on parents in the regular area who, instead of keeping their kids under control, let them screech like the Nazgûl and kick the seats to atoms and shoot balls of saliva at other passengers all they want and rack up complaints by other passengers.