Seat 30a on a Boeing 757 must be one of the worst seats on the plane - next to seat 30f or frankly any other seat in row 30...
Sadly you had to sit in that seat for the cross country flight I was on with my two boys between Miami and LAX - heading home from my Grandfather's Funeral.
My boys are pretty good travelers and they listen well enough but my 2 year old is getting a little gregarious coming up on 3. Still - he sat there for 4 hours playing angry birds and watching a few videos on my iPhone while his brother did his homework and played angry birds on my iPad. A few times you nudged me to move my head while I was leaning over helping him so that I could move my head out of your view of the TV. I was happy to do so.
You were quite polite in those encounters - even smiling so again, no problem - happy to oblige...
Upon landing however my 2 year old, excited to be coming home - unbuckled and raring for more apparently laughed on your last nerve. I was unaware that he was even on your first nerve. Had you mentioned something to me politely that he was bothering you at all I would have been more cognizant and attempted to be more considerate. Still - he's two, we're in the back of the plane and it's loud so he felt he needed to talk louder to me.
You mentioned that you yourself had children. Well, you must be a better parent than me. In fact I'm sure of it since I was totally unaware of any problem my children were causing.
I mean that time he was coloring quietly - wow - now that I think about it...I'm not sure how I will sleep tonight.
Finally, on your way down the jet bridge - after cursing me out on the way out of the plane...I can see why you felt it necessary to curse me and your companion out about how much I suck as a parent.
My kids ARE good travelers but they are not perfect and sometimes they do get loud but on about 99% of flights we get complimented at the end by the people around us at how nice and well behaved our children are. They know proper airplane behavior. They are terrors in the terminal but once on the plane they are all business.
I didn't get the compliments today but I did not notice a difference in their behavior. My #1 was as close to perfect as you can get, heck he was better than me.
I know some folks hate traveling with kids. I'm probably guilty of it myself prior to having my own. I try to give parents traveling with kids HELP rather than criticism these days. Chatting up a toddler or child who is having some trouble goes miles farther than giving the parent a hard time.
Of course this woman was way over the edge, I did not engage her because I knew she was upset and probably over tired (like my 2 year old when he needs a nap eh). Flying is hard on people but she's still a big ole
b. It was funny seeing her companion literally run away from her on the jet bridge so as to not be seen with her during her 'verbal beat down' on me.
I looked her square in the eyes and shrugged my shoulders like I didn't know what she was talking about. (I'm sure that helped)
I know we have a lot of flight crew and frequent fliers no the board so I thought I would share. I know some folks will tear me a new one for simply thinking of bringing my children on
THEIR flight. To those folks I do the following:
