By: Don Caldwell
Are children more of a blessing or a curse?
lol…and who would not want to sit next to the baby in the pic above?
Excerpts italicized:
Babies on airplanes. It's enough to make parents—and all the passengers around them—cry.
Parents are complaining of airline seating policies that create "baby ghettos" in the back of planes. Even worse, families are increasingly split up, leaving small children in middle seats in the company of strangers unless passengers arrange seat swaps on board.
Michael Lyon booked seats together for his family for a trip from Washington, D.C., to Bangkok on United Airlines in July and checked his reservation frequently to make sure the seat assignments didn't change. But when he checked in, all three had been split up, and his 6-year-old son was moved to the back of the wide-body plane by himself for the 13-hour trip.
Several factors are at play. First, many seats on flights are reserved for elite-level frequent fliers or full-fare business travelers. Routinely full flights have less seat-assignment flexibility. Also, airlines are increasingly selling choice seat assignments for extra fees, an expensive option for families. And bulkhead rows at the front of coach cabins that used to be ideal for traveling with infants, offering more privacy for diaper changes and more space for restless toddlers, now have to be reserved for passengers with disabilities. As a result, families often end up separated or at the back of the plane.
"I feel like it's discrimination against families. For us, it is not an option to not be by my 2-year-old," she said.
Adding to the complexity: Several airlines, including American and United, don't let travelers add children flying free on a parent's lap to reservations online. Instead, they must call the airline or get an airport agent to add a lap child to their reservation. Southwest Airlines requires taking a lap child to a ticket counter with a birth certificate on the day of travel to verify the child is younger than 2 years old.
"Sometimes other passengers are willing to help you out. But others look at you like you are the devil for bringing a child on an airplane," said Alecia Hoobing, who works for a technology company from her home in Boise, Idaho. The evil eyes are more acute when families upgrade to first class, she and Ms. Hull agree. Malaysia Airlines decided this year to ban babies from first-class cabins of its Boeing 747 jets and next year in its new Airbus A380 super-jumbos because of passenger complaints of crying children in the expensive seats.
Ms. Hoobing thinks the hardest part of travel with kids is boarding. Airlines typically no longer let families with small children board first on flights. Instead, they often come after first class and top-tier frequent fliers. Kids and parents—lugging car seats, diaper bags, videogames and toys—clog the aisles and delay general boarding. Though airlines provide leniency, such as exempting diaper bags for carry-on bag limits and waiving checked-baggage fees for car seats and strollers, they have tightened restrictions.
“Families often end up separated or at the back of the plane”.
Since when have families become the people for “the back of the plane”???
A couple of weeks ago I was shopping at a local Wal-Mart and at the checkout counter in the electronics section the cashier started conversing with me. Friendly chit-chat ensued as her kind demeanor encouraged my talkative nature.
During the conversation a couple of kids walked by playing and teasing each other. The woman then commented as to how glad she was that they were not her children and that she did not have to deal with that. Diplomatically, I stated something to the effect that “at least they were not screaming and yelling…which would be a lot worse”. I thought that in some small way I was trying to convince her that they were not being all that bad, but I was also sad that I didn’t say something as I had felt.
I was saddened by all of this. How could someone be so bothered by a couple of little kids just being little kids? How has society grown less tolerant of children with each generation?
I have previously written about this kind of kind of issue back in July: Restaurant to Bans Kids under 6. A Good Thing or Bad? (TheWell)
So many can easily say how children our most precious thing. Commonly used by commercials and politicians. Most would probably agree, but our actions regarding children (as compared to our words) have seemed to become less tolerant.
Why do children seem to bother us so?
And if we truly treasured children as much as we think we do, then why do we continue to have fewer and fewer children with each passing year?
….as a bonus….would sitting next to this bother you??
(ORIGINAL LINK) Flying With Little Children? Go to the Back of the Plane - Yahoo! Finance
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