Wednesday, January 24, 2007

Brat on a plane...

Boo-Hoo...the media seems to be picking up the banner of this family who couldn't control their kid on a plane. After 15 minutes of what I'm sure was a LOVELY show that the 3 year old was putting on for the passengers, AirTran kicked them off the plane.

I have to say, I support AirTran on this one. I've seen this crap, and yes, this is crap, all too often at restaurants, airports, train stations, malls, libraries and museums. Kids out of control and the parents not taking care of the situation. She's three years old she's crying, this is what you do so you don't get kicked off the plane:
1.) Pick up child. (Yes, you can do this. 3 year olds, unless they are marine mammals or horses are very portable.)
2.) Place child in seat. (Again, this can be done, seats have flat open surfaces that can accept the posterior of an individual.)
3.) Strap in child to seat.
4.) Fly home. Vow never to take child on plane again if she EVER pulls a stunt like that. Ground child. Perhaps even speak...in a loud voice...to make sure the point is made. (This can also be done, it's called discipline for bad behavior.)

112 other people paid for their seats to fly to Boston here. Because two parents could not control their child the plane was delaying its departure. After 15 minutes the crew did the right thing. They thought of the rest of the people on the plane rather than the family that can't sit quietly.

So, kudos to Air Tran and a big EFF-U to the media for taking the side of the family. Those of us who do not have children and have no intention of being inconvenienced by the poor parenting skills of others, salute you AirTran and will consider you for our next flight in hopes of it being brat-free.

(Yes, I totally know this makes me sound like a heartless curmudgeon. But you know what, when I was little I only had to do something like that once to learn the hard way that acting like that was unacceptable. I see kids who have not learned how to behave in public too often these days and when I'm on the Metro on a weekday evening, I don't want a temper tantrum. I want to go the hell home in peace and quiet. I'm tired, I've worked at my job for 9 hours. I don't want to hear anything. Just the rumble of the train as it whisks me to my car. The same goes for people who yak on their cell phone so loudly that the entire car can hear them. Those people should be shot on sight and their corpses hung from cell towers as a lesson to all who may transgress the bounds of cell-phone etiquette.)

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

It would have been one thing if she had just been noisy/otherwise disruptive. Sometimes there just isn't much to be done about a kid screaming or kicking a seat in a confined environment; you can discipline but that can sometimes make things worse for everyone else as that will introduce a full-out tantrum in addition to everything else. But for the parents to not strap the kid in her seat for the flight is just ridiculous. do they let her run around like that in the car?

Nick said...

Given the utter shock they seem to be showing that they were all kicked off the plane, probably.

And really they did get an extra 15 minutes to try and remedy the situation. And after being kicked off they were refunded their money.

What's nice is that the unscientific polls that are being put up next to this story show 90% of people are in favor of the airline removing the family. There may be hope for civilization yet.

Unknown said...

Get your motherf*cking kids off my motherf*cking plane!!!!!!

I was actually gonna blog on this, seeing as how I'm all childfree/no kids/kids suck or whatever people think I am. I just hadn't gotten to it. And Nick, they not only got their money refunded, but they also got FREE additional tickets. Had I been on that plane, I'd have cheered.

Nick said...

That's better than my post title. Yes, they also got free tickets, which they refused. I am curious if the other passengers did cheer when they were finally dumped off the plane.

Also, in an informal poll here at work, 100% of us in my work area side with the airline.