Tilted Forum Project Discussion Community - View Single Post

lurkette · 07-14-2007, 01:46 PM

Let's be democratic. Why not put little voting machines on planes, kind of like the ones on "America's Funniest Home Videos" and let the passengers decide whether to boot the kid off? If enough people are annoyed, off they go. It leaves the decision up to the people most affected - fellow passengers.

I'm only sort of kidding.

On the one hand, flying is not a right. You're paying for a service provided by a private company who can do pretty much whatever they want, within reason. As long as they refund you the cost of the ticket, they can refuse you service. If you can't control your kid (and granted, a 19-month-old is pretty hard to "control") you probably shouldn't be flying. There are lots of things that you have to do without your kids, or wait to do till your kid is older. Maybe this is just one of them for people who have wild children.

On the other hand, the kid wasn't a safety hazard, to himself or others. I can see kicking off the kid who just wouldn't be seated. Everyone has to be seated for takeoff; them's the rules. This kid was just annoying. And there are lots of things on flights that are annoying, from the crowded conditions to not being able to recline your seat, to having the guy in front of you try to recline his seat anyhow and crush your knees, etc. I don't quite see how a loud kid is such a different class of annoyance that they should be barred from a flight. Unless the flight attendant can make a pretty compelling argument that this kid was interfering with her ability to do her job and keep the other passengers safe, this seems like a bit of an overreaction.

07-14-2007, 01:46 PM	#31 (permalink)
lurkette My future is coming on Moderator Emeritus Location: east of the sun and west of the moon	Let's be democratic. Why not put little voting machines on planes, kind of like the ones on "America's Funniest Home Videos" and let the passengers decide whether to boot the kid off? If enough people are annoyed, off they go. It leaves the decision up to the people most affected - fellow passengers. I'm only sort of kidding. On the one hand, flying is not a right. You're paying for a service provided by a private company who can do pretty much whatever they want, within reason. As long as they refund you the cost of the ticket, they can refuse you service. If you can't control your kid (and granted, a 19-month-old is pretty hard to "control") you probably shouldn't be flying. There are lots of things that you have to do without your kids, or wait to do till your kid is older. Maybe this is just one of them for people who have wild children. On the other hand, the kid wasn't a safety hazard, to himself or others. I can see kicking off the kid who just wouldn't be seated. Everyone has to be seated for takeoff; them's the rules. This kid was just annoying. And there are lots of things on flights that are annoying, from the crowded conditions to not being able to recline your seat, to having the guy in front of you try to recline his seat anyhow and crush your knees, etc. I don't quite see how a loud kid is such a different class of annoyance that they should be barred from a flight. Unless the flight attendant can make a pretty compelling argument that this kid was interfering with her ability to do her job and keep the other passengers safe, this seems like a bit of an overreaction. __________________ "If ten million people believe a foolish thing, it is still a foolish thing." - Anatole France Last edited by lurkette; 07-14-2007 at 01:54 PM..