A passenger has slammed parents who don't control their children on planes after her experience on a long-haul trip.
The traveller went on Mumsnet to describe how she had recently returned from a trip with connecting flights and was on five planes altogether. On four of these flights, she "was around children who’s (sic) parents just seemed to pussyfoot around them and seemed unable to control them".
In a thread asking if she was being unreasonable "to expect people to be able to control their children on planes", she explained what happened on each flight.
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On the first one, a mum and two children were in the row in front, with their dad across the aisle who "plonks himself down on his laptop for the entire flight".
The little boy, aged two or three, was "extremely loud", there was continuous shrieking and he was disrupting his sister.
The passenger wrote: "They had brought nothing for him to do - no iPad/colouring/books, so no wonder he was bored. Just shrieked constantly to get mum’s attention. Dad did absolutely nothing to help, didn’t offer to take him. Neither took him for a walk down the aisle or anything - he literally was in his seat the entire flight, absolutely bored s***less and disturbing everyone around him."
During the second flight, a girl of about three was sitting behind the passenger, next to her mum. Her dad was across the aisle.
"Was fine during the flight but kept switching between mum and dad, and taking it in turns to sit on their lap watching her iPad," said the frustrated traveller. "When it came to landing, she still wanted to switch every few mins. Air hostess politely told them a few times that she needs to be seated now for landing.
" Parents meekly tried to make her sit still with one of them but eventually gave up, so for the actual landing she ended up in the aisle (very dangerous) with mum holding onto her T-shirt. Air hostesses were seated at this point so couldn’t do anything/didn’t notice."
She went on: "Flight 3 - boy of about 5 in front of me, standing up in his seat, leaning back into the seat, generally jumping around. Mum apologised but made no real attempt to stop him.
"Flight 4 - large extended family sitting in various places around the plane. Children allowed to shout at each other across rows and over people’s heads, not told to stop once.
"Am I being unreasonable to despair at parenting these days if this is the norm? Have other people come across situations like this or was I just very unlucky?"
Her post attracted numerous comments, with many sympathising with her and saying she was not being unreasonable.
One said: "Flights are boring for kids but that is no excuse to let them run riot. You are not being unreasonable."
Another added: "I am a parent of two small kids and understand the challenges but some parents are just hopeless and so entitled. I was in a swim class this morning for our two year olds and one mum went up and asked for a change of noodle THREE TIMES as her child ‘kept changing their mind’. If you allow this kind of behaviour they think they can call the shots. Insane!"
Have you had any nightmare journeys? Let us know in the comments below
A third wrote: "Some people really are thick selfish c****. We managed numerous plane journeys with three small children and never once let them annoy other folks. If you can’t control them don’t inflict them on other people in confined spaces."
And one Mumsnet user said: "I expect (and did so myself) parents to attempt to control their children on flights. Not to do a Ned Flanders parents 'we've tried nothing and we're all out of ideas'.
"I don't know what challenges they and their children have. But I do expect parents to be aware of the impact of travelling on their children and their fellow travelling inmates, and to try and mitigate the effects on both their children and fellow travellers. And following safety instructions is non-negotiable."
Others highlighted how it can be challenging to look after small children on long journeys.
One mum commented: "You are not being unreasonable but I also think that too many people are very intolerant of even some small noise from generally very well behaved children. Generally, I think most parents are doing great but small children are hard and a noise can escape even the offspring of the most zealous and organised and prepared parent."
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