Patti’s Post: Should Children be Banned?

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I recently was working a flight that was a little over four hours long and had been extremely busy. We had several families with small children onboard and we worked very hard to accommodate all of their needs from seating to food as well as proper diaper disposal! With approximately one hour left in flight a female passenger stopped me in the isle and asked, well actually demanded I bring her some ear plugs because she was sitting in front of a small child that could not be quiet or still. I looked behind her and the child looked to be approximately three years old. I told her I would see what I could find, although I thought to myself, why ask me for help now and not earlier in the flight, I possibly could have moved her to a different seat had she asked me earlier. I continued to collect trash and prepare the cabin for landing and to be honest by the time I had gone through the cabin I had forgotten about the woman’s request.

Approximately thirty minutes from landing I was in the galley with another flight attendant we were preparing the galley and the woman got up and came to the back to use the restroom. When she came out she stopped and informed us in a not so nice tone that well she had not gotten any ear plugs so she got no sleep because of the child behind her and she had turned around several times and given the child and mother dirty looks but it didn’t help. I empathized with her as much as I could and said I was sorry she was unable to enjoy her flight and that I would have been happy to try to find her a different seat if she would have asked me earlier. She said no that she did not want to move away from a friend she was sitting next to.

At this point I am thinking well there is just no way to please this woman or make her feel better about the fact that children do fly on planes and that on any airline at any given time she may be in this exact situation or worse.

The moral of this story might be….come prepared for anything and be flexible!

Bring noise cancelling headphones if you even think you might like to sleep, bring an ipod, ipad, a kindle, anything that you can tune into and hopefully tune out everyone around you….and while you’re at it bring a blanket and pillow!

Patti Broughton is currently a flight attendant for a domestic low cost carrier. Prior to her current position, she flew 10 years for a regional airline operating as Delta Connection. Patti also works as an Executive Assistant at More News Later Media, LLC., the parent company of InFlightTeam.com. You can reach Patti by emailing: Patti@bobbylaurie.com

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