[dutchyankee]

Hi Martyn,

IMO in answer to your last question, quite simply HELL YES!!!

If an adult is obviously being negligent or ignoring his/her child whilst doing something banal such as being on their 5th appendage (mobile phone) then by all means it is appropriate to ask the person to please do something about the noise. Will they give you a look, yes, will they be annoyed, sure, but if they then say something to the likes of, ‘what can I do, its a baby?’ simply reply perhaps if you paid as much attention to the needs of your offspring as to your bloody phone the child wouldn’t be screaming. I could care less about Political Correctness! When did it become Politically Correct to disturb all and sundry?

This has nothing to do with a parent who is trying to take care of the situation and a child is simply cranky or tired, etc. If a parent is making an effort, I think that is all that can be expected. One who ignores the situation needs to be told off.

I will often tell people that speak too loudly or do a Skype call in a public domain to please lower the volume and if they refuse then I will do exactly the same to make their conversation impossible and they move on or realise why I am taking the action I am and change their behaviour. People are never too old to learn we just need to be willing to teach. 🙂

[canucklad]

Morning Martyn
It’s hard one, it depends on the situation.
And most importantly, It probably also depends on my mood at the time.

There have been a few times I’ve stayed at well-known hotels where the peace has been shattered by Rugrats running amok in the halls

My thought process…….
Surely they’ll be lassoed and hog tied before I need to intervene?
Do I speak the same language as the protagonists if I need to intervene?
What cultural difference am I going to encounter?
Is it worth the hassle?

Ultimately if it continued in all the cases, I’d call reception and get them to deal with it!

[JohnHarper]

Martyn,

Sadly the sort of people you are talking about have rights and they know they have rights and they will exercise them to their fullest extent for their own convenience.

My grandfather taught me that before you had rights you had responsibilities and only once you understood and accepted your responsibilities could you consider that you had rights and then you must only exercise them after considering the needs of others before your own.

Sadly the people who have rights these days were not taught by my grandfather!

[canucklad]

John, your grandfather , like most grandfather’s and for that matter, all of our elder’s are indeed wise..

And probably to follow up on Martyn’s question, is probably why most of us would reluctantly choose to adopt the tut-tut, shrug your shoulders approach.

Personally, I’d want to avoid a situation with an ego maniac , know my rights selfish individual that turns into an embarrassing scene for me, but not for the other person, who probably likes being at the centre of attention. ,

[dutchyankee]

Perhaps my Dutch Heritage causes me to be more willing to be direct when politeness doesn’t work. As John’s grandfather understood, people could still be taught, and I don’t mind teaching when the opportunity arises as when everyone just closes a blind eye and accepts poor behaviour it only gets worse and the DYKWIA population grows.

[CathayLoyalist2]

As it all situations where a problem needs to be dealt with, it ultimately comes down to how you approach the person concerned. I have found a polite but well mannered but assertive approach gives the recipient no excuse to bad mouth you or lose their cool. If the recipient of your well drilled message is a complete ‘a……e’ then speak to the Cabin Crew Chief. I’ll bet in those circumstances you’ll get a lot of thank you looks from people only to grateful you had the courage to do what they wouldn’t.

[lloydah]

It’s a great pity we can’t resurrect Joyce Grenfell for those situations. Either her or Lady Bracknell.

[icenspice]

Am I in a position to be strict with my 2 young nephews and 4 nieces? YES

Am I in a position to tell complete strangers how to look after their kids? NO

[CathayLoyalist2]

Icenspice , you are asking the parent to step up not the children

[canucklad]

Would normally totally agree with you icenspice….

But, let me ask you a question……
You’re taking your dog for a walk in the park, it’s happily barking at shadows and wanting to chase every squirrel it sniffs, etc, etc … It’s a happy, if a bit frustrated mutt . Because you’re a responsible person and as such, you struggle with the constant straining at the lead …

How would you deal with, the other dog owner who has detached their treasured 4 legged friend from the lead and is now deliriously running around chasing their own tail, other dogs tails and most importantly of all…your happy hounds tail.

What would you say to the other person? .

[icenspice]

I would have a good laugh, canucklad! Start a conversation with the other person and give them a wink…if attractive!

[Poshgirl58]

Very interesting and open discussion on a controversial topic that very few flyers have been lucky not to experience. Having spent a lot of time on leisure flights, I’ve witnessed well and badly behaved, quiet and yelling children. Add to this the parent’s ability to entertain their child or just totally ignore them.

I’ve seen parents walking up and down the aircraft, trying to get their child to sleep and only succeeding in getting in the way of the cabin crew doing their job. The bassinet containing clothes, etc instead of baby! The mother whose fear of flying seemed a good reason to avoid keeping her child occupied and the father apparently unable to do any parenting.

On one notable occasion the two-year-old sitting behind us on a four hour flight was so well behaved that we congratulated his parents. They were a little embarrassed but thanked us, saying they were lucky. It was more about their ability to keep their child occupied including a short sleep taken at their usual nap time.

[LuganoPirate]

I’d only intervene if the father was smaller than me 😉

Saying that, and I’m typing this on a wooden table, I’ve never had screaming kids in my cabin, though I once got some irksome youth sitting behind me that kept banging his feet in the back of my chair. I asked him to stop and he did for a while then continued. His parents just ignored the situation.

I did however get my revenge but I won’t put it in print!

[IanFromHKG]

Where people (adult or child) are using loud machines (whether it be kids’ beeping games machines, or loud adults on Skype or similar, or people watching video on loudspeaker) I have no problem asking them either to turn the sound off (games) or rather pointedly saying that I am quite willing to lend them a set of earphones. 100% success rate so far.

[Tom Otley]

Funny time of year for this one to come back…. I think most people’s concerns in the US this Christmas centred around just getting where they needed to go

“At first, we just tried to ignore the noise and focus on our own conversation, but as the hours went by, the baby’s cries became louder and more frequent,” Dr. Miller said, explaining that although the mother tried to calm her baby, nothing worked — which is why he believes that babies should be banned from first class on planes.”

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