Red Eye From California

May 25, 2009

in Baby & Kid Stories

My 18 month old son and I arrived at the San Francisco Airport at 10PM. The flight was from SFO to ORD. We then picked up another flight from ORD to BUF. It was my first time going home since my divorce and I was already half dreading/half looking forward to the visit. The first part of the flight went fairly well. I booked the red eye as it would be during my son’s sleep time, fewer passengers and generally easier to maneuver as a woman alone.

The back of the plane was empty so my son and I went there. He slept all the way to Chicago. When we got to Chicago and went to check in for the second leg of the flight, we were told our flight had been cancelled and we needed to wait for 2 hours for the next flight. It was now 5AM. At 7AM my no longer groggy son and I boarded a prop-job puddle jumper. I sat with him on my lap and as soon as the plane started vibrating its way up to the wild blue yonder he started crying. The noise of the plane and the noise of his crying was deafening. I had not slept in over 48 hours at this point and was trying to hold back tears myself. The whole plane shook. He was scared. Logically I understood his fear. Unfortunately, there was little I could do as the plane was loud and it vibrated terribly.

Then, the bad part came. As I was talking soothingly to him and he was starting to calm down, the man in front of me stood up and started yelling at me. He told me to make the kid shut up and to do it now. As he was yelling at me, my son got scared again and started crying louder than before. It then turned into a battle of loudness between my son, the plane and the flake in front of me. The FA finally came over and told the jerk to shut up and sit down. He kept turning around and glaring at me through the whole rest of the trip. Finally, once he shut up, my son calmed down and arrived in Buffalo quiet, but red eyed from crying for almost an hour.

As I passed the man in the airport, I asked him where he got his expertise in child-rearing. He just glared at me some more.

{ 13 comments… read them below or add one }

Nacho May 13, 2009 at 4:37 am

Wow, what an ass. If it's obvious that someone is making an attempt to soothe their child, it shouldn't be such a big deal. The guy in front of you was just being a bully and a run-of-the-mill asshole.

I'm sorry. I hope you had a wonderful time in Buffalo despite him.

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Jodi May 13, 2009 at 5:54 am

I’m so sorry you had the experience. What a jerk! I don’t have children but I have been around children and it is easy for me to understand why your son was upset. I’m not sure what was wrong with the man in front of you, but I’m sure if he would talk to his doctor he’d get a pill that would take care of the problem or a straight jacket.

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Shannon May 13, 2009 at 9:30 am

Wow, what a complete idiot! Kids will be kids and idiots should be prevented from breeding.

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Roto13 May 13, 2009 at 10:56 am

Ha ha ha ha, this could easily be half of the stories on this site told from a different point of view. xP

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Anomia May 13, 2009 at 1:04 pm

As a part-time nanny & babysitter, I sympathize. It's true that some kids are allowed to be out of control, but a baby crying in fear on a shaky plane isn't one of them. I'm so sorry for you!

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Anonymous May 13, 2009 at 6:08 pm

Er, what year did this take place? There haven't been commercial props operating out of ORD since the very early part of this century. This certainly couldn't have happened in the last five years.

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Fred May 13, 2009 at 6:53 pm

There are two kinds of annoying children on airplanes: those that are unhappy and those that are unruly. I can tolerate the unhappy ones.

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Kara June 8, 2009 at 3:10 pm

The changing pressures in the cabin causes babies and toddlers to cry as they cannot "pop" their ears. Not only was your child scared, but probably hurting some, too. That guy was a butthole. Too bad the FA couldn't have slipped him a Mickey Finn.

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kurt June 10, 2009 at 3:31 am

what a asshole.

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Deborah C June 10, 2009 at 3:48 pm

It boggles the mind how many people have no patience at all with children. I don't have kids, but I completely understand that a child gets upset on a flight. This was not a case of careless parents,on the contrary. This was a toddler who wasn't feeling well!

Some more compassion,please!

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John C. June 11, 2009 at 12:55 pm

Commercial props run out of Chicago all the time. Continental has a small fleet of them. I travel for work mon-thurs out of ORD and see props.

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Argus007 July 2, 2009 at 7:18 am

Ugh, why do these people fly with children who can't control themselves? They should not be allowed to fly until they are ten years old.

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Amber May 19, 2016 at 9:50 am

What an ass, some people simply don't think children should exist, which is sad because without children none of use would be here and the human race would cease to exist.

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