I was flying from New Orleans back to Los Angeles and for some strange reason there were A LOT of babies on this flight!!!! I was sitting all the way in the back of the plane and this allowed me to see all the people boarding. Naturally, by the time the plane was full most of the infants were seated very near to the back.
There was this one particular infant that was screaming before the plane even took off. Mind you this is a 4 and a half hour flight and this baby was screaming bloody murder. I thought after the first couple of minutes flying the mother would feed the child and all would be good. I was wrong – the child ate and continued screaming. The worst part is that this screaming prompted all the other infants to start screaming. The nightmare began!!!!!
Since there were clear skies and it was a beautiful day, the captain turned off the seat belt signs during the entire flight so the mothers would take their screaming infants and walk up and down the aisle until the screaming would stop. One by one they would eventually stop, but there was THAT ONE that never did. The mother was actually complaining to the flight attendant the whole time about things she wanted and needed so she and her child were annoying me even more.
About 2 and a half hours into the flight the baby is still screaming and the mother is not pleased a bit. She then starts to walk towards where I am sitting because she still thinks the walking will help. I couldn’t take it anymore so I stood up and told her that she could at least go back to her area and not alienate the ENTIRE plane. I demanded that she move and at least give her child some Tylenol or Benadryl if she had some to knock the kid out!!! She got very upset and went back to her seat and I actually heard a few people clapping. Low and behold she actually did have some baby Tylenol and she gave it to the baby and it knocked the baby out. I actually got to enjoy the rest of the flight!!!
Nicholas B.
{ 31 comments… read them below or add one }
Geez Nicholas why didn’t you take some Tylenol or Benadryl and chase it with something a little stronger to knock you out?
Babies can’t help crying and if mom isn’t able to calm the child down drugging it isn’t the answer. If I had been that mom and you told me to give my kid something to knock it out I’d have been real tempted to knock you out. You Silly Bugger.
Nicholas – children cry. Live with it. Seems like the mom was doing all the right things.
How terrible that her asking for assistance “annoyed” you. I hope you have many more flights with many more screaming children.
I’m actually shocked that the mother would medicate the child on YOUR request. Children shouldn’t be drugged just to make you more comfortable.
Most of these self-righteous people who scream at people with children have NO idea how many people they cried at or spit up on when they were babies themselves, or how active their own mothers were in quieting them. So many people lack empathy and patience.
The expectation of perfect peace and quiet can be realized in business class, but is ridiculous to expect in economy.
While I certainly wouldn’t liek a flight like you described…I would never have treated someone the way you did. Had that been my wife you spoke to and treated like that…we would have had a very brief discussion, just before I swiftly removed your head from your neck, and wiped your ass with your tongue. You need to be understanding. Even the best parents have babies who cry whether it’s on a plane, or at home, or the mall,etc. They really aren’t doing it to annoy you. You seem to be a genuine ass.
While I think Nicholas may have been a jerk for what he said, the mother should not have needed to be told to give the kid some tylenol. I have a 14 month old that we took on an airplane when he was 9 months old, so I’m well aware of how babies react on planes. Apparently this woman was too because she has the baby tylenol on hand, or at least was prepared for the possiblity. It really should not have taken 2 hours for this woman to give the kid some tylenol.
Babies are actually very simple. They cry for 3 reasons: Food, Sleep, Discomfort. If she feed the child and that didn’t work, you check the diaper. If the Diaper is clear, then the child is either Tired, or in discomfort because of the change in altitudes. Given that the baby did not fall asleep within the first hour of the flight, It’s a pretty safe bet that the kid did not like the change in altitude and it completely validates giving the child tylenol.
Again, not saying that Nicholas was right is what he said or how he said it, but that mom probably needed a lesson in parenting and being curtious to the other people in the flying tincan…
You clueless bastard!! You have no idea how stressful flying is for PARENTS. I know that if I have to fly with my 1 year old son, that I am stressed from the moment I wake up that day. I am stressed that my son MIGHT cry on the flight later that day (he usually gets it out of his system in the terminal). I am stressed that my son might make the flight uncomfortable for the people around me. I am stressed that all of the precautions that my wife and I take to combat a grumpy baby might not work; that the stuff that we bring along to keep him happy might be for naught. I’m stressed for a myriad of other reasons.
Then toss in somebody like you telling my wife to medicate my child when we are already doing all that we can to keep him calm and quiet. Buddy you better hope that there are Air Marshals on the flight to save your life.
Tylenol will not “knock a baby out”. It has no sedative properties at all.
I agree with most here. Unless the mother was being negligent, which she was not, you acted like a jerk. Parents don’t want their babies to cry on a plane or anywhere else. They don’t enjoy disturbing everyone else. In fact, the mother was doing the one thing that had a chance of working (walking with the baby), and you told her to stop. So really, it was you who perpetuated the disturbance of the other passengers.
As for demanding that a mother medicate her baby – if you’d said that to me, you would have left the plane with no doubt about how much of a selfish bastard I thought you were.
Demotage,
Tylenol might not have any sedative properties, but it might have relieved some discomfort that the baby was having so the baby could relax and fall asleep. Anyways, it worked and that’s what counts.
Nic, I sure that mother was enjoying having a screaming baby in her arms all that time, maybe when the baby started to wind down she pinched it so it would start screaming again.
I totally agree with Kevin, meet the baby’s needs and there won’t be much crying. Sometimes it’s VERY hard to figure out what the baby needs are and you try your best.
Julicans,
Of course, you are right about the Tylenol. I still think the guy was a jerk do too). I also think it’s funny how people are all “I’d kill the guy”. No they wouldn’t. He’s a jerk – and the best you can do is tell him off – nobody is going to kill another passenger on a plane (and yes, I know it was hyperbole).
Demotage…mark my words…had he spoken to my wife like that…I wouldn’t have killed him on the plane, but I WOULD have beat the $h1T out of hime on the ground in the airport. As other posters have mentioned…while inconvenient for him, it was no joy fo rthat mother to have a crying baby either…the last thing she needed was a pompous, arrogant fucktard giving orders.
Try some noise cancelling headphones. Turn up the music and ignore the noise. It’s the mother who is stuck with it.
Why don’t they just put babies in the cargo hold. If it is good enough for my dog, it should be good enough for your kid.
Sharon…Nice Trolling.
I would encourage everyone to ignore this Troll, and not feed into his/her game.
Hugh…
Oh… Sharon’s not a troll here… that’s a good example of a sarcastic comment that definitely made me smirk
It reminds me of something I heard a while back that I also liked: Kids are great until they’re about 9 years old – then you should lock them in a barrel and feed them through the knothole. When they turn 15 – plug up the knothole…
I like Sharon’s idea but would modify it- put the animals and babies in the main cabin and put the self important folks in the cargo hold. I’ve experienced more air horror shows with adults than little ones. Especially the pompous jerks that think that even though they likely paid the same or less fare than others they are somehow entitled to special treatment. I’ve seen adults whining and have the equivalent of a diaper load in their drawers that needed changing over the years. I prefer dealing with a crying baby anytime.
ps –
I prefer “overwing” seats for those people
Nicholas, you’re so full of BS. Why didn’t YOU take a pill? I am ABSOLUTELY sure it wasn’t your impolite request that made the mother give her child the Tylenol. No, sir, you’re not that powerful and you’re not the center of the Universe. She had probably given the kid a Tylenol already a few hours before, and had to wait a few hours until she gave him/her another one. Get real,you’re not alone in the world. If you don’t want to hear a baby crying, stay home.
I volunteer for the cargo hold! There is probably more leg room down there.
Saw…thank you for recognizing sarcasm, with that being said, I understand that babies cry but there are things that can be done about it. I have been all over the world and I guess I have been fortunate enough not to be on a plane with a screaming baby or I haven’t noticed. I have, however, held many babies so that a mother can use the restroom or just eat her meal. A little sympathy goes a long way.
I always compliment the parents that have very well behaved children.
BTW…I have no kids.
All the “bad” flights I have been on have to do with kids screaming or kicking. Some parents just don’t seem to care.
I think perhaps people do not have the idea that .. unlike those of us between maybe 2 1/2 and 114 .. babies cannot make sure their ears stay clear.
I suggest anyone who cannot deal with a screaming baby .. try this to gain some empathy. Decide you are going to go through the flight without clearing your ears. Sit by a window .. where the greatest pressure changes are noticeable. Sit there through initial pressurization, through the flight and then through descent and to make it really fun fly into .. oh .. how about Albuquerque?? If you can make it through all that without wanting to blow you head off then you can feel free to whine about crying babies.
It is annoying .. but, to be fair, there is little babies can do until they reach an age where Mommy or Daddy can teach them to move their jaws to clear their ears. It annoys me from the perspective of .. I know what is wrong .. I know there is little to be done to ease the child’s discomfort .. and that makes me nuts. I don’t get mad at Mom or at the child. There is little to be done .. and half the time Baby Tylenol doesn’t do jack.
Daphne,
I agree generally, but I have to raise a point of science. The cabin pressure does not change first or more near the window. There are no significant barriers to air movement between the window and the rest of the cabin, so a change in pressure in one place will be instantaneously distributed to the rest of the cabin. Think of a filled balloon. If you press your finger into side of the balloon, the air pressure within the balloon rises equally throughout the balloon, not more right under your finger
Demo & Daph..
And to kill another myth… if someone opens an airplane door in mid-flight, there’s no way you could ever get sucked out because of the pressure difference.
Blown out, yes, but sucked out, no.
You did the right thing. Parents should know better.
If you can’t handle your kids, don’t have them at all.
I think this was awesome.. I have a child, and he knows how to fly and be quiet.. Mother’s who can’t control their childern need to be told..
You are such a jerk. I would have ripped you a new one regardless of whether or not you said that to me. I don’t even have kids and I know how hard it is to keep them calm, there’s no way to know exactly what the baby needs or wants. Next time either pay for business class or do everyone a favor and don’t fly at all.
Yeah, I’m sure there are children who know how to be quiet. I only wonder at those methods of control. :O) I just love these “wonderful” parents who seem to feel they have the right to judge other parents.
Those who can’t seem to stop complaining at crying babies, well, there’s a solution, rent a private plane or stay at your own home. Commercial airlines are PUBLIC space, so believe it or not, babies have the right to be there and to cry, and who gives a damn if it bothers you. Babies cry, that’s the way it is.
I’m not surprised tho that so many (childless) women support Nicholas. If a woman is selfish enough to decide not to have children, of course others with children will bother her.
As for medication, there is no way in the world that I would drug my son because of some selfish jerks. It would do those people good to shag a bit more, they’d be in a better mood.
“If a woman is selfish enough to decide not to have children…”
You’ve got it wrong, Inka, it’s the other way around. What can be more selfish than to want to create a new being containing your own genes. Procration is the ultimate selfish act.
Good for you, Nicholas! It’s time someone stood up to these passengers who have gotten used to their own screaming brats and don’t give a rat’s arse if the kid(s) bother other passengers. They should put all kids under 12 in the baggage hold.
I agree with much of what Inka had to say, except that the comment about women being selfish if they don’t have children is just ignorant. People decide to have children or not for a variety of reasons. Some of them may be selfish, and many are not.
As for Mick: I think they should reserve a place in the baggage hold for assholes. Then you could be away from the kids.
Thankfully, there are more understanding passengers than ignorant ones. Nicholas*, you should print your little article and paste it on your mirror so that you are reminded everyday of the person you have become. I am a mom of twin boys and as a parent we try our best which you obviously can’t imagine. However, I didn’t have to become a mom to realize that.
And for *ick: you are obviously still a child yourself.