Twin Troubles

February 16, 2010

in Baby & Kid Stories

My husband and I were on a direct flight between Amsterdam and Los Angeles – the plane was packed. For the first time (and hopefully the last) we actually saw passengers sitting in the jump seats. The cat at their feet began crying and we thought “This is going to be a long flight.” Turns out these were the least of our problems.

A mother walks down the aisle toward us with her 3 year old twin sons. As there is just the empty row behind us I know they are going to be our neighbors. No sooner than she belts them in, the twins start opening and closing the trays over and over, banging them into the backs of our seats as hard as they could. Then the kicking starts, non-stop. Then one of the boys puts one hand on the back of my husband’s seat, the other on mine and jumps up so that his head is between ours and then he coughs, a wet, spittle-laden cough right in our faces. I turn to the mother and tell her to control her kids. She went ballistic. Screaming at me that I must hate children as this is how kids behave and since I don’t like kids I should only fly 1st class in the future and on and on.

Now the result of this screaming high-decibel harangue was that it upset her little darlings who then start to cry hysterically. She took one of them in her lap and soothingly said, “She’s a bad lady who hates you.” The kid in her lap became so undone he then puked all over her. She throws the kid in his middle seat, stands up in the aisle next to me and starts screaming at me, “Now are you happy? This is what you wanted to happen all along.” Yes lady, I most definitely want the smell of vomit behind me for 11 hours.

The FAs come running over all sympathetic to her and looking at me like I am the devil. They gave her an airline T-shirt to change into. And then she told them I had screamed at her kids, which I hadn’t – she was the screamer. The FAs defended her and told me that they didn’t witness the twins behaving any way but angelic.

For the rest of our flight our food was slammed onto our trays by the FAs, they ignored our requests for water and generally made us out to be at fault. And my husband has refused to fly KLM ever since.

{ 15 comments… read them below or add one }

rerere February 17, 2010 at 7:00 am

I'm sorry, but that lady and flight attendant need to die. What fucking morons. Sorry about your flight.

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MF February 17, 2010 at 7:05 am

Did you write 'cat at their feet'. Seeing as you can't have a cat on a plane, I think your story is nothing more than make-believe..

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pepe February 17, 2010 at 8:29 am

Besides, passengers never sit on jumpseats

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puff March 19, 2010 at 10:21 am

Yeah I have seen airline personel deadheading sitting on jump seats

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Jane February 19, 2010 at 8:24 am

You can bring cats on planes. You just have to pay an extra fee and make sure that they fit in a carry-on that can fit underneath the seat. At least that's the policy I've seen on United and US Airways.

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CVD February 17, 2010 at 9:58 am

Not surprised. On a trip flying business class with KLM from Amsterdam to Aruba, people were put in lawn chairs right next to the galley. Right up with us in business class. This was about 10 years ago, but I still remember it vividly.

I believe the poster.

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Morgan September 15, 2010 at 12:31 am

Lawn-chairs?!?!?!? There is NO WAY that I believe this.

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J. Stark February 17, 2010 at 10:10 am

I can see both sides of the story. 3-year-olds (many of them) don't always have the capacity to sit perfectly still for long lengths of time. They're full of energy, they're curious. It sounds like their mother played the "Oh their just kids" card. Doesn't sound like she did anything to remedy the situation. Did she bring coloring books, toys, and things to keep her kids occupied? Did she do anything to try to convey to the kids that it's not nice to kick the back of the seats in front of them, or did she do what so many parents do; just smile and think or say "Aren't they adorable? Aren't they precious?"

Then there's the poster of this story. Ever heard of the phrase, "It's not what you say, but HOW you say it." ? If the mother of those kids was completely psycho (which I doubt), then it probably wouldn't have mattered much what you said to her or how you said it. But it is my opinion that whatever you said, or the way you said it, maybe came across as offensive or rude.

There's a lot of mistaken entitlement among travelers. You bought your tickets knowing full well that it's a gamble as to who your seatmates will be. There's no guarantee when you fly, that everything is going to be absolutely peachy. Sometimes you are going to be inconvenienced. Sometimes you will get undesirable seatmates who don't control their kids. Sometimes you'll get a seatmate who doesn't like kids. It happens. Get over it!

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Jim February 17, 2010 at 11:36 am

we should all be respectful of each other though…and, if a parent knows their children will not behave, and is incapable of parenting properly, they should not fly with the child. We all paid for our seats…and, we all deserve a reasonably quiet and uneventful flight…..

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Jim February 17, 2010 at 11:32 am

The Mother says "that is how kids behave"? Wrong. That is how she allows her kids to behave.

I have been on flights with well mannered and good children. And, these children had attentive and at times, stern parents that kept them in line.

Granted some kids will misbehave regardless of parenting…and, when the parent makes an obvious attempt to parent…I am sympathetic and understanding. But, when the parent is dismissive…or, has the attitude that it is our problem that we are irritated with their children…that is where I get mad. If the story truly happened in the manner that you indicate….then this Mother was a terrible parent….she should not allow her kids to jump up and down, tug on your chair, etc….that is wrong.

We all pay for our seats…and we should be respectful of each other…and, parents should instruct their children to be respectful as well…..not be indifferent to others around them.

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GR February 17, 2010 at 12:20 pm

I agree 100% with Jim. In my 25+ years as a flight attendant, I only have to look at the parents to observe where children's behavior is rooted. Good and Bad.

Passengers do not sit in jumpseats. Period. If out of uniform passengers were in the jumpseats, these are authorized company personnel. Probably Flight Attendants or Pilots.

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LUXpink February 19, 2010 at 9:17 pm

this story is such bullshit. there is NO such thing as "airline t-shirts" for her to change into. i got coffee spilled all over me on a flight and there was NOTHING not even a towel on that plane to help me out.

your treatment from the FAs is so over the top and fake.

do you believe your own stories? cause we do not honey.

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Demotage February 20, 2010 at 6:33 pm

You can bring cats on planes, and they sometimes do have airline t-shirts on international flight- in the on board duty free shop.

If the mother told her kid that the woman in front of her "hates her", then that is a terrible scary thing to say to a child.

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GR February 20, 2010 at 9:14 pm

I have seen Hermes Scarves in Duty Free but NEVER tee shirts. If they were in Duty Free, DF stock is owned by another company. The airline DOES NOT have the authority to give any DF items away.

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Demotage February 21, 2010 at 11:27 am

All I'm saying is that the presence of the T-shirt in this story is not necessarily a flag that makes the story untrue. There are lots of potential places such a T-shirt could have come from. It might have been part of a promotion. It might have been the personal property of one of the FA's. It's not like she provided the woman with a bib made of platypus bills. A t-shirt is a pretty common item.

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