Smithers MINNEAPOLIS

That’s ok. That was my rancid fart you smelled.

It’s OK Mr. Smithers. It takes a village you know.

By the way, did you smell that fart? It wasn’t me I swear.

Besides that’s what mp3/cd/tape players are for… Can’t get the volume high enough? Then invest in better headphones.

I don’t know. I was witness to an episode recently in a local bar&grill where mom and dad didn’t do squat to get junior to pipe down a bit.

Then there were the folks I shared a flight with who let their 3 and 1 year-olds, repsectively, play on their airline seats like they were gd monkeybars while the younger one coughed all over everyone in the vicinity.

It’s like anything else — some poor examples ruin it for everyone.

… tape players?

There’s still that golden hour when the plane is not at altitude, ear problems are instigated or exarcerbated, and running anything more powerful than a carpet static shock will get you stern looks and a talking-to by the flight attendants. This part of the flight is no less than a third of most domestic flights in/out of MSP.

I realize you can’t remove an upset child from the plane, but too many parents are just resigned to their child’s unhappiness. Please do something constructive — and no, shouting at kids to stop crying isn’t on that list. Start with a little prevention and coach them to manage their ear pressure. Bring things that soothe or console them. Find a way to let them nap. Anything. Please.

Glaring Looks/Bitchy Comments vs. Crying/Yelling/Monkeybars:

Think about it this way - the amount of aggravation received by the parent from the annoyed adult… does it equal the amount of aggravation received by the annoyed adult from the child?

Not likely. But that doesn’t really matter.

If you or yours are the cause of a disturbing spectacle (regardless of the cause), people are going to take notice. Some will even say something. Deal with it.

If you want privacy or want to avoid the attention of other people in public, the only solution is to stay home or buy your own plane. Otherwise, it’s public space and they have as much right to respond to the spectacle as you have to create the spectacle.

Oh God-I’ve been there!! Wish I had some good advice. A pediatrician once recommended cold medicine.

Yeah, I bet a half of bottle of Nyquil works wonders.

My old man used to just give me a stern look as he menacingly undid his belt buckle while saying something like, “Oh, you want to cry little laddie, well I can give you something to cry about.”

That usually shut me up right quick.

Conversations like this make me think back to my youth and I recall more than one instance involving leather belts, another spent kneeling on the kitchen floor with my arms up, and countless others when feeling was cut off from my upper extremities by the kung-fu grip of a nun.

I was generally a very well behaved kid — quiet too.
But now I’m kind of a dick.
So I guess that didn’t turn out all that great.

We check ours with the bags, it works great.

http://www.benadryl.com

Starting kids on drugs early will also help them become better bike racers.

Screw the sneering beatches on the plane. I recommend literally flipping them off. To me, the anger at kids and parents on planes comes from a very weak and self-absorbed shitbag element of our society that works in isolation, lives in condos or gated communities, spends a lot of time alone in the car listening to just the music or talk radio they want and coming home to their well-kempt suburban unit. Some of my friends are like this and they see our lives and friends’ lives with kids, work, activities, at home with sick kid, cleaning up puke, neighborhood mtngs, soccer/hockey/swimming constant connection with other people and kids and activity, as deeply disturbing and unimaginaboly chaotic. They are visibly disturbed and discomforted and usually excuse themselves after short visits to our home. “I don’t know how you do it.” Such pathetic weakness and bullshit! I see this dynamic playing out on the planes between these 2 entirely different segments of our society.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mh6pZQX22CQ

Americans’ rabid individualism paired with a sense of entitlement (which itself is too often confused with freedom) stifles our sense of responsibility to a larger community. It seems to me that we have a tough time finding balance between solidarity and individuality. We’re good at both at their extremes, but not so much in the middle.

I bet the dood scowling at you on the plane bears similar motivation to the dood yelling at cyclists to get off the road as well as my neighbor across the hall who apparently doesn’t get that shitty early 90’s pop rock cranked to 11 isn’t very neighborly at all.

It’s like we don’t know how to give and take; does it have to only be either one or the other in America? I wonder….

much better video about kids on airplanes with chopper!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=toqQL-tejek&feature =related

I agree with almost everything Smithers and BDA usually say, and this doesn’t really apply to them, but here’s the other side of the story:

I have been around some real hellspawn. If you think MSP flights are bad, try the weekend trains to/from Chicago. It’s like the train’s a goddamn jungle gym.

The way I see it, parenthood has become a right rather than a responsibility, and somehow society should be greatful for breeders.

I cannot wait for the day when parents with undisciplined larvae have to fly and eat and watch movies separate from the rest of us. If an adult starts yelling and screaming in a restaurant, is that acceptable? Then why is it acceptable to leave one’s kid in there screaming?

I’m sure that’s different from what you mean, but it’s a portion of an increasing problem in our society. One has to get a license to drive or to adopt, but anyone can get knocked up and the courts will do their damndest to let her raise them. My family took care of two kids whose dad had put them up as collateral for crack, so I guess I have a different view of parenthood than most: It shouldn’t be a right, and society would probably be better off if some parents weren’t.

Present company excluded of course, unless you’re on meth.

It would be interesting to talk to Smithers before he was a dad, to see if his views on this subject were the same as they are now.

…I was the perfect parent until I became one…

People should be focusing their glares and anger towards stuff that really matters. Kids screaming is not one of them. Sure it’s annoying, but it’s not the end of the frickin’ world. Get over it.

i’ve resisted commenting since i am a failure as a parent…my kid is a… ‘how you say’ 4 year old wild child raised by wolves, someday his real parents will take him back, after i teach him some skills. just take it one day at a time and remember only the good parts…. now stop talkin’ about it and do something

my comment assumed a baby. If you can’t control your 3+ year olds (who don’t have some debilitating disease), then take a parenting class and stay off the plane.

When I’m seated next to someone else’s screaming kid, of course I suck it up and deal with it. I don’t glare at anybody and I just HTFU because I like to think I’m above that.

But that doesn’t change the fact that it bothers me, and so I get it out here. That’s what blog comment sections are for.

I really don’t get the whole increasing enshrinement of parenthood in our society though. I don’t think it used to be that way in, say, the 50’s. Kids are more coddled now and folks have no right or responsibility to tell other people’s kids what to do.

When I see third-graders beating some kid up in the street without a parent in sight, I stop my bike, tell them to quit it and go home. I reject the idea that all parents are doing a good job, although I’m sure most are.

As far as how I feel about my parents, I think they made a mistake although I’m glad they made the best of it. I don’t think the rest society owes them anything for having me, especially given the tax incentives already in place.

I just think a lot of parents should not be parents. That probably includes me. Good parents are probably beneficial to society, but bad parents easily negate that benefit and more besides.

Why not parenting licenses? We have to get licensed to drive or cut hair, and I think foster parents have to be accredited. Would it even be difficult to throw crackmoms and -dads in jail for procreating? Why is forced sterilization off the table in policy discussions?