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Holy fuck.

That’s when you go to the bathroom, even if you don’t have to go to the bathroom. And then you think of your happy place.

Posted by Jason on 19 November 2006 @ 10am

I feel your pain. There’s actually an interesting post by Mike Davidson on Airplane Seat Etiquette: http://www.mikeindustries.com/blog/archive/2006/09/airplane-seat-etiquette. That’s where I first heard about Knee Defenders: http://kneedefender.com/html2/how_to.htm. Have you ever heard about them? They seem to do trick for those of us that need to work on planes.

Posted by Bruno Figueiredo on 20 November 2006 @ 2am

Hadn’t heard of the knee protector before but that’s pretty conspicuous … I can deal with seat leanback people. It’s the combination of all the worst aspects together that made me want to scream.

Posted by Kevin Cheng on 23 November 2006 @ 4am

Ah, I can’t pass this up. I ran across your post kind of randomly on Technorati and had to read it… and of course it just so happens that I just yesterday was on a plane with my 2 year-old daughter, inflicting this torture on fellow passengers for awhile. I kinda doubt that it will really make any difference, but for what it’s worth:

• My baby’s crying is 10x harder on me than it is on you (parents are wired that way). I bring bags of food, eight different kinds of toys, I try walking her around, not doing it, etc. etc. if there was anything I could do to help her stop, I would do it. Anything at all.

• Most of the time, she is ok on planes, but sometimes she gets tired and frustrated and has no good way to deal with it. when she is like that, she will reject anything I offer her and just scream and thrash around, as the force of nature she is at this age. In this case, we had to get her up in the middle of the night to catch our plane, so she was already pretty frazzled. She is just too small still, and she doesn’t yet know a way to deal with her feelings any better.

• I am sure that there are some parents that are irresponsible and neglectful, and who ignore the needs of the passengers around them. But I think that for most times like this the parents are just dealing with an unavoidable situation as best they can. I was very uncomfortable to be inflicting my baby’s screams on people around me! I could feel the anger.

Your idea that this stuff is somehow rude or inconsiderate is probably just wrong, and wanting it to be different is like getting mad at the rain for making you wet. If you have children some day, I am sure you will reread your post and wonder about how different your perspective used to be, and as Steve Jobs says, a flexible perspective is worth 60 IQ points

Posted by Ben Clemens on 27 November 2006 @ 11am

Ben, most of your points are around the screaming part, which I actually have the least problem with. I know that that’s well beyond your control and personally, I usually deal with that just fine with my earphones. Just as my mos recent flight, I had a loud snorer next to me and I don’t expect him not to sleep but instead just put on my music.

Mostly, this was a way for me to vent from an experience where I was surrounded by most of the things you wish you don’t have to fly with but I do think the parent behind me, who’s kid never screamed but literally climbed on my seat quite a few times, might have at least tried to restrain him for a bit. I know even that’s not entirely in a parent’s control - I have numerous friends with young children/babies that I’ve seen or played with - but hey, even just a, “sorry, he’s a bit hyperactive right now” probably would have made me feel better.

Posted by Kevin Cheng on 27 November 2006 @ 5pm

So here is something that a colleague of mine has done in this situation and it worked like a charm: He peered over his seat, with both hands firmly on the top of the seat and said calmly but sternly, aimed at the child and not the parent (the parent will get it): “This. Has got - to stop.” Pauses important.

Posted by Yvonne Shek on 4 January 2007 @ 1pm