I’ve seen 2 recent things in the news regarding problems with (other people’s) kids on airplanes. As someone who has flown a few times with little kids, I know that this is not a fun time at all, and can be just as stressful for the parents as it is for everyone else. I remember one flight a long time ago with a 2 year old. We were in the back of the plane, and it was late at night, and she was tired and cranky. We went for the bottle to help her get to sleep, only to find…. it was in the checked luggage 🙁 She cried and screamed for what seemed like forever. Finally we get her to sleep and she sleeps for a short time, only to wake up again when we landed (and resume the histrionics). Since, as I mentioned, we were in the back of the plane, it took a long time before we were able to de-plane and get things settled. Good times!!
Gary from View from the Wing shared a personal experience about a recent flight of his where a kid kept kicking his seat, and the parents did nothing to stop it. That is frustrating to me as a “good” parent and one who tries to be conscientious and aware of if my kids are bothering others – unfortunately, not everyone feels the same way. Thankfully most of the commenters on the post agreed and didn’t just blame “parents”, which is what tends to happen on these types of threads on the Internet.
Then, there’s Joe Rickey Hundley – as described by the Atlanta Journal Constitution –
An Idaho man was sentenced to 8 months in prison Monday for slapping a toddler on an Atlanta-bound jet last year, a tougher than expected punishment.
The toddler’s mother, Jessica Bennett, told investigators Hundley told her to “to shut that (n-word) baby up” before he slapped the 19-month-old on the face. Bennett and her child were seated in the seat next to Hundley’s.
Hundley was on his way to Atlanta to take his only child off life support after his son had overdosed on insulin, Hundley’s attorney, Marcia Shein, said in court filings. Shein said Hundley had been awake 24 hours straight prior to the altercation on the plane and that his son died days later.
Hat tip to Point me to the plane for the link.
So I’m pretty sure slapping someone else’s kid in the face is NOT the way to go 😀 , but what have any of you ever had to deal with this, either on the parent side, or the “innocent” bystander side?
As someone pointed out on my recent post about Southwest, lots of times when you fly the cheaper domestic airlines, you don’t get to pick your seat, which can make it challenging to get seats anywhere near all of the family, forget about right next to them. On a recent Frontier flight to Denver, we were able to work with the gate agent to get us at least broken up into 3 groups. So the 2 older boys sat together, I sat with (near) 2 kids and my wife sat with the baby and it was a fairly pleasant experience. We were helped out by an older grandma-style lady who was sitting next to my boys, and totally spoiled them by buying them cookies and other snacks.
You definitely need to be prepared though – we had snacks, and we had the tablets and video games and other things to help pass the time. In my book, there is no possible amount of “over-spoiling” on a plane flight with kids.
How about you?
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Dan Miller travels with his wife and 6 (SIX!) children. He loves to help families travel for free / cheap, especially larger families. If you are looking for help, drop him an email at 
I agree that traveling with children is rough as I’ve nannied other people’s children on flights. Whatever makes them comfy and happy. I do have to mention that I was really impressed on the last flight I took. A woman was traveling alone with an infant and two small children. A family noticed that her hands were a little full and offered to entertain her toddler while she cared for the infant. The flight went smoothly for everyone. The mother also gave a bottle to the infant and the toddler at takeoff to help with the air pressure/ ear popping issue. We know swallowing helps that, but it’s a little rough to explain to an uncomfortable wee one.
My main point is that if its not an inconvenience to you and you see someone on your flight is a little overwhelmed, a helping hand will make everyone’s flight much better:)