Thursday, May 10, 2007

Some people's children

So last week on my business trip I got stuck in a middle seat towards the back of the plane. Having achieved frequent flyer status for the past 5 years, I've become accustomed to aisle or middle seats in the front of the coach section, exit row seats, and the occasional first class upgrade. I forgot what it was like to rough it in steerage.

After wedging myself and my things into my meager alloted space, I watched a couple with a baby and a toddler seat themselves in the aisle in front of me. This appeared to be the first time they had flown together as a family. The excited toddler was given the window seat and promptly barraged his father with questions.

I steeled myself for a stressful flight, consoled slightly by the fact that I needed to work and wouldn't be able to relax anyway. To my delight, the father pulled out a portable DVD player to keep his young son entertained.

The catch? He allowed the boy to use it without headphones. Everyone in the vicinity was treated to the sounds of Curious George and Blue's Clues throughout the flight.

Given that I was focused on making some sense out of a very poorly written document I was reviewing, I can't say that the noise really bothered me. But I did find it incredibly rude and ironic that this couple decided that the best way to keep their son out of their hair was to disturb all the passengers around them.

It could have been worse, I guess. They could have played Barney.

4 comments:

Tanya Espanya said...

I am SO over kids! Grrr, shaking my fist at them!

;)

How long was the flight?

Slave to the dogs said...

Tanya, it was a 3 hour flight. And I'm actually a bit of a cartoon fan (I can hear Blue's theme song in my head right now in fact) so I didn't mind the content of what was being played...just the fact that the parents seemed so oblivious of other passengers.

It cracked me up when we landed. The boy started asking his dad a million questions, and the man told him to pipe down because people around them were trying to relax. Too bad he didn't think of that sooner.

justacoolcat said...

That heppened on our flight to Ja. It was the couple with two kids in the seat right behind us.

Ugh.

Slave to the dogs said...

Cat - we just flew back from Florida, and there was a kid behind this time who did use headphones. And he only sang along off-key to Dora the Explorer once!