Sitting next to (unrelated) children (UNDELETED AT USER RQ)

[BKS Air Transport]

Faced with a 12 hour flight on BA in WT the other day, I stumped up the £25 and chose a seat I liked the position of.

On boarding, my heart sank straight away to find that I was sat next to two young boys, both under 5. I then became a little bemused to find that their parents were sat in the row behind.

Once underway, the boys were amused for around an hour by the entertainment system, but then one of them started to kick the footrest under the seat. What with this, and having been asked twice by members of the cabin crew what the boys wanted to drink, I made my excuses and moved to one of several empty rows further back (the cabin was barely half full).

What I can't understand is how this situation arose. When I selected my seat on-line the row had been empty. Why were the family sitting in this bizarre arrangement rather than one parent with one child? And why, if they were determined to sit like this, were two of the empty rows further back not used, avoiding the need to sit the children next to a stranger?

As a postscript, the mother moved herself later on, and spent much of the flight in the row behind me, asleep.

[EEngr]

Knowing their own children's behaviour, they probably were unable to secure seating farther away.;)

[PAXboy]

I am not a parent (by choice) but never cease to be amazed by this fact of life:

Parents constantly say how much they treasure their children.
Vs.
How the parents 'look after' their children.

One simple example. I saw a man allow his children to play on the roof of his Land Rover <interesting name change by the automated PPRuNe watchdog for a vehicle that Roves the Land!>, the top surface was shiny and smooth and they lay down and swirled themselves around, whilst he stood alongside chatting to a friend.

Perhaps he imagined that, if one of them slipped and found their head to be pulling them to the ground, that he could move fast enough to catch them? No warning about the risk and the child learnt nothing. Perhaps next time the child was not so lucky.

So parents giving up responsibility on public transport? Easy!

[Mr Mac]

Lost count of number of times when parents move to Business / First and child and or Nanny move down the bus. Seen it many times as I am sure some CC will confirm. However have been on board some flights where the family flew together with Nanny/ Parents looking after kids in Business / First class very well, and no issue I /Other SLF / CC were aware of. Guess its down to Parents / Nanny/ Up bringing, but do not want to sound like a Dodo. Also I should say I must apologise if anybody was on the old BCAL 707 in the early 70,s when I was going back to, or from school with BCAL Nanny on South American routes, because I am sure I was a handful !!!:O.

[Basil]

We ARE a curious creature.
Just watched a video from younger nephew, Scot with Spanish partner, first child, loadsa toys but plastic fun slide on concrete when they have grassed area.
We decided that it's their show and we shouldn't intervene.

We are 70+ and are preparing hoose for 5 grandkids in about a week. I/we have NEVER taken so much care over ourselves, our own children, our careers or anything as we do over the GRANDKIDS.
I guess we are afraid of being blamed if one of the little loves gets a scratch.
If the distaff side ever see this I am in trouble :)

[Espada III]

As the parent of three children with whom my wife and I fly at least five times a year I have always ensured that our children were well entertained on flights so they were not a nuisance to other passengers. So much so that we were complimented on how well behaved they were.

However it takes effort, planning and some luck.

We also ensured that we sat next to our children so we could stop any unruly behaviour before it got out of hand. Why other parents do not do this is simply laziness and poor manners.

[GreekIslandLover]

No clue why people don't do this automatically. We have always sat so that one parent has one child next to them. We will probably STILL be doing this this summer and my daughter is now 18! I think the only time we didn't get to do this was in a FR flight, and then I sat inbetween the kids (teenagers) in a row of 3 and my wife sat in a single seat nearby. We always felt that it would be best for the kids to be seated next to a parent, and better for others around us too. So when one of them decides to kick the seat in front, we can threaten to Duck Tape their legs together sort of thing. But to be honest, ours have always behaved in an exemplary fashion when flying. I think some parents are abysmal, and frankly should be ashamed of themselves.

[MathFox]

As non-parent, but frequent flier I've seen a lot of children that showed good behavior on the plane. I don't see any necessity of adding rules like "parents should sit next to their children". I recommend to keep families together (but that can also be in adjacent rows or across the aisle), so that parents can keep an eye on their offspring (and their behavior).

A good parent knows how to make the best use of the assigned seating, which children play nice together and who needs some extra attention to keep it in line. BTW, the row behind the small ones is a perfect spot to keep an eye on them without being overly intrusive.

[PAXboy]

It's a quiet Sunday afternoon so here are the best and the worst I've seen:

Worst: On Swiss LHR~GVA ('97 I think as I was doing a project there). It was a narrow body and Biz had three seats and I was in the F-seat.

The mother was in the D and the three or four year old in E. He was fine till the top of descent when he refused to put on his seat belt. He SCREAMED and fought. The mother was patient but clearly had no control over the brat. The CC were friendly but firm. Cajoling that it was 'just for 10 minutes' did nothing. No mention that he was happy to have worn the belt for departure. :rolleyes: Eventually, I forcible held him in place and the CC did up the belt as it screamed. I held my hand over the buckle and until roll out was complete.

The Best: On one of my many trips to South Africa on VS, I can't recall when but I think it was a daylight from CPT to LHR. I was in PE in the second row of the cabin in an 'A' (my favourite place) and in front of me were two children, a girl and boy aged about 9 or10 and 11 or 12. It was obvious that they were frequent fliers and well behaved.

Their parents sat in the LAST row of Upper on the same side and so, there was easy contact between the parents and children. All sweetness and light with the parents in the big seats and the children with more than enough space.

By half way through the flight, the children had exhausted all the games on the PE console and discovered that the Upper seats had bigger screens and more games and goodies.

It was not long before I saw mum and dad snoozing in PE - whilst the children played the games in Upper. :}

The children were very well behaved and no one minded. It would have been interesting to know how the parents seat purchasing policy changed in the future!

[sisemen]

Can one assume that the OP is female? No doubt if male they would have put the kids as far away as possible as airlines assume that any single male is a predatory pedophile. :yuk:

[CelticRambler]

:D

I will admit to adopting a similar strategy with mine, but that is usually at the request of the smaller members of the family who prefer to be seated as far away from their embarrassing parent(s) as possible. From a safety point of view, I had more confidence in my under 10s being able to follow all the instructions than most of the adults around them. They are no longer under-10s, but on most of my flights there are still many children with whom I would rather share an emergency evacuation than brain-dead adults.

Come to think of it, all my recent "disagreeable" travel experiences (including seat-back kicking incidents) have been due to adults, not children.

[farci]

The Gulliver blog (required reading for SLF) poses the question:
Tackling the kicker (http://www.economist.com/blogs/gulliver/2013/06/aeroplane-etiquette?fsrc=rss)

with some interesting responses

[crewmeal]

Whilst this is probably old news, it might as well be highlighed that you won't have any choice who you sit next to unless you fork out.

Thomson and First Choice become first holiday firms to charge couples to sit next to each other on flights | Mail Online (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2342508/Thomson-First-Choice-holiday-firms-charge-couples-sit-flights.html)

[Hotel Tango]

:rolleyes: The press making something of nothing again. It's called advanced seat selection. Many airlines now offer that option for a fee. Basically it means that when you check-in on line, or even worse, at the airport you get what's left. That doesn't necessarilly mean that a couple would be split, but the fuller the flight the more the risk that it may happen.