If you run over someone’s foot with your stroller, please say you’re sorry

Someone posted this in reddit's childfree site and it's unbelievable.:

http://qz.com/277626/if-you-run-over-someones-foot-with-your-stroller-please-say-youre-sorry/

I was on a flight a few days ago and experienced something I can only title: “The Obnoxious Couple and the Magical Baby of Entitlement.”

I travel at least four flights a week for work—from home to a hub to a destination and then back each week. I have seen thousands if not tens of thousands of passengers. Prior to boarding one of my flights this week, I watched as a couple pushing an empty stroller rushed through the waiting area to the ticket counter. The woman had an infant of no more than a few months old strapped to her chest. In the process of reaching the counter, they actually ran over the foot of a fellow passenger with their stroller. They did not pause in their headlong dash to the counter to apologize or even offer a brief “sorry.”

Once at the counter the couple (very loudly—in what my wife and I refer to as an “outdoor voice”) declared: “We need to get on the plane first. We have a baby.” The gate attendant assured them that they would be able to board in the first part of the process. They harrumphed and moved to stand right in front of the jetbridge blocking any others (even the flight crew had to go around them). They were the first people on the plane.

As people were boarding, the couple sat in a window and an aisle seat. I was across the aisle from them in the other aisle seat, perfectly positioned to watch the theater that would continue to unfold throughout the flight. When the person who had reserved the aisle seat arrived, he was asked to find another seat because “We have a baby.” The flight attendant tried to explain what “infant in arms” meant, but to no effect. The phrase “But we have a baby!” was repeated no less than four times. Finally, he gave up and let them have the seat.

They continued to talk in their “outdoor voices,” filling the plane with a review of their recent stay and inane topics like why they really liked flip-flops and how the American political system could be overhauled (one of them had a British accent). When asked to reduce the volume of their discourse, they replied to the flight attendant, “It’s okay—we have a baby.” He shrugged his shoulders and left to distribute snacks and beverages.

When it came to their turn, they asked for extra pretzels. Reason: “We have a baby.” I am not quite sure how having a baby necessitates extra pretzels, especially when the baby is too small to eat solid food.

My fellow passengers and I were later treated to the view of a diaper change—the baby was a boy—and to a discussion on the color and smell of the poo in the diaper (which most of us could have commented on as well). When the people ahead of them started to have a conversation in a low voice about something (I was just across the aisle and I couldn’t hear) the couple was quick to shush them because the strange voice “might wake the baby.”

As we deplaned, the man stood up and demanded that the four rows ahead of them stay seated so they could deplane first “because they had a baby.”

Yet with all that went on, no one—including me—had the courage to denounce their impolite and inconsiderate behavior. We knew we would be lambasted for violating the sanctified premise that—just because you managed to reproduce—the resulting entity makes you far superior to those around you (even the ones who have likewise managed to reproduce but are not carrying the physical evidence of their success).

The Magical Baby of Entitlement meant they had a great flight at the expense of the other 146 passengers and that they never once doubted their “rights” to have anything and everything they desired. After all, they had a baby.


(I really , really want to believe this is a CFer exaggerating several incidents and combining them into one...but I doubt it.)

I'm not particularly surprised by this either. I've seen famblees demanding to board first on budget airlines, and being told that either there is no priority boarding or that if they haven't purchased it, they don't get to board first. I've heard "But I/we have a baby" in response to this before. And lets not go there with nappy changes on plane seats

A CF guide to US airline famblee boarding:

Best:

United adopted Continental 's policy here. CO never allowed this ...if you were elderly, handicapped or uniformed military you board first. Kids? Nyet. You can't even buy your way into an early board here (but the branded credit card is an auto zone 2 I think.)

(Apparently gossip queen Perez HIlton threw a twit fit over how bad UA sucks because they are not famblee friendly. He joins celeb moron will.i.am, whose twit fit showed he got to JFK airport 45 minutes before his INTERNATIONAL flight leaves and was all huffy when UA gave his seat away because he was not checked in 15 minutes before takeoff.)

American is another that did away with kyd preboarding. You can pay 10 bucks to be the first zone behind first class and elites, uniformed military, and disabled.

Hit or miss:

US Airways allowed after Zones 1 and 2 boarded but before everyone else. Now they are merged with American so policies likely changed.

Delta allows famblees early boarding but it is at the gate agent's discretion. A famblee threw a shitfit because they were turned down to general boarding as they had a 6 and 4 yo.

Avoid like the plague:

JetBlue allows families with under 2s to board early with uniformed military and disabled passengers.

VIrgin America allows anyone with kids 5 and under to board early. So does Frontier, but they have to board behind priority travelers.

Southwest allows families with children 4 and younger after elite, full-fare and early-check in fliers. Early check in is $10 per person, each way and helps guarantee families can find seats together. AirTran was 2 and younger with an announcement but they were merged into Breeder Airlines so likely their policy changed.

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From a bottle cap message on a Magic Hat #9 beer: Condoms Prevent Minivans
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I want to pick up a bus full of unruly kids and feed them gummi bears and crack, then turn them loose in Hobby Lobby to ransack the place. They will all be wearing T shirts that say "You Could Have Prevented This."

I was on a flight yesterday with a screaming toadler. This one was a young toadler, you know when they have just graduated from loafdom?... Anyway, him and his extended family (hard to tell who the parents/grandparents/aunts/uncles were as they were two and three rows ahead of me and kept passing him around like a loaded gun during Russian Roulette. Kid screamed the ENTIRE flight (one hour, thank God it wasn't longer), but not because he was experiencing ear pain or fear. He would start screaming the instant the adults stopped allowing him to handle and adjust all of the a/c, lighting, and call buttons in the overhead. They would hold him up, he would put his greasy mitts all over everything, and then their arms would get tired so they would lower him, at which time he would commence to shriek. They passed him back and forth and over into the next row forward repeatedly.

The best part (wait for it)...

Kid was wearing nothing but a diaper.

I wouldn't be on a plane in nothing my panties that I intended to shit in when the mood struck, so why should kyds be in nothing but a diaper? Disgusting.

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navi8orgirl
A CF guide to US airline famblee boarding:


Southwest allows families with children 4 and younger after elite, full-fare and early-check in fliers. Early check in is $10 per person, each way and helps guarantee families can find seats together. AirTran was 2 and younger with an announcement but they were merged into Breeder Airlines so likely their policy changed.

I always pay the extra for early boarding. Most fambuhlies don;t pay it and board after. I always go for an isle seat so the fambuhlies tend to move to another row. End up on SW at least once a year as it is the only airline that does daily direct from Vegas to Reno.

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“There are three things all wise men fear: the sea in storm, a night with no moon, and the anger of a gentle man.”