I feel for you. A plane is the worst! You have nowhere to run. We were on an international flight - from Switzerland back to the U.S. and this Swiss couple had three kids - baby and two around 8 and 5; the older kids were just holy terrors. It was, without a doubt, the worst flight I ever had; of course, I am always happy when I survive any flight, so I try to keep things in perspective.
> We were on an international flight - from Switzerland
> back to the U.S. and this Swiss couple had three kids -
> baby and two around 8 and 5; the older kids were
> just holy terrors.
Some realism is needed here. We made an internation flight with our two and three year-olds a while back, and I have to say that the two year-old was a monster. His brother sat quietly, watched videos, looked at books etc, but Ben just screamed and screamed and screamed. And there was nothing I could do about it. I tried everything, but he would not stop.
Now, you can say I'm a bad parent or that he's not raised properly, but the fact is that sometimes as parents you will get into situations where there's no easy way out, and all the platitudes about 'what happened in my day' won't stop the kids from crying. Perhaps the answer is not to have kids on long haul flights, and indeed we've not done it since, but it's hard to think that their grandparents will have to forgoe seeing them on such occasions.
But please let's not pretend that kids will always be good, and that tantrums won't happen. They will, no matter how good a parent you are. And those who won't tolerate them from other people's kids simply don't understand what is involved in parenting.
I had two unaccompanied brats (about 7 & 9) next to me on a flight acting like idiots and very loud. I told them if they didn't shutup I'd stuff them down the hole in the toilet.