Topless Robot

Babies on a plane

Posted at 3:57 PM Nov 02, 2009

By Andrea Grimes
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​Last year, I flew from Dallas to London--11 hours or so--sitting an aisle away from a baby that cried for the entire flight. I exaggerate you not. I mean this kid did not stop crying. Seriously. The whole time. Did. Not. Stop. Crying. For. Eleven Hours. How do I know? Because I spent the entire flight not sleeping thanks to the heinous yowling. (I also couldn't hear the in-flight films because of this kid's vocalizations. It was that bad. I'm surprised there wasn't a riot. Honestly.) Its mother dealt with the kid the entire time (Dad was, amazingly, asleep most of the time--not a dick move at all) by jiggling it and walking or whatever it is you do to babies to soothe them that is not putting them under general anesthesia or setting them out on the wing.

So, it's too bad I was on American instead of Southwest, which is apparently now happy to chuck screaming babies and accompanying parents off planes (while they're still on the ground). Mom Pamela Root and her 2-year-old were kicked off the plane before takeoff because they kid wouldn't quit yelling "Go, plane, go!" and "I want Daddy!" Root insisted her kid would quiet down after takeoff, but the flight crew did not take her word for it. And they shouldn't have.

Broadsheet's Kate Harding takes on the issue and is surprisingly punch-pulling, hemming and hawing about who was in the wrong, wondering about bad parents and bad childless people and good versions of same. I will do no such hemming: by all means, kick a screaming baby off the plane or, better yet, don't let them on in the first place.

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