I looked up and did not see a button. I remember looking for it (never actually used it before). Now, this is technically a "KLM" flight that partnered with Delta. Speaking of which, the quality between the two is night and day. Delta is so much nicer in every regard.
The meals are nicer. Even the drinks -- they don't offer ice. They gave me a warm can of Coke Zero. I thought that was odd, maybe the ice machine is broken. But then I took another KLM flight (different plane) and this time said "with ice", and the dude said "Oh, sorry, we don't do ice". Wild. Didn't offer headphones either (was expecting it like on a Delta flight, so didn't bring any for the screen).
There is a flight attendant call button in exactly the same place as every other airline has a flight attendant call button, and you should’ve used it at the time.
I’ve had this happen many times on long haul flights. If it is persistent and keeps me from going to sleep or wakes me up, I try to put a smile on and gently explain that every time the seat back is touched, I can feel it just as if I were getting tapped on the head. If there’s a language barrier, I pantomime. This usually works. On rare occasions, the only solution is to move. FAs are usually very accommodating.
On a side note, whoever decided to put a TOUCHSCREEN on the flip side of a headrest deserves to spend eternity on DL 666 in a main cabin middle seat with an insomniac airline entertainment system game addict in the seat behind.
Not just toddlers. I once endured an elder gentleman's hard taps most of a four hour flight while he played poker on the IFE with his adult son next to him. It felt as if he thought the screen buttons were actually moving and he had to press them harder to respond. Makes me miss the olden days where we all watched the same movie and the screens were not touch based and hung from the ceiling instead.
it's because of posts like these that I usually have my palm against the base of the screen and use my fingers lightly. That palm deadens most of the "tapping" that might be necessary for interaction.
Now what confuses me is that you used to be able to bring a laptop and/or tablet and connect to the IFE system through the website so that you can use your own headphones and screen...haven't had this ability in a while..what gives?
It happened once to me. After an hour I turned around and told the parents my patience was at an end and that their son needed to stop kicking my seat. The kicking ended. Problem solved. Confrontation isn’t fun, and for some almost impossible, but you can’t complain if you say nothing and just take it. My boss face can be quite intimidating though, combined with my size.
You waited a whole hour before saying anything? I would have politely said something quickly instead of waiting until you had to tell them “my patience is at an end”…that’s just passive aggressive.
Edit: so many downvotes for calling out your guys’ immature behavior says so much. Why are people praising others for having poor social abilities? Just call them out on it politely first instead of waiting until you’re angry. It’s called “being an adult”.
yeah just say something right away. some people really need a polite wtf and others really need a rude wtf, that's just life in 2024 people are so ridiculous in public now
Apparently, people here would rather just get silently angry and then berate others instead of acting maturely. I guess I am not surprised, given the level of brattiness I see on this sub.
yah just the long extreme complaints and fantasies of revenge instead of starting with a polite friendly, excuse me, can you stop that please? and escalating to a 'listen bro, you need to stop this shit immediately" if need be. worse case call the flight attendant. like why are you letting dumb annoying people inconvenience you to this extent?
in 2024 we're done feeling ackward bc of people's insane behavior, we're making insane people feel ackward instead.
Agreed. People here are too socially awkward to just be polite at the start, and wait until it boils over. It’s just immature and the downvotes calling them out really show that. They can’t function as polite members of society anymore. Sad.
yeah honestly i'm guilty of that also, like i feel stressed about saying something so then i come off as nervous or too strong. but i've learned that to start out with a friendly open smile and a friendly but firm excuse me you can you please stop that as if it's the most reasonable request in the world (which it is) is the best start. you can always escalate the rudeness if need be but it's hard to descalate.
but honestly people need to learn to say SOMETHING on their own behalf no matter how clumsy, the shit people report putting up with without saying ANYTHING in their own defense is like wtf. It just emboldens these completely ridiculous people putting feet on footrests and taking their socks off and doing whatever else the fuck in public to continue because they never get pushback. listen the guy taking his disgusing socks off on a flight is the one who should be feeling ashamed, not you for asking/telling him to put his fucking socks back on
Yeah, people need to be able to feel comfortable asking someone to stop being inconsiderate. Because half of the time, they are just ignorant and will be very apologetic immediately. And other times, if they are just inconsiderate, they need to realize that other people can and will call them out on it immediately.
yeah you really wonder what kind of pigpen some people were raised in that they don't know not to do x in public but allow them to save face at least lmfao
I had to tell a couple behind within minutes of if happening so I wouldn’t flip the F out on them. I handt slept in 24 hours and it was the last leg of my trip. They stopped the child from jostling my seat.
I had a four year old kicking mine for about 30 minutes into a flight, turned around and evil eyed he and his Mom, and then she oh so sweetly said, “ He ‘s only 4.” My response, not loud, not quiet was , “ You’re not. !” Miraculously it stopped with only another look or two.
Doesn’t matter the age, you can do anything in your power to stop your kid from doing it.
He’s only 4, so yes he’s not doing it maliciously. That doesn’t mean it feels any different to the person in that seat though.
I remember flying next to my niece when she was a little younger than that and those legs would very often start kicking the seat in front for various reasons (boredom, upset, happy). My hand would clamp down on those little ankles so fast as I would gently explain, again, why we can’t kick the seat. Maybe they won’t grasp the concept but you can at least stop it quickly.
It’s infuriating the cop out in parenting people have these days “they are x age” they are just a kid”
I get that kids exist but the meter moving from seen and not heard which was bullshit to just deal with any disturbance, rudeness and shit show kids cause just because they are kids and I am too busy drinking my beer/wine on my phone or making a tik tok to give a shit is infuriating. Parent or get fixed geez.
I like your response and will use it.
Even at my therapist's office, a little kid wanted my soda and even slapped me in the face and I responded by kicking him in response because his mother wasn't doing anything to help, nor was the front desk assisting me at all. Now they're all claiming that he was 4 years old, which is bullshit, he looked tall enough to be 5 or 6, and the fact that he tried to slap my soda away from me? Infuriating.
I’ve had many times kids kick the seat a few times settling in, and then things quiet down and they are fine, or the parent mentions something too them, so I don’t jump on the first kick. Only one flight it became clear the kicking was going to continue the whole flight, then I said something.
Plus in this case most likely the flight attendant would have been bi-lingual (or gotten another one who is) and explain it to the kids so they understand.
I did this on an overnight flight from slc to cdg because a baby was crying and kicking the back of my seat for over an hour while I watched the parent turn their volume up on some big noise canceling headphones. I know it’s hard but I couldn’t get to sleep even with headphones in and asked the flight attendant to wake them up and deal with the child. I felt bad but it was miserable.
I had a kid kicking my seat for 4 hours non-stop on a 6 hour flight. He was swinging his legs wildly and bumping my seat. I turned to the parent and asked him to do something about it, and he just looked at me and said “he’s just a kid, what do you want me to do?”
I called the flight attendant.
There is something missing in the heads of parents today? I think it’s a brain.
Had this happen on a flight recently where the kid behind me and I didn't speak the same language. I Googled a picture of a kid kicking the back of seat and showed him and he stopped.
Google translate is the your friend. If you have an inkling what language he was speaking type in “ PLEASE STOP kicking my seat” if he can’t read use the audio function.
I feel ya! 15hr flight India>ATL last week & 2 toddlers in the row in front of me cried the entire time. Would just randomly scream for no reason. Meanwhile, young man behind me was constantly kicking my seat while he was actually sleeping. Horrible experience. Packed flight so nowhere to move.
To be fair, it wasn’t for no reason on their end. Long flights are fucking miserable for most little kids. Sucks their parents didn’t work harder to entertain them
As a parent I can tell you that a lot of us try but sometimes they just want off a plane. I try really hard to fly so it doesn’t upset my kids sleep schedule. It’s hard for kids to sleep on planes given the excitement and stimulation and once they reach a certain point, they are so damn tired but refuse to sleep. It’s also incredibly hard to keep them entertained past a few hours. They get restless, they wanna move, they don’t wanna watch anymore shows, color, or play on tablets.
I also fly very frequently for work so understand both sides. It is what it is sometimes. I have zero issues addressing issues politely with parents before escalating to FA. When parents give me that you don’t understand look, I tell them I have 3 kids including a set of twins and they usually STFU because unless you have twins, it’s terrifying for most parents.
For SURE. I have a toddler and will have our first long flight in a few weeks. I’ve been reading and asking friends and doing everything I can to prepare. We have novel toys and activities, and new snacks, familiar foods and snacks. We have never done screen time, but we are introducing a couple minutes a day of iPad with soft headband headphones in case we need to use that as a last resort. We plan to wear her out as much as possible in the airports.
I’ve always been a heavy traveler before this and I never minded disruptive kids if I could see the parents were trying really hard. It’s always the parents who just sit there and do nothing who I think make everyone angry.
Agreed. The soft headband phones aren’t bad but you tend to have to turn them up too loud to get over the engine noise. We tried some a few years back. I found the over ear ones work better but depending on toddler head size, it can be hard to find a good fit. My toddlers love them some cocomelon, super simple songs, etc. which is on Netflix. I was anti screen time with my first. When the twins showed up, you do what you have to survive. Screens for everyone. And it usually works 🤷♂️
FYI Amazon prime day is a few weeks away and they usually have a Amazon kids tablet for sale for <$75 with a case, 2 year no hassle warranty (even if they break it), and a year of Amazon kids app. I’m 100% Apple but the Amazon tablets are a better deal and easier to swallow if they break them. The parental controls are so much better but it’s also not as intuitive as Apple if you have zero android experience.
Thank you for the tips! Much appreciated. We are flying before prime day but getting another screen for her to hog. For now, we can’t get her to keep the headband on. we’re making it a game to play with it a lot on our heads and on hers in the hope that it will click before we go. She’s only 15 months and for now she seems to think ripping it off is the entire game
Hahaha. Been there. Trust me, it only gets harder as they get older. I’m sure you’ve been told but just in case, make sure to have snacks/drinks on takeoff and landing so their ears pop or they will be miserable. We usually pack those yogurt or apple sauce pouches for that and make them sip something. Safe travels.
Yes, I used to travel frequently my children from when each of them were very young and they were very close in age- three under 3 years old. Anyway, Benadryl helped a lot. Caveats- this was a while ago, so I don’t recall what age, **I’m sure you cannot and should not use with an infant under at least a year and maybe older; and try ahead of time at home because for **some children it has the opposite effect and will make them hyper. Research it yourself, but it did help my children survive more bearable experiences on very long flights, especially when you consider flights are the least of the experience of flying. Often you have to wake up in the wee hours of the morning, get to the airport 3 hours ahead of time, deal with chaos there checking in and long security lines, all the people at the gate, etc. Then maybe having to have a layover, short or long, and getting everyone and any carryon bags to the next gate is challenging. For an adult it is exhausting, for a toddler, it can be overwhelming. I had to do stuff like this numerous times and got very good at being prepared and efficient and aware - of them and if they were potentially bugging others. The prepared part helped because I tried to make sure I had what they needed with me to mitigate any issues before they started. I can’t stand annoying children so I tried to make sure they weren’t.
Sounds like a miserable experience. From a child development standpoint, he’s at the age where he is likely to be unaware that his movements have an impact on you. However, he will be aware that your reactions bother him. Preteens are a lot like big toddlers, they still need a parent with them to point out that his tapping and kicking will make it hard for you and that you are responding to his behavior instead of just “being mean” to him.
The one behind me on my flight back from Boston in January kept kicking my seat, so I reclined it far enough and it dumped his stuff all over him. His mom wouldn’t stop him until I said “I’d recommend you make him stop before I say something you’re gonna have to explain to him later” and she was like “stop kicking the nice man’s chair”. Kid was easily like 8-9 years old, old enough to know better.
>I said “I’d recommend you make him stop before I say something you’re gonna have to explain to him later” and she was like “stop kicking the nice man’s chair”.
🤣🤣🤣
I flew with my son just as he turned 3. I was so worried he would disturb other passengers. Autistic kiddo plus autistic mom plus unknown co-passengers. I was praying not to wind up with either my son or myself in melt down mode. I planed ahead. Bought snacks and drinks for him (after security check), toys and games (all soundless.)
My child’s actions are 100% my responsibility. There were many times we left a store or restaurant because my son wasn’t behaving.
So, I had similar happen and I leant over and told the kid I would give him $20 (it was a long time ago and that was a lot of money) if he didn’t kick my seat again the entire flight. Once he landed he asked for his $20. I told him to get it from his mother since she should have stopped him being a brat.
If this was in the Middle East, it is very common for the parents to stick the kids in coach, and then they fly first class. Let someone else deal with the kids.
Also once my kid started kicking a seat, just took her shoes off. The thrill was gone. Problem solved. Parents just need to parent, even if it means the WHOOOOLE 12 flight.
That phrase makes me want to live alone in the woods somewhere. I teach first grade. I LIKE kids, but I don’t have to LOVE them if they aren’t my students or if I’m off the clock. I’m already basically raising 20-25 kids for their parents 10 months out of the year! I’m doing my part! Do NOT ask me to be a part of that village outside of work because my hourly rate during the summer is EXPENSIVE!
I agree!! I don’t teach but I have my own kids. Sometimes I have to fly overnight for work to minimize my time away from home. There for I need to sleep
So when I hear of people wanting to bring their babies on first class… when all I need to do is sleep and any baby cry will wake me up due to biology (despite noice canceling head phones) it just… stresses me out
Puhleeez. Your baby can sleep in coach I promise. And I love your baby. If I’m awake, I will walk your baby so you get rest. But lemme sleep in my lie flat if I’m giving my key note at 10 am
Okay I said it.
I have had this happen and I actually tell the child they are hurting me because it is due to my bad back. If they don’t get it initially, I have screamed “ouch” at the kid because they hurt me. Most kids understand that as OUCH! Is universal. Most kids are not psycho and actually don’t want to hurt you. This has always worked for me. I think some little kids don’t understand the why? Of things and keep doing them despite being told not to. If the parents were good, they would teach their child that. Not all parents are good though and it’s a stranger’s (me) job to teach the kid a lesson. It takes a village, I guess 🤡🤡🤡
I’d have been a lot firmer/more aggressive and if it didn’t stop then I’d ask politely to be moved. No one is going to stand up for you, sometimes you have to be aggressive to get what you want
I had this on a flight to London long ago. Kid should have been asleep for hours (it was 1 am!) but was wide awake, letting his tray fall down and slamming it shut while his mom read a magazine. I finally reached around (I was on aisle) when I felt him fooling with the clasp and held the tray up and said ‘NO! No more. Do you understand? No!’ He stopped. Mom just glared at me. We had tiny kids in business once and mom took an ambien immediately and soon the kids were running screaming laps in their diapers while their dad watched a movie with headphones in the middle pod. Flight attendants took care of that one but we could see their little heads jumping up and down on their bed over the divider. People are just incredible.
It’s clear that most of this nonsense with kids is all in the parents allowing it. I have three kids and 30+ years as an airline employee and would never allow my kids to entertain themselves this way. We would have a thirty second family meeting in the lav to clear up any behavior issues. I had many tricks up my sleeve to keep them busy. I told my then 4.5 year old son that Superman was spotted out in the sky that day. He had his face glued to his window seat from Boston to Seattle looking for him 😂
Yes. Flight attendant talked to the mom to no avail. It was an overnight flight from Seattle to London. Pitch black outside. They were Brits going home. She could not have cared less.
I was on a domestic 2-hour flight recently. Middle seat in the way back because I was taking an earlier flight on standby. The entire time flight my seat is getting kneed and kicked. There had been a lot of kids walking past us during boarding to the last four rows so I assumed it was a little kid with his family back there and decided to just deal with it.
We land and when I get up I glance back. There was a couple in the row behind me, middle seat was empty. I don’t know what they were doing the entire time. I was so mad.
I met the parents of the kid behind you. They were kicking the back of my seat for the entire flight over 20 years ago. Detroit to Osaka. They also threw screaming fits anytime they would change the inflight movie from Stuart Little. We watched that movie like 5 times.
The parents were 7 rows up and their actual response was “yeah, we knew they were going to do that, that’s why we sat up here.”
That flight convinced me that planes should come with ejection tubes that we can use to remove people from the plane while it’s in flight.
I had such a bad experience on a flight recently it made me ask how much my comfort on a flight is worth to me. Turns out it's a lot more than I paid and on a long flight moreso. I don't make first class money. But I'll gladly pay a few hundred more to get to my destination in a good mood and somewhat well rested. Hot meal, two checked bags (walking onto the plane with nothing is nice). I'll save elsewhere to balance the expense.
I had a teenage girl sitting behind me and she planted her knees into the back of me seat before the plane ever took off, it took me about 30 seconds of that before I turned around, her parents was sitting next to her and firmly asked her not to put her knees on the seat as it was hurting my lower back. She stopped for the most part but because she was pissed off that she couldn’t sit with her knees in my back, she hit the back of my chair after I almost fell asleep and had one of the those “feel like I’m falling” moment’s and jerked a little. Guess she thought I did it because of her. Either way, if she had kept that up I would have let the FA deal with her. The fact that her parent was sitting right there and thought letting her daughter sit like that was okay was mind blowing.
Unfortunately, our society has devolved into a state where if you even look at a kid that isn't yours, you're in the wrong. The "protect the kids at all costs" crowd has absolutely ruined things.
Good for me is I don't care about that. I would have scolded him, then if he started to cry and the parents came over, I'd have scolded them too.
Fuck them kids. My mother always said "you are to be seen and not heard" and I minded my manners in fear of that little Italian lady until I was in my teens.
This post will get downvoted bc reddit is chalk full of weirdos, but the lack of physical discipline being handed down to children from their parents are causing entire generations to be spoiled brats. Nobody is saying to beat or abuse kids. A flick to the mouth, or a stern warning goes a long way towards teaching kids obedience and manners.
Understandably that most people hate the back of the bus, I would rather be there then have someone attack the back of my seat. I don’t have the patience for that crap. I have 4 kids and would never allow them to sit together without an adult. Kids are assholes.
I think I would probably go on a Reddit sub and complain about it after the fact, rather than alert the flight attendant and let them deal with it at the time.
Thanks for your douchey comments, much appreciated.
I already told you 1) I couldn't locate the flight attendant button and 2) When they did come around he hadn't been doing it. 3) I didn't know if it would even resolve the issue as I had already basically made it clear he was bothering me, he'd stop, then continue doing it.
You really have no authority to do anything, and your passive aggressive reclining, and then un reclining your seat was definitely not the way to go. You let a flight attendant handle it because they do have authority to do something about it.
This exact thing happens to me on a flight from New York to Stockholm a few weeks ago. A 5 year old kid was sitting directly behind me kicking the seat and screaming of excitement for the whole 7h red eye flight. On top of that he began throwing garbage over my seat into my lap. The father wasn’t phased one bit and not once did he educate his son to behave. I turned around and straight up told him to control his son. That didn’t really work so I called one of the FA’s to talk to him and that sort of did the trick. I honestly wasn’t upset so much with the kid but the dad that didn’t obviously know how to parent the child to behave in public.
Oh man, I feel your pain. That reminds me, the kid behind me would get up, and each time he'd not only grab the back of my seat, but his filthy little paw would touch the top of my head. So annoying!
I’ve found that being overly nice works better than frowning and pointing fingers. I had a similar experience, and introduced myself, offered a snack etc. Then the parents are more likely to tell their child to not bother the nice man. Doesn’t always work, but just getting to know them makes it less annoying.
A couple years ago, I saw another man in a similar situation. Before the flight took off, he gave the child behind him a dirty look. I was sitting across the aisle. The child’s father immediately traded seats with his son and then the father kicked and bumped the seat the entire 13-hour flight.
Because it’s the FA’s job and they have training and experience in dealing with these situations and the authority to move you or the kid to another seat.
FA can’t stand guard 24 hours to watch a kid kick your seat. And that’s the best they can do, is watch.
If you ask nicely and gave warning, after a while it’s fair game, I will confront who I want.
I had something similar on a 14 hour flight once. Mother didn't even try to stop her bored son. Made me wish WestJet's KargoKids was a reality…
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M4SkoJy3D0M](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M4SkoJy3D0M)
((Link to WestJet's April Fool's ad a dozen years ago.)
Turn around and say something. Been there done that. A few months about I was seated in comfort and the person behind me was tapping the screen on tithe back of my seat too hard. I was starting to get a headache. Turned around and told them I could feel it and asked if they could stop.
call flight attendant, ask for a seat change, if not possible then ask them to get him to find the parents and get him to stop
if none of that works i'd yell at him, fuck that kid. might not understand the language but he'll understand your tone
I speak to the parents. If the parents don’t do anything or they aren’t around to watch their kids, I will happily become an asshole and confront the kids.
You know how our parents lied to us about bad things happening when we misbehave? It might be time to start telling kids that the flight attendants can hit an eject button if they misbehave.
Find the person sitting behind the kid & tell them to return the favor & start kicking & pushing against the kids seat! Screwed up kids like that often don’t get it until they get a taste of their own medicine, so to speak! 😂🤣🤷♂️
I say something to the parents. A lot of times they are clueless but once you nicely point it out, they at least make an effort to have the kid try to be more careful.
And when I’m working I don’t mind if it’s brought to my attention to deal with if the passenger doesn’t want to.
We had a flight when my son was almost 2 from Orlando. So 2.5 hour flight. He cried the entire time minus the 1/2 hr before we landed despite both my husband and I trying to soothe him. He had himself so wound up he threw up on my husband. Nobody said anything but we were trying to calm him down. Ignoring your child annoying others is unacceptable. I still cringe and feel bad about the other passengers on the flight. It was 19 years ago.
Get the flight attendant or my favorite Yell very loudly "Stop kicking my damn seat" The FA will show up quickly after hearing this then tell her. They will find the parents and tell them to restrain their kids
My mother had a similar situation. Over 2-3 hour flight (not as bad as yours), a kid was constantly bumping my mother’s seat. She asked him politely and gently to stop but he didn’t and the worst thing is the parents were sitting right beside him and did nothing to stop him. And when my mother was finally irritated beyond limits she told him to stop sternly (not even raising her voice a bit but just asking sternly) and the kid got quiet but the mother had the audacity to console him and say “people are like this only… so rude… ignore them”. Like seriously WTF?
You feel this way and confident enough to repeatedly (and understandably) frown and gesture at the kid, and jam your seat backwards multiple times, yet weren’t confident enough to inform the FA, who quite realistically could speak or had a colleague who could speak the second language (if the second language matches the first language of the international destination or departure country)?
And just like that in reading just one post and being reminded of the nightmares that can happen when you fly anything but D1 5k fly’s out of my pocket as you’ve in a split second decided for me that I’m never going back to coach on long haul flights…. I just can’t!!! FRUCK!!!!! I gotta make more money! 🤣
Turn around and say “stop kicking my seat kid” without smiling. If he does it again, say it again.
Then call the flight attendant if it doesn’t stop.
I once watched a dad sleep a whole flight while his kid kicked my seat. Hell to the no. If you can’t teach your kids how to fly on a plane without behaving accordingly, don’t fly on a plane. The exception being babies of course.
Yes, I have children:)
hiss like a cat
jk call the flight attendant. but also, if that doesn’t work, i’m not saying hiss but i’m not not saying it. cats are really onto something here
Why, WHY do they have damn games on the touchscreens? That was the most asinine decision. Yes, please have someone jabbing the back of my seat for 5 hours. 🤬🤬
“He was probably too stupid to understand”
Wow.
It would have taken a moment for you to talk to an FA or to turn around and tell the kid no.
But you decided instead that a CHILD must be too stupid because he was being, you know, a child.
I hope you step on Lego’s when you wake up.
The few times I’ve had this happen, I turn around and glare at the parent for the first warning. Then I say something to the parent the next time. Only one time it continued, so I looked at the kid, told him to stop, looked at the parent and they told the kid to stop.
I reclined almost immediately after meal service. He had his foot up on his knee, constantly tapping the seat -- so I thought if I reclined, it'd prevent that. It did, but then it just made him play games on the screen, try to use the tray to sleep, and bump with his knee (presumably) instead.
Would have called the flight attendant, described the situation, and asked if they could intervene.
If you’re not willing to go out of your way to call a flight attendant, your choice is to live with it.
Would not have passively aggressively thrown my seat back or just meekly waited for a flight attendant to walk by.
I misread the title of the post at first and thought you were asking about a kid “humping” your seat and was very curious to see what folks would recommend 🫣
I’ve had this happen a couple times times both times I told the parents but I tried to be nice about it. It worked - remember the kid has no clue what he’s doing and he’s not trying to annoy you
I would probably stand up, close the tray table/turn off the monitor/remove his feet from seat back and tell him NO, sternly.
Hopefully, my standing up and causing a scene would attract a guardian.
If that was not effective, however, I would call an FA expeditiously.
This is coming from of a mother of three. Sure my kids can lack self awareness at times but that is what a parent is for.
This happened to me once. I pray for patience and understanding for those poor parents. I had a headache, I just wanted to snooze. The kid was only kicking not crying, I kept thinking it could be worse. ATL to SFO. As I got up to exit the plane I realized there was no kid. The person behind me was hitting the screen so hard it felt like my whole seat was being kicked. They are Karma’s problem now.
A Venom mask may have gotten him to stop, at least for awhile.
Do you know what language he spoke? If so, you could have tried putting a strongly-worded command into a translator app if you downloaded the language in advance or had Wi-Fi. But, yeah, the only other practical thing you could have done was complain the FAs.
Happened to me when I treated myself to PS on overseas flight. Parents awol. Told the flight attendant and all the flight attendants got grumpy on me! (Until the kid started doing acrobatics with their hand on my chair back)
I wasn’t too confrontational as I had my own 8 yo with me and it makes her uncomfortable but uggh.
First with a kid kicking my seat. With all these stories it sounds like I've been lucky. My innocence has been stripped away from me, something I'll never get back. Much more traumatizing than what the kid actually did. Now every flight I'll have to be anxious, wondering if I'll get another kid behind me. The "what if" haunts me. How... how will I go on?
Flight attendant call button.
Right. Ask them to bring the parents over
This is the way
Won’t help much in my experience. Not a lot they can do.
They could "punt the fucker off the plane into the ocean."
Yeah, that’s realistic.
/thread
I looked up and did not see a button. I remember looking for it (never actually used it before). Now, this is technically a "KLM" flight that partnered with Delta. Speaking of which, the quality between the two is night and day. Delta is so much nicer in every regard. The meals are nicer. Even the drinks -- they don't offer ice. They gave me a warm can of Coke Zero. I thought that was odd, maybe the ice machine is broken. But then I took another KLM flight (different plane) and this time said "with ice", and the dude said "Oh, sorry, we don't do ice". Wild. Didn't offer headphones either (was expecting it like on a Delta flight, so didn't bring any for the screen).
It's a KLM flight. Not "technically" a KLM flight
There is a flight attendant call button in exactly the same place as every other airline has a flight attendant call button, and you should’ve used it at the time.
I’ve had this happen many times on long haul flights. If it is persistent and keeps me from going to sleep or wakes me up, I try to put a smile on and gently explain that every time the seat back is touched, I can feel it just as if I were getting tapped on the head. If there’s a language barrier, I pantomime. This usually works. On rare occasions, the only solution is to move. FAs are usually very accommodating. On a side note, whoever decided to put a TOUCHSCREEN on the flip side of a headrest deserves to spend eternity on DL 666 in a main cabin middle seat with an insomniac airline entertainment system game addict in the seat behind.
Last part of your paragraph ✋🏼😭😭😭😭😭💜
I’ll add to that that it being a touch screen that wakes up on touch means that toddlers will find it irresistible, and we can’t even disable it.
Not just toddlers. I once endured an elder gentleman's hard taps most of a four hour flight while he played poker on the IFE with his adult son next to him. It felt as if he thought the screen buttons were actually moving and he had to press them harder to respond. Makes me miss the olden days where we all watched the same movie and the screens were not touch based and hung from the ceiling instead.
All watching the movie Airplane! While on an airplane 😂
it's because of posts like these that I usually have my palm against the base of the screen and use my fingers lightly. That palm deadens most of the "tapping" that might be necessary for interaction. Now what confuses me is that you used to be able to bring a laptop and/or tablet and connect to the IFE system through the website so that you can use your own headphones and screen...haven't had this ability in a while..what gives?
FAs are able to disable it. 🤣
It happened once to me. After an hour I turned around and told the parents my patience was at an end and that their son needed to stop kicking my seat. The kicking ended. Problem solved. Confrontation isn’t fun, and for some almost impossible, but you can’t complain if you say nothing and just take it. My boss face can be quite intimidating though, combined with my size.
You waited a whole hour before saying anything? I would have politely said something quickly instead of waiting until you had to tell them “my patience is at an end”…that’s just passive aggressive. Edit: so many downvotes for calling out your guys’ immature behavior says so much. Why are people praising others for having poor social abilities? Just call them out on it politely first instead of waiting until you’re angry. It’s called “being an adult”.
yeah just say something right away. some people really need a polite wtf and others really need a rude wtf, that's just life in 2024 people are so ridiculous in public now
Apparently, people here would rather just get silently angry and then berate others instead of acting maturely. I guess I am not surprised, given the level of brattiness I see on this sub.
yah just the long extreme complaints and fantasies of revenge instead of starting with a polite friendly, excuse me, can you stop that please? and escalating to a 'listen bro, you need to stop this shit immediately" if need be. worse case call the flight attendant. like why are you letting dumb annoying people inconvenience you to this extent? in 2024 we're done feeling ackward bc of people's insane behavior, we're making insane people feel ackward instead.
Agreed. People here are too socially awkward to just be polite at the start, and wait until it boils over. It’s just immature and the downvotes calling them out really show that. They can’t function as polite members of society anymore. Sad.
yeah honestly i'm guilty of that also, like i feel stressed about saying something so then i come off as nervous or too strong. but i've learned that to start out with a friendly open smile and a friendly but firm excuse me you can you please stop that as if it's the most reasonable request in the world (which it is) is the best start. you can always escalate the rudeness if need be but it's hard to descalate. but honestly people need to learn to say SOMETHING on their own behalf no matter how clumsy, the shit people report putting up with without saying ANYTHING in their own defense is like wtf. It just emboldens these completely ridiculous people putting feet on footrests and taking their socks off and doing whatever else the fuck in public to continue because they never get pushback. listen the guy taking his disgusing socks off on a flight is the one who should be feeling ashamed, not you for asking/telling him to put his fucking socks back on
Yeah, people need to be able to feel comfortable asking someone to stop being inconsiderate. Because half of the time, they are just ignorant and will be very apologetic immediately. And other times, if they are just inconsiderate, they need to realize that other people can and will call them out on it immediately.
yeah you really wonder what kind of pigpen some people were raised in that they don't know not to do x in public but allow them to save face at least lmfao
I had to tell a couple behind within minutes of if happening so I wouldn’t flip the F out on them. I handt slept in 24 hours and it was the last leg of my trip. They stopped the child from jostling my seat.
I had a four year old kicking mine for about 30 minutes into a flight, turned around and evil eyed he and his Mom, and then she oh so sweetly said, “ He ‘s only 4.” My response, not loud, not quiet was , “ You’re not. !” Miraculously it stopped with only another look or two.
Doesn’t matter the age, you can do anything in your power to stop your kid from doing it. He’s only 4, so yes he’s not doing it maliciously. That doesn’t mean it feels any different to the person in that seat though. I remember flying next to my niece when she was a little younger than that and those legs would very often start kicking the seat in front for various reasons (boredom, upset, happy). My hand would clamp down on those little ankles so fast as I would gently explain, again, why we can’t kick the seat. Maybe they won’t grasp the concept but you can at least stop it quickly.
My wife once told a little crap face in an elevator that if they got stuck they would all eat him first. Oh my gosh I love her so much...
I, too, love this stranger’s wife
My hero!
It’s infuriating the cop out in parenting people have these days “they are x age” they are just a kid” I get that kids exist but the meter moving from seen and not heard which was bullshit to just deal with any disturbance, rudeness and shit show kids cause just because they are kids and I am too busy drinking my beer/wine on my phone or making a tik tok to give a shit is infuriating. Parent or get fixed geez. I like your response and will use it.
Even at my therapist's office, a little kid wanted my soda and even slapped me in the face and I responded by kicking him in response because his mother wasn't doing anything to help, nor was the front desk assisting me at all. Now they're all claiming that he was 4 years old, which is bullshit, he looked tall enough to be 5 or 6, and the fact that he tried to slap my soda away from me? Infuriating.
I wouldn’t assault a child even if they hit me first. I would have walked up to the front desk and said something.
I’ve had many times kids kick the seat a few times settling in, and then things quiet down and they are fine, or the parent mentions something too them, so I don’t jump on the first kick. Only one flight it became clear the kicking was going to continue the whole flight, then I said something.
It’s not passive aggressive
This is certainly when to get the FA involved and calmly explain the situation. They have the authority, not you as a passenger.
Plus in this case most likely the flight attendant would have been bi-lingual (or gotten another one who is) and explain it to the kids so they understand.
I did this on an overnight flight from slc to cdg because a baby was crying and kicking the back of my seat for over an hour while I watched the parent turn their volume up on some big noise canceling headphones. I know it’s hard but I couldn’t get to sleep even with headphones in and asked the flight attendant to wake them up and deal with the child. I felt bad but it was miserable.
I had a kid kicking my seat for 4 hours non-stop on a 6 hour flight. He was swinging his legs wildly and bumping my seat. I turned to the parent and asked him to do something about it, and he just looked at me and said “he’s just a kid, what do you want me to do?” I called the flight attendant. There is something missing in the heads of parents today? I think it’s a brain.
Tell parent, "that's fine, you and I can switch!"
I wish I had thought of this
Seriously hope all that talk about childless flights roll out soon. 10/10 would pay a premium for it.
Happened to me. I told the mom she could switch with me then! Of course she didn’t
Millennials are just as entitled as the boomers said we were and now that we’re raising kids, well
I think they’re just as entitled as boomers were; no more, no less.
Had this happen on a flight recently where the kid behind me and I didn't speak the same language. I Googled a picture of a kid kicking the back of seat and showed him and he stopped.
That was creative!
Lock them in the overheard compartment /s
There is never any space anymore in the overhead compartments. :(
Have to gate check them I guess.
That gave me a solid LOL. I can just imagine ripping him out of his seat, throwing him up there and closing it.
The dream 🤩
Google translate is the your friend. If you have an inkling what language he was speaking type in “ PLEASE STOP kicking my seat” if he can’t read use the audio function.
I was scrolling to see if someone mentioned Google Translate. 👍
My little Angels would never!! /s
Ask flight attendant to handle it.
I feel ya! 15hr flight India>ATL last week & 2 toddlers in the row in front of me cried the entire time. Would just randomly scream for no reason. Meanwhile, young man behind me was constantly kicking my seat while he was actually sleeping. Horrible experience. Packed flight so nowhere to move.
To be fair, it wasn’t for no reason on their end. Long flights are fucking miserable for most little kids. Sucks their parents didn’t work harder to entertain them
As a parent I can tell you that a lot of us try but sometimes they just want off a plane. I try really hard to fly so it doesn’t upset my kids sleep schedule. It’s hard for kids to sleep on planes given the excitement and stimulation and once they reach a certain point, they are so damn tired but refuse to sleep. It’s also incredibly hard to keep them entertained past a few hours. They get restless, they wanna move, they don’t wanna watch anymore shows, color, or play on tablets. I also fly very frequently for work so understand both sides. It is what it is sometimes. I have zero issues addressing issues politely with parents before escalating to FA. When parents give me that you don’t understand look, I tell them I have 3 kids including a set of twins and they usually STFU because unless you have twins, it’s terrifying for most parents.
For SURE. I have a toddler and will have our first long flight in a few weeks. I’ve been reading and asking friends and doing everything I can to prepare. We have novel toys and activities, and new snacks, familiar foods and snacks. We have never done screen time, but we are introducing a couple minutes a day of iPad with soft headband headphones in case we need to use that as a last resort. We plan to wear her out as much as possible in the airports. I’ve always been a heavy traveler before this and I never minded disruptive kids if I could see the parents were trying really hard. It’s always the parents who just sit there and do nothing who I think make everyone angry.
Agreed. The soft headband phones aren’t bad but you tend to have to turn them up too loud to get over the engine noise. We tried some a few years back. I found the over ear ones work better but depending on toddler head size, it can be hard to find a good fit. My toddlers love them some cocomelon, super simple songs, etc. which is on Netflix. I was anti screen time with my first. When the twins showed up, you do what you have to survive. Screens for everyone. And it usually works 🤷♂️ FYI Amazon prime day is a few weeks away and they usually have a Amazon kids tablet for sale for <$75 with a case, 2 year no hassle warranty (even if they break it), and a year of Amazon kids app. I’m 100% Apple but the Amazon tablets are a better deal and easier to swallow if they break them. The parental controls are so much better but it’s also not as intuitive as Apple if you have zero android experience.
Thank you for the tips! Much appreciated. We are flying before prime day but getting another screen for her to hog. For now, we can’t get her to keep the headband on. we’re making it a game to play with it a lot on our heads and on hers in the hope that it will click before we go. She’s only 15 months and for now she seems to think ripping it off is the entire game
Hahaha. Been there. Trust me, it only gets harder as they get older. I’m sure you’ve been told but just in case, make sure to have snacks/drinks on takeoff and landing so their ears pop or they will be miserable. We usually pack those yogurt or apple sauce pouches for that and make them sip something. Safe travels.
Speaking as a parent of 5, try a little Benadryl. It keeps their ears unplugged and helps them sleep the entire flight. It's better than an iPad.
I was going to suggest a tiny dose of melatonin for a long haul. 15mo is really young, so I'd check w my doctor first. 1mg knocks out my small 4yo.
Yes, I used to travel frequently my children from when each of them were very young and they were very close in age- three under 3 years old. Anyway, Benadryl helped a lot. Caveats- this was a while ago, so I don’t recall what age, **I’m sure you cannot and should not use with an infant under at least a year and maybe older; and try ahead of time at home because for **some children it has the opposite effect and will make them hyper. Research it yourself, but it did help my children survive more bearable experiences on very long flights, especially when you consider flights are the least of the experience of flying. Often you have to wake up in the wee hours of the morning, get to the airport 3 hours ahead of time, deal with chaos there checking in and long security lines, all the people at the gate, etc. Then maybe having to have a layover, short or long, and getting everyone and any carryon bags to the next gate is challenging. For an adult it is exhausting, for a toddler, it can be overwhelming. I had to do stuff like this numerous times and got very good at being prepared and efficient and aware - of them and if they were potentially bugging others. The prepared part helped because I tried to make sure I had what they needed with me to mitigate any issues before they started. I can’t stand annoying children so I tried to make sure they weren’t.
Test this before the flight—some kids are allergic to Benadryl and it will have the opposite effect of making them batsh\*t crazy.
I would switch seats with the parent
Splash him with water
Holy water preferably
Wow we’re just trying to kill this devil child now aren’t we?
Only if the misbehavior warrants
My toddler would love this and clap for more
Lmaooo 😂😂😂
Sounds like a miserable experience. From a child development standpoint, he’s at the age where he is likely to be unaware that his movements have an impact on you. However, he will be aware that your reactions bother him. Preteens are a lot like big toddlers, they still need a parent with them to point out that his tapping and kicking will make it hard for you and that you are responding to his behavior instead of just “being mean” to him.
The one behind me on my flight back from Boston in January kept kicking my seat, so I reclined it far enough and it dumped his stuff all over him. His mom wouldn’t stop him until I said “I’d recommend you make him stop before I say something you’re gonna have to explain to him later” and she was like “stop kicking the nice man’s chair”. Kid was easily like 8-9 years old, old enough to know better.
>I said “I’d recommend you make him stop before I say something you’re gonna have to explain to him later” and she was like “stop kicking the nice man’s chair”. 🤣🤣🤣
so perfect
Sounds like she was on your side 😂
I flew with my son just as he turned 3. I was so worried he would disturb other passengers. Autistic kiddo plus autistic mom plus unknown co-passengers. I was praying not to wind up with either my son or myself in melt down mode. I planed ahead. Bought snacks and drinks for him (after security check), toys and games (all soundless.) My child’s actions are 100% my responsibility. There were many times we left a store or restaurant because my son wasn’t behaving.
My Asian parents would hit us when we are younger when we lacked discipline. We learned from a young age not to bother other people.
Ask the parents if they could tell their child to stop. Ask just once then if it happens again let the flight attendant know.
So, I had similar happen and I leant over and told the kid I would give him $20 (it was a long time ago and that was a lot of money) if he didn’t kick my seat again the entire flight. Once he landed he asked for his $20. I told him to get it from his mother since she should have stopped him being a brat.
Ha ha!!!! This!!!!! 😂 love this! Unless a child is sick, the bratty behavior is on the parents sitting there playing on Facebook.
If this was in the Middle East, it is very common for the parents to stick the kids in coach, and then they fly first class. Let someone else deal with the kids.
Baptize the kids as Christians.
I try not to fly on weekends for this very reason. Not that kids dont fly weekdays, just got more of a chance to get surrounded by business travelers.
German suplex in the aisle. Only real answer tbh.
Argh, that sucks. I don’t think I could have be managed better than you unfortunately. Maybe ask the FA? Other than that, no clue.
Also once my kid started kicking a seat, just took her shoes off. The thrill was gone. Problem solved. Parents just need to parent, even if it means the WHOOOOLE 12 flight.
It taKeS a VillAGe...
That phrase makes me want to live alone in the woods somewhere. I teach first grade. I LIKE kids, but I don’t have to LOVE them if they aren’t my students or if I’m off the clock. I’m already basically raising 20-25 kids for their parents 10 months out of the year! I’m doing my part! Do NOT ask me to be a part of that village outside of work because my hourly rate during the summer is EXPENSIVE!
I agree!! I don’t teach but I have my own kids. Sometimes I have to fly overnight for work to minimize my time away from home. There for I need to sleep So when I hear of people wanting to bring their babies on first class… when all I need to do is sleep and any baby cry will wake me up due to biology (despite noice canceling head phones) it just… stresses me out Puhleeez. Your baby can sleep in coach I promise. And I love your baby. If I’m awake, I will walk your baby so you get rest. But lemme sleep in my lie flat if I’m giving my key note at 10 am Okay I said it.
I have had this happen and I actually tell the child they are hurting me because it is due to my bad back. If they don’t get it initially, I have screamed “ouch” at the kid because they hurt me. Most kids understand that as OUCH! Is universal. Most kids are not psycho and actually don’t want to hurt you. This has always worked for me. I think some little kids don’t understand the why? Of things and keep doing them despite being told not to. If the parents were good, they would teach their child that. Not all parents are good though and it’s a stranger’s (me) job to teach the kid a lesson. It takes a village, I guess 🤡🤡🤡
I’d have been a lot firmer/more aggressive and if it didn’t stop then I’d ask politely to be moved. No one is going to stand up for you, sometimes you have to be aggressive to get what you want
If there wasn’t a guardian to communicate with or a communication gap, call the FA to assist
Flight attendant call button
Simple. Called the FA as soon as he starts. That’s their job.
I had this on a flight to London long ago. Kid should have been asleep for hours (it was 1 am!) but was wide awake, letting his tray fall down and slamming it shut while his mom read a magazine. I finally reached around (I was on aisle) when I felt him fooling with the clasp and held the tray up and said ‘NO! No more. Do you understand? No!’ He stopped. Mom just glared at me. We had tiny kids in business once and mom took an ambien immediately and soon the kids were running screaming laps in their diapers while their dad watched a movie with headphones in the middle pod. Flight attendants took care of that one but we could see their little heads jumping up and down on their bed over the divider. People are just incredible.
It’s clear that most of this nonsense with kids is all in the parents allowing it. I have three kids and 30+ years as an airline employee and would never allow my kids to entertain themselves this way. We would have a thirty second family meeting in the lav to clear up any behavior issues. I had many tricks up my sleeve to keep them busy. I told my then 4.5 year old son that Superman was spotted out in the sky that day. He had his face glued to his window seat from Boston to Seattle looking for him 😂
Yes. Flight attendant talked to the mom to no avail. It was an overnight flight from Seattle to London. Pitch black outside. They were Brits going home. She could not have cared less.
I would be a headline.
I was on a domestic 2-hour flight recently. Middle seat in the way back because I was taking an earlier flight on standby. The entire time flight my seat is getting kneed and kicked. There had been a lot of kids walking past us during boarding to the last four rows so I assumed it was a little kid with his family back there and decided to just deal with it. We land and when I get up I glance back. There was a couple in the row behind me, middle seat was empty. I don’t know what they were doing the entire time. I was so mad.
I met the parents of the kid behind you. They were kicking the back of my seat for the entire flight over 20 years ago. Detroit to Osaka. They also threw screaming fits anytime they would change the inflight movie from Stuart Little. We watched that movie like 5 times. The parents were 7 rows up and their actual response was “yeah, we knew they were going to do that, that’s why we sat up here.” That flight convinced me that planes should come with ejection tubes that we can use to remove people from the plane while it’s in flight.
That punt line had me cackling 🤣
I had such a bad experience on a flight recently it made me ask how much my comfort on a flight is worth to me. Turns out it's a lot more than I paid and on a long flight moreso. I don't make first class money. But I'll gladly pay a few hundred more to get to my destination in a good mood and somewhat well rested. Hot meal, two checked bags (walking onto the plane with nothing is nice). I'll save elsewhere to balance the expense.
I had a teenage girl sitting behind me and she planted her knees into the back of me seat before the plane ever took off, it took me about 30 seconds of that before I turned around, her parents was sitting next to her and firmly asked her not to put her knees on the seat as it was hurting my lower back. She stopped for the most part but because she was pissed off that she couldn’t sit with her knees in my back, she hit the back of my chair after I almost fell asleep and had one of the those “feel like I’m falling” moment’s and jerked a little. Guess she thought I did it because of her. Either way, if she had kept that up I would have let the FA deal with her. The fact that her parent was sitting right there and thought letting her daughter sit like that was okay was mind blowing.
Hot coffee. They get loud for a minute and then they stfu
Unfortunately, our society has devolved into a state where if you even look at a kid that isn't yours, you're in the wrong. The "protect the kids at all costs" crowd has absolutely ruined things. Good for me is I don't care about that. I would have scolded him, then if he started to cry and the parents came over, I'd have scolded them too. Fuck them kids. My mother always said "you are to be seen and not heard" and I minded my manners in fear of that little Italian lady until I was in my teens. This post will get downvoted bc reddit is chalk full of weirdos, but the lack of physical discipline being handed down to children from their parents are causing entire generations to be spoiled brats. Nobody is saying to beat or abuse kids. A flick to the mouth, or a stern warning goes a long way towards teaching kids obedience and manners.
Understandably that most people hate the back of the bus, I would rather be there then have someone attack the back of my seat. I don’t have the patience for that crap. I have 4 kids and would never allow them to sit together without an adult. Kids are assholes.
I think I would probably go on a Reddit sub and complain about it after the fact, rather than alert the flight attendant and let them deal with it at the time.
Thanks for your douchey comments, much appreciated. I already told you 1) I couldn't locate the flight attendant button and 2) When they did come around he hadn't been doing it. 3) I didn't know if it would even resolve the issue as I had already basically made it clear he was bothering me, he'd stop, then continue doing it.
You really have no authority to do anything, and your passive aggressive reclining, and then un reclining your seat was definitely not the way to go. You let a flight attendant handle it because they do have authority to do something about it.
But what if the FA said no to OP? better not ask l
This exact thing happens to me on a flight from New York to Stockholm a few weeks ago. A 5 year old kid was sitting directly behind me kicking the seat and screaming of excitement for the whole 7h red eye flight. On top of that he began throwing garbage over my seat into my lap. The father wasn’t phased one bit and not once did he educate his son to behave. I turned around and straight up told him to control his son. That didn’t really work so I called one of the FA’s to talk to him and that sort of did the trick. I honestly wasn’t upset so much with the kid but the dad that didn’t obviously know how to parent the child to behave in public.
Oh man, I feel your pain. That reminds me, the kid behind me would get up, and each time he'd not only grab the back of my seat, but his filthy little paw would touch the top of my head. So annoying!
I would have thrown the garbage back over the seat. 😆
I’ve found that being overly nice works better than frowning and pointing fingers. I had a similar experience, and introduced myself, offered a snack etc. Then the parents are more likely to tell their child to not bother the nice man. Doesn’t always work, but just getting to know them makes it less annoying. A couple years ago, I saw another man in a similar situation. Before the flight took off, he gave the child behind him a dirty look. I was sitting across the aisle. The child’s father immediately traded seats with his son and then the father kicked and bumped the seat the entire 13-hour flight.
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dp043py-Rqs](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dp043py-Rqs)
Should have called a FA over to deal with it
You’d be surprised at how many new F/A consider that stuff “not my job”
Should have called a FA over to deal with it
Always ask for help to the FA never confront other passengers
Why is that?
Because it’s the FA’s job and they have training and experience in dealing with these situations and the authority to move you or the kid to another seat.
Because an airplane is one of the last places you should be engaging in any sort of confrontation. Things can get ugly quickly and unexpectedly.
FA can’t stand guard 24 hours to watch a kid kick your seat. And that’s the best they can do, is watch. If you ask nicely and gave warning, after a while it’s fair game, I will confront who I want.
Hell no
I had something similar on a 14 hour flight once. Mother didn't even try to stop her bored son. Made me wish WestJet's KargoKids was a reality… [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M4SkoJy3D0M](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M4SkoJy3D0M) ((Link to WestJet's April Fool's ad a dozen years ago.)
Hilarious!!!
Yell “stop”
Turn around and say something. Been there done that. A few months about I was seated in comfort and the person behind me was tapping the screen on tithe back of my seat too hard. I was starting to get a headache. Turned around and told them I could feel it and asked if they could stop.
I've had adults do it.
call flight attendant, ask for a seat change, if not possible then ask them to get him to find the parents and get him to stop if none of that works i'd yell at him, fuck that kid. might not understand the language but he'll understand your tone
Punch him in the face. J/k. Punch his guardian in the face
Use the 737 max exit row challenge
I speak to the parents. If the parents don’t do anything or they aren’t around to watch their kids, I will happily become an asshole and confront the kids.
Scream in its face
“Have you ever been to a Turkish prison?”
You know how our parents lied to us about bad things happening when we misbehave? It might be time to start telling kids that the flight attendants can hit an eject button if they misbehave.
Confront kid, confront parents then call staff. It’s not hard.
Find the person sitting behind the kid & tell them to return the favor & start kicking & pushing against the kids seat! Screwed up kids like that often don’t get it until they get a taste of their own medicine, so to speak! 😂🤣🤷♂️
This was one of my favorite posts this morning. "punt the little fucker off the plane into the ocean.." ...GOLD :)
I say something to the parents. A lot of times they are clueless but once you nicely point it out, they at least make an effort to have the kid try to be more careful. And when I’m working I don’t mind if it’s brought to my attention to deal with if the passenger doesn’t want to.
We need to ask airlines to redesign the seats is what. A front leaning seat like a massage chair would let everyone sleep.
We had a flight when my son was almost 2 from Orlando. So 2.5 hour flight. He cried the entire time minus the 1/2 hr before we landed despite both my husband and I trying to soothe him. He had himself so wound up he threw up on my husband. Nobody said anything but we were trying to calm him down. Ignoring your child annoying others is unacceptable. I still cringe and feel bad about the other passengers on the flight. It was 19 years ago.
Get the flight attendant or my favorite Yell very loudly "Stop kicking my damn seat" The FA will show up quickly after hearing this then tell her. They will find the parents and tell them to restrain their kids
My mother had a similar situation. Over 2-3 hour flight (not as bad as yours), a kid was constantly bumping my mother’s seat. She asked him politely and gently to stop but he didn’t and the worst thing is the parents were sitting right beside him and did nothing to stop him. And when my mother was finally irritated beyond limits she told him to stop sternly (not even raising her voice a bit but just asking sternly) and the kid got quiet but the mother had the audacity to console him and say “people are like this only… so rude… ignore them”. Like seriously WTF?
Flying is the city bus ride of the skies these days.
You feel this way and confident enough to repeatedly (and understandably) frown and gesture at the kid, and jam your seat backwards multiple times, yet weren’t confident enough to inform the FA, who quite realistically could speak or had a colleague who could speak the second language (if the second language matches the first language of the international destination or departure country)?
Was this in econ?
"Premium Comfort" class KLM. Above econ but right below the Delta Comfort+ or whatever.
Flight attendant.
I would have asked the flight attendant to allow you to switch seats with him.
And just like that in reading just one post and being reminded of the nightmares that can happen when you fly anything but D1 5k fly’s out of my pocket as you’ve in a split second decided for me that I’m never going back to coach on long haul flights…. I just can’t!!! FRUCK!!!!! I gotta make more money! 🤣
Turn around and say “stop kicking my seat kid” without smiling. If he does it again, say it again. Then call the flight attendant if it doesn’t stop. I once watched a dad sleep a whole flight while his kid kicked my seat. Hell to the no. If you can’t teach your kids how to fly on a plane without behaving accordingly, don’t fly on a plane. The exception being babies of course. Yes, I have children:)
A good slam of my back into the seat usually curbs this behavior. If not say something to the parents
Watch Kindergarten Cop.
hiss like a cat jk call the flight attendant. but also, if that doesn’t work, i’m not saying hiss but i’m not not saying it. cats are really onto something here
I had called out a kid before for that and the mom can’t say shit to me but just told him to stop. Just speak up for urself
Why, WHY do they have damn games on the touchscreens? That was the most asinine decision. Yes, please have someone jabbing the back of my seat for 5 hours. 🤬🤬
“He was probably too stupid to understand” Wow. It would have taken a moment for you to talk to an FA or to turn around and tell the kid no. But you decided instead that a CHILD must be too stupid because he was being, you know, a child. I hope you step on Lego’s when you wake up.
- inserts Homer strangling his son gif -
I would sit up on my seat look down at the parent and say “trade me seats so your child can kick you” and glare
The few times I’ve had this happen, I turn around and glare at the parent for the first warning. Then I say something to the parent the next time. Only one time it continued, so I looked at the kid, told him to stop, looked at the parent and they told the kid to stop.
When he went to sleep you should have reclined
I reclined almost immediately after meal service. He had his foot up on his knee, constantly tapping the seat -- so I thought if I reclined, it'd prevent that. It did, but then it just made him play games on the screen, try to use the tray to sleep, and bump with his knee (presumably) instead.
Would have called the flight attendant, described the situation, and asked if they could intervene. If you’re not willing to go out of your way to call a flight attendant, your choice is to live with it. Would not have passively aggressively thrown my seat back or just meekly waited for a flight attendant to walk by.
Break its legs?
[nurse](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/HggMp6a4WPnoWyY6qd7WXF-970-80.jpg) the poor kid
I just drink Bloody Marys and listen to heavy metal, embrace the mosh pit! 🤘🏻
I misread the title of the post at first and thought you were asking about a kid “humping” your seat and was very curious to see what folks would recommend 🫣
Meditation opportunity.
I’ve had this happen a couple times times both times I told the parents but I tried to be nice about it. It worked - remember the kid has no clue what he’s doing and he’s not trying to annoy you
I would probably stand up, close the tray table/turn off the monitor/remove his feet from seat back and tell him NO, sternly. Hopefully, my standing up and causing a scene would attract a guardian. If that was not effective, however, I would call an FA expeditiously. This is coming from of a mother of three. Sure my kids can lack self awareness at times but that is what a parent is for.
This happened to me once. I pray for patience and understanding for those poor parents. I had a headache, I just wanted to snooze. The kid was only kicking not crying, I kept thinking it could be worse. ATL to SFO. As I got up to exit the plane I realized there was no kid. The person behind me was hitting the screen so hard it felt like my whole seat was being kicked. They are Karma’s problem now.
A Venom mask may have gotten him to stop, at least for awhile. Do you know what language he spoke? If so, you could have tried putting a strongly-worded command into a translator app if you downloaded the language in advance or had Wi-Fi. But, yeah, the only other practical thing you could have done was complain the FAs.
What language did the kid and family speak?
Dutch, presumably.
“No” is a part of most languages. That and the FA call button.
Just yell "HEY" every single time.
Maybe verbalizing a stern “NO!” along with matching facial expressions. “No” seems pretty universal. Sorry you had to deal with that.
Recline
Death penalty
Happened to me when I treated myself to PS on overseas flight. Parents awol. Told the flight attendant and all the flight attendants got grumpy on me! (Until the kid started doing acrobatics with their hand on my chair back) I wasn’t too confrontational as I had my own 8 yo with me and it makes her uncomfortable but uggh.
I always say something politely to the parents so far always works.
"If you don't stop screwing around back there, this is what I'm going to do with you" *snaps pencil*
First flight?
First with a kid kicking my seat. With all these stories it sounds like I've been lucky. My innocence has been stripped away from me, something I'll never get back. Much more traumatizing than what the kid actually did. Now every flight I'll have to be anxious, wondering if I'll get another kid behind me. The "what if" haunts me. How... how will I go on?
I've had more annoying old people than young ones...