Picture this: you sit down on an airplane with a long haul flight ahead of you, you’re relaxing into your seat and then you feel it, the pounding of small feet on the back of your seat.
It’s enough to elicit sparks of rage from even the most zen passenger. So what’s the correct etiquette in such a scenario?
Dowsing the child in water or threatening to kill them are not methods we recommend, however, they are some of the ACTUAL methods people have used, according to an online thread about the issue.
Here are some successful, and at times unorthodox, methods passengers have used.
Grab the shoe
One user said when he was in the situation he noticed that occasionally the kid would miss his seat and his shoe would go between his seat and the other seat next to him. And about half those times it would get stuck for a second.
“I got a bit annoyed, and hatched a plan, thinking it probably would not work. But it did,” he said.
“I put my upper right arm between the seat back edge and the plastic fuselage liner to check the fit. Just right”
“Next kick I shoved my arm back. It worked way beyond expectation the first time. The seat moved just a little, enough to grab his shoe.:
“He was stuck for maybe five to 10 seconds. Long enough for mom to catch on to what he was doing.”
Water torture
One user called Kev Partridge said when a kid in the seat behind him thought the touchscreen at the back of his headrest was a punch-screen on a flight from Asia to Europe he prepared a “small cup of water”, awaited a good knock on his seat and then threw the contents of his cup upwards and backwards.
He then leaned over and said “Ohh, I’m sorry, I’m just so easily startled when I fly”.
Needless to say the kid didn’t bother him again.
Polite speech
Contributor Dariusz Scharsig said the trick he uses is to give a prepared speech to both the child and the parent.
He explained: All I needed to do was turn around and, nicely, say: “Hey, little fella, is this your first plane ride? Yeah, I get nervous too. You know what helps me? Just closing my eyes and trying to relax. Which is super hard if you kick my seat.”
He said usually, their parents get super embarrassed and the kid stops right there and then. No hard feelings.
Get another seat
Passenger, Brad Chisholm, simply wrote: “I paid the guy behind me $50 to trade seats with me.” Simply and effective right?
- READ: Qantas surprises young flyers with POP-UP food stations
- READ: 6 reasons why kids who travel will change the world
