A recent Instagram post by a well-known celebrity writer read “They
should give away free birth control pills on all airlines as a public service.”
I juggled for a long time to understand what it meant, but couldn’t
until I saw the only hashtag the writer had used as a caption beneath,
#annoyingchildrenonboard. This post came after almost a week of relaxing and
luxurious holiday that he had in Thailand. As most of the posts by this writer
are relatable, at times funny and witty, it took me a while to comprehend what
he had written. How could he post such a thing? I thought, and scrolled
through the comments section. In the comments I saw outpouring negativity for
little children and their parents inside airplanes. “It’s so irritating!” one
comment read, “I wanted to sleep peacefully on my three-hour flight, but the
child behind just couldn’t shut up. Why do people produce when they can’t teach
their children basic etiquette!!!” “So relatable,” read another, “an annoying
baby was crying throughout my flight just yesterday. I mean I was wondering
what’s wrong with those parents, the internet gives so many ways on how you can
calm your child, use any **** option and let others travel in peace.” “Yes,
yes, yes… angry and laugh emoticons” read one more. To my curiosity I visited
the profiles of some such people who posted these comments, and found most were
unmarried, some dog parents, etc. In short none of those who had posted
anything like this was a parent, including this writer who is not married yet.
I sat down, took a deep breath, and recalled how anxious and conscious I
was during my flight to Vishakhapatnam last year. It was during that flight
that my almost one a half-year-old boy just failed to calm down. I offered
him everything I could, tried to soothe him in every possible way, sang for
him, and told him stories but he seemed to be too terrified to stop crying. I
got endless stares from the passengers in nearby rows, overheard some sarcastic
comments, and also got some unwanted suggestions. At the end of it, I had
to just take him and stand in one of the corners of the airplane; but that
again was to gain more eyeballs. I wanted to tell the passengers that I was
more worried about their peace than probably them, but I couldn’t help it
because he was a baby and wasn’t capable of understanding anything like us
adults. Thankfully it was just a one-hour flight, that landed soon. To my
surprise, the moment we stepped out of the airplane, my boy was fast asleep
within minutes.
We all were children once, and we have walked a long journey to reach
where we are today. Children are close to nature; they have limitless energy;
they aren’t plastic like adults and they know no boundaries. They want to
explore, understand, ask, and whatnot. No parent wants their children to
trouble co-passengers, and I am sure each parent teaches their child the best
of etiquette. But a closed and congested space such as an airplane can make
younger children feel unnatural and out of place, which in turn makes them act
in ways that adults who have never dealt with children may not understand. Many
smaller children also have a significant stranger anxiety, that is bound to
increase in a tightly packed space such as an airline. On top of it, there are
air pressure changes that children have still not learned to cope up with. And
forget coping up, a baby or toddler may not even understand what it is. In
which case what else can they do than cry? After all, crying is how they
express discomfort when they are yet to learn to express themselves completely
through words.
The internet may of course list endless ways to calm kids in such an
environment. But Alas! Children are humans and each child is different. A list
of solutions may not apply on them as on machines. But how can the newer humans
understand that? When all that we eat and drink in times today is quick
technology. With the least of attention span that we have developed, courtesy
reels, and quick information available over the internet, who has the time to
read or understand human life? Moreover, with more and more individuals opting
not to have a child this gap in understanding is expected to rise further. If
not, this writer may not have posted this. Because technically he had a long
personalized relaxing holiday and was now traveling in a shared space with
other humans, where he couldn’t expect everything the way he wanted.
I remember almost a decade back from now, I was quite annoyed at a
single lady who was traveling with a baby/toddler on a train. I didn’t say
anything out loud but I too was wondering why she can’t calm her child despite
being the mother. I also remember how she was struggling alone on the side upper
berth of our third ac compartment, to soothe her baby who was fussy at night.
That day on my way to Vishakhapatnam I remembered that lady and regretted all
that I had thought then. I wanted to comment on that copywriter’s post saying, I
don’t expect you to understand how children are, or what efforts parents take
because you won’t know it until you bring one up. But the best you can do till
then is to refrain from posting something like this publicly because trust me
you will regret it the day you have a child. But unfortunately, by the time
I opened that post again, the comment section had been turned off.
Modern disclaimer- This
article is not generated by ChatGPT, its written by a human mind.
vandita5jan@gmail.com/vandita_m
Image credits- cnbc.com
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