Parents who shouldn’t be allowed on planes

‘I don’t care if my child misbehaves’

What’s worse than parents who are oblivious to the annoying nature of their children? A parent who isn’t.

Gary Zeune, a professional speaker based in Powell, Ohio, once sat between two toddlers — one in the row behind him, the other in the row in front of him — who performed an exquisite form of torture. “The kid in front was standing and let out a scream,” he recalls. “The one behind me replied with a scream.” After about six of these back-and-forth screams, it became clear to Zeune that the moms were unable to control their kids.

“Everyone was livid,” he told me. So he stood up and ordered the children to be quiet. And after that, they were.

Parents who won’t step up to the plate to control their kids ought to be shown the cabin door.

‘I can’t control my offspring’

This is the most benign version of incompetent parenting. I know, because I’ve been one in the past.

I thought I could keep my little ones (I have three) occupied on the plane. Then the doors closed and suddenly I was in charge of three wild children who refused to sit in their seats, demanded food and yelled at one another. After that, I grounded my family from flying for a while.

Nina Boal, a computer programmer who lives in Columbia, Maryland, remembers a flight from Tokyo to Detroit, where she was seated next to “an inconsolably screaming kid.” “No matter what the parents did, the kid wouldn’t stop screaming and crying,” she says. “This was an 11-hour flight.”

Parents who lose control of their offspring on a plane can be forgiven the first time it happens. But if they know they have a problem, and they continue flying, they’re no better than the ones who can’t, or won’t, do anything about it.

Oh, one more thing: This is bound to get worse.

“Today’s parents think that their little darlings have the right to scream, pound on the backs of chairs, hit passengers on the head and do whatever else amuses them,” says psychiatrist Carole Lieberman.

“This comes from parents feeling entitled and being too distracted by their own fears, worries, computer work, movies, and so on. They think of the flight attendants as their own personal babysitters.”

Airlines already blacklist passengers for all sorts of reasons, from bad behavior to breaking their ticket rules.

Perhaps they should add inept parents to the list.