Two days ago, I was flying back home from our family’s vacation in Boston, and my 9-years-old son was asking the flight attendant questions like “What movie are we going to watch tonight?” and “How long is the flight?” He was using a normal voice and was very polite. (During the 6-hour flight he asked maybe 3 questions total.) However, the flight attendant grew increasingly impatient and started snapping at my son, rudely: “Keep your voice down, young man” and “Stop asking me when we’ll arrive in LA, because the answer will always be the same.” Meanwhile, she was being super-nice to a male passenger and chatted loudly with him for half-an-hour. I found the behavior of both flight attendants out of line and lacking professional courtesy. It felt like discrimination against children on the airplane. And it made me wonder: Do they (our kids) represent too much happiness and aliveness, freedom and self-esteem to us (adults), who have forgotten these things?
Katherine Agranovich, Ph.D., author of Tales of My Large, Loud, Spiritual Family