To the woman in seat 20C on our flight home from Oregon,
I saw you sitting in the terminal before we boarded...at 5:45am. I pretended not to notice you as I tried to occupy my 3 year old and feed my hungry baby while my husband went to fetch us some food and much needed coffee. Your judgmental stares and whispers to your husband were the last thing I was concerned with at the moment. I was overjoyed when I noticed you were seated in the aisle seat adjacent to the row in front of us. Your obvious glares and self righteous head shaking every time my toddler was louder than a whisper were rude and only added to my anxiety. Do you really think I enjoyed the mini tantrums my son was having?? Didn't you notice my husband and I were doing everything in our power to keep him calm?? Maybe you failed to notice the 90 minutes that he was quiet watching a movie. Maybe you were too busy judging that you failed to see us trying to redirect and occupy our toddler EVERY time he peeped or kicked the seat in front of him.
Your rudeness could have been overlooked IF you hadn't crossed the line. My husband stood up to walk our son around, in an attempt to distract him and get some energy out, and apologized to the woman and her child (who was the victim of the seat kicking) in front of us, and even offered up our DVD player to him. The nice woman said, "It's OK, my son was just like that at 3. I understand how hard it is on a plane". My husband did not get two steps away before your bitchy comment of, "It's NOT OK. That kid is a brat!". First of all, let me tell you that you are lucky that my husband was the one in the aisle and that I had a sleeping baby on my lap. His calm response of, "Mind your own business" would NOT have been what came out of my mouth. The fact that you then took it a step further than insulting my 3 year old with your reply, "He's a brat and it is because of lack of discipline!", was astounding to me. I wanted to stand up and slap you. My hands were shaking, I was sweating and I wanted to scream in your face! My level headed husband's stern reply of, "MIND YOUR BUSINESS", could have easily been followed by many expletives, but he didn't stoop to your level.
The next time you feel it necessary to judge another person's situation, maybe you should sit back and contemplate the possible circumstances behind the behavior. The fact that my toddler was on the tail end of a 2 week vacation, where he slept in 4 different locations, had already been strapped in the car a collective 26 hours over 11 days, and had been woken up at 4am to go get on a plane where he is expected to sit still, not talk and not walk around MAY have contributed to his inability to control his impulses. Oh yeah, and the fact that he just turned 3 could have played a tiny part too!!!!!
I won't waste my time trying to convince you that my toddler is normally a good boy and that I do, in fact, discipline him. I just wanted to thank you for making the 3 hour flight from Portland to Chicago an even more miserable experience than it already was....and I hope they lost your luggage.
Your rudeness could have been overlooked IF you hadn't crossed the line. My husband stood up to walk our son around, in an attempt to distract him and get some energy out, and apologized to the woman and her child (who was the victim of the seat kicking) in front of us, and even offered up our DVD player to him. The nice woman said, "It's OK, my son was just like that at 3. I understand how hard it is on a plane". My husband did not get two steps away before your bitchy comment of, "It's NOT OK. That kid is a brat!". First of all, let me tell you that you are lucky that my husband was the one in the aisle and that I had a sleeping baby on my lap. His calm response of, "Mind your own business" would NOT have been what came out of my mouth. The fact that you then took it a step further than insulting my 3 year old with your reply, "He's a brat and it is because of lack of discipline!", was astounding to me. I wanted to stand up and slap you. My hands were shaking, I was sweating and I wanted to scream in your face! My level headed husband's stern reply of, "MIND YOUR BUSINESS", could have easily been followed by many expletives, but he didn't stoop to your level.
The next time you feel it necessary to judge another person's situation, maybe you should sit back and contemplate the possible circumstances behind the behavior. The fact that my toddler was on the tail end of a 2 week vacation, where he slept in 4 different locations, had already been strapped in the car a collective 26 hours over 11 days, and had been woken up at 4am to go get on a plane where he is expected to sit still, not talk and not walk around MAY have contributed to his inability to control his impulses. Oh yeah, and the fact that he just turned 3 could have played a tiny part too!!!!!
I won't waste my time trying to convince you that my toddler is normally a good boy and that I do, in fact, discipline him. I just wanted to thank you for making the 3 hour flight from Portland to Chicago an even more miserable experience than it already was....and I hope they lost your luggage.
