A FLIGHT attendant has revealed why passengers aren't allowed to tell kids to stop kicking the back of their seats during a flight, no matter how annoying it is.
Air travel can be uncomfortable at the best of times, but sometimes kids can make it much worse by pulling on the back of the chair, screaming loudly, or most commonly, kicking your seat.
However, no matter how much you want to, you're not allowed to tell them to behave – according to a cabin crew member.
Kristie Koerbel spent more than two decades as a flight attendant and explained the proper way to deal with children in a list of etiquette rules.
She said that, instead of addressing the child directly, passengers have to tell their parents instead, which is the best way to get results.
She told the Irish Times: "If a child behind you is being disruptive, address the parents. You don’t have the right to yell at someone else’s child.
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"A nice way to approach this is to ask the parents calmly, and with a smile, if they don't realise their child is kicking your seat.
"Then say it’s bothersome; is there any way you can you make the child stop? This way you are not accusing in your tone, and are asking instead of being bossy."
Former flight attendant Bobby Laurie agreed that talking to the children directly isn't the best way to go about it, but said cabin crew should be addressed, rather than the annoying kid or their parents.
He told Conde Nast Traveller: "Those non-audible annoyances such as kicking the seat in front of them, excessively pressing the call button, climbing over and under the seats, and disobeying the seatbelt sign?
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"Most of these actions are safety-related and warrant a flight attendant getting involved if it gets out of control."
He also said that sometimes parents aren't always able to help, even if it's their own child that is misbehaving.
He added: "But even for flight attendants, the situation is not always simple to resolve. In some cases, parents are doing the best they can, and in others, well, maybe there’s room for improvement."
Often though, the child will just be bored, so distracting them is seen as a good method to try and get them to stop kicking or punching the back of a seat.
Sun Online Travel's resident flight attendant revealed the freebies parents can get for their kids on board most planes.
They said: "Our airline, and a few others too, have got packs with a little journal, so kids can put down the flight details and then they can get the captain to sign off the flight and stamp their journal.
"We'll happily give this to anyone on board flying with a little one as a fun way for them to get interested in flying and to document their adventures.
"We often have some kids on board who have flown almost as much as us cabin crew members.
"There are regularly two or three year olds whose journals are completely full because their parents are frequent flyers, so it's a lot of fun for them to get their books stamped and signed by the pilots."
However, they also advised parents to think about how they can keep their kids as happy as possible during flights, to avoid them annoying other people.
They added: "Think about what you'd need to keep your kid happy, safe and well fed and that will minimise the stress for your flight crew, your fellow passengers and crucially yourself."
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Meanwhile, this passenger used a genius trick to calm a crying kid on board a plane.
And a former flight attendant has shared where it is best to sit on a plane if you don't like screaming babies.
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