Baby on board
November 23rd 2006 02:33
After seeing the video of a live birth as part of first aid training at hostie school, I decided I would avoid pregnant passengers (and adopt children). Watching that ‘horror flick’ and becoming familiar with the delivery equipment available onboard, was not nearly sufficient training for assisting a lady in labour.
It wasn’t that I didn’t want to help expectant mothers. I watched uncomfortably as women with bulging bellies waddled up to their seats during boarding, torn between wanting to show my hostie’s hospitality and offer assistance with bags, while also wishing to run and hide in the galley. You see it is also the hostie’s responsibility to ask obviously pregnant ladies to produce a doctor’s certificate as evidence they are fit for travel. However, many faux pas have been committed when responsible hosties approached big-bellied women, who turned out to be carrying only big bellies and not child. I am very poor at backpedalling when I say the wrong thing, hence the reason for avoiding ladies I suspected of being pregnant.
I had nothing against pregnant travellers, but my tolerance did not extend to actual parents and their children, unlike most hosties. The majority of hosties adore babies and don’t think it a chore to entertain them. One particularly enthusiastic hostie picked up a baby and started swinging it around the aircraft, that is until the baby’s head made contact with an overhead TV monitor. For once, passengers had a real reason to shout abuse at a hostie.
I wasn’t partial to parents of small children because they are inconsiderate. Parents allow their kids to smear food over seats, and litter food and toys (gifts from the airline!) on the floor. And they themselves have no qualms about leaving dirty nappies on the floor, in seat pockets or handing them over to the hostie. An ex-colleague told me she refused to pick up babies after one vomited all over her when a mother shoved the baby into her arms during boarding. She had to put up with having baby’s vomit particles in her hair and on her uniform for the entire 8 hour flight.
Common sense seems to elude parent travellers. They expect a plethora of baby provisions to be onboard. I’ve been yelled at by a mother because I told her that the airline didn’t carry additional milk onboard for babies. I’ve had parents insist that their baby be given a bassinet despite being informed their baby is too big/heavy and it would be dangerous to place them in there. I’ve dealt with parents who refused to take their baby out of a bassinet during turbulence because they “don’t want to wake the baby”. Other parents don’t want to put the extension seatbelt on a baby for take-off/landing because their “baby will cry”- well I think it would be much worse if a bumpy landing releases the baby from their parent’s grip, and the baby lands splat on the wall or floor.
And peace and quiet is impossible with kids onboard, there’s absolutely nothing you can do about a screaming kid. Except, just once in my hostie career I saw someone taking action (humanely may I add) against a noisy child. On a flight departing from Germany, a mother boarded the plane with a mega temper tantrum-throwing toddler. I’ve never heard anything like the blood curdling screams from this 2 year old. All attempts by the family, hosties and ground staff to calm the child down were futile. With true German efficiency the child and his mother were offloaded from the flight by ground staff, to the cheers of other passengers.
It wasn’t that I didn’t want to help expectant mothers. I watched uncomfortably as women with bulging bellies waddled up to their seats during boarding, torn between wanting to show my hostie’s hospitality and offer assistance with bags, while also wishing to run and hide in the galley. You see it is also the hostie’s responsibility to ask obviously pregnant ladies to produce a doctor’s certificate as evidence they are fit for travel. However, many faux pas have been committed when responsible hosties approached big-bellied women, who turned out to be carrying only big bellies and not child. I am very poor at backpedalling when I say the wrong thing, hence the reason for avoiding ladies I suspected of being pregnant.
I had nothing against pregnant travellers, but my tolerance did not extend to actual parents and their children, unlike most hosties. The majority of hosties adore babies and don’t think it a chore to entertain them. One particularly enthusiastic hostie picked up a baby and started swinging it around the aircraft, that is until the baby’s head made contact with an overhead TV monitor. For once, passengers had a real reason to shout abuse at a hostie.
I wasn’t partial to parents of small children because they are inconsiderate. Parents allow their kids to smear food over seats, and litter food and toys (gifts from the airline!) on the floor. And they themselves have no qualms about leaving dirty nappies on the floor, in seat pockets or handing them over to the hostie. An ex-colleague told me she refused to pick up babies after one vomited all over her when a mother shoved the baby into her arms during boarding. She had to put up with having baby’s vomit particles in her hair and on her uniform for the entire 8 hour flight.
Common sense seems to elude parent travellers. They expect a plethora of baby provisions to be onboard. I’ve been yelled at by a mother because I told her that the airline didn’t carry additional milk onboard for babies. I’ve had parents insist that their baby be given a bassinet despite being informed their baby is too big/heavy and it would be dangerous to place them in there. I’ve dealt with parents who refused to take their baby out of a bassinet during turbulence because they “don’t want to wake the baby”. Other parents don’t want to put the extension seatbelt on a baby for take-off/landing because their “baby will cry”- well I think it would be much worse if a bumpy landing releases the baby from their parent’s grip, and the baby lands splat on the wall or floor.
And peace and quiet is impossible with kids onboard, there’s absolutely nothing you can do about a screaming kid. Except, just once in my hostie career I saw someone taking action (humanely may I add) against a noisy child. On a flight departing from Germany, a mother boarded the plane with a mega temper tantrum-throwing toddler. I’ve never heard anything like the blood curdling screams from this 2 year old. All attempts by the family, hosties and ground staff to calm the child down were futile. With true German efficiency the child and his mother were offloaded from the flight by ground staff, to the cheers of other passengers.
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