My maternal instincts, let me show you them

[elleflies]

When I do the Seattle-Japan Military family flights... I'm amazed people manage to have children and not kill them.

This was the flight of the screaming baby and I did not approve. If it wasn't a kid crying for some reason or another it was a parent tickling them until they shrieked - because oh look, the baby is happy!

The baby is making too much noise and disturbing EVERYONE sitting in the vicinity.

Apparently I have time traveled from a period of time that clung tightly to 'Children should be seen and not heard.'

I have coworkers who work these flights and love them because they get to coo at babies. I see the babies and want to duck and cover because they are invariably going to ooze from somewhere and I'll be the one the parents come running too when their kid wakes up in the middle of the flight and vomits all over them (why yes, this has happened many a time)

My mom keeps jumping in to reassure me that it's okay that I don't like children: when I have my own I'll like them. For Lo, the woman is desperate for grandbabies and does not quite appreciate the rants and ravings that accompany flights like this. Her grandbaby desperation amuses me on one level because she likes children just about as much as I do. I come by it honestly!

Normally these emotions dissipate rather quickly after I get off the plane. Today, not so much. I rolled into the hotel and had every intention of grabbing a four hour nap and then going out to town with a co-worker. EXCEPT THERE WAS A KID IN THE ROOM NEXT DOOR AND THE WALLS ARE PAPER THIN. And if the kid wasn't shrieking and laughing it was crying and I was pounding on the wall cursing under my breath and desperately wishing the parents would wise up to the fact that people can hear their child and they NEED TO DO SOMETHING.

I did not go out to town with my coworker because I barely got any sleep. (Also, I don't want to spend money. Comic-Con is next week!)

This was all exacerbated by the fact that the hotel in Seattle had a fire alarm incident when I was trying to sleep for this flight and the hotel followed that up with a transformer blowing and left me having to get ready for work by the light of glowstick. So I guess I wasn't in the best mood to begin with.

I am a horrible person. *g*

Comments

[aesvir.livejournal.com]

I feel bad for the families with screaming babies (it's not like the baby could help it), but I also think you shouldn't travel with children until they are a certain age. It's understandable if you're bringing your kids to see their ailing grandparents, but not if you want your two year-old to experience DisneyWorld. (Kids don't remember anything until they are 3+ years old anyways.)

Hate to break it to your mom, but if you don't like children, there's no guarantee that you'll like your own. My poor mother was never a maternal person, and she had to struggle with raising us, poor soul.

[elrina753.livejournal.com]

I try to be understanding. I get that traveling with children is difficult and that the military doesn't care what age your children are when they relocate you. We had a family on the plane the other day with 5 girls, their youngest being 3 weeks. Mindboggling.

My parents made the mistake of taking me to Disneyland when I was two. My mom says it was one of their biggest parenting mistakes *g*

And I think I'd be maternal if it was my OWN kid. At least, I'm hoping I would be.

[aesvir.livejournal.com]

Yeah, the military has a ridiculous regulation for everything. (Like how you can use a military-owned vehicle to move a guy to his new post, but not when he leaves it.) Sucks that they can't be flexible about small children.

Evolutionary behavior will prob. ensure that you feel an intense investment in your own kid, so no worries there. But I doubt I'll ever become the type of mom who thinks it's cute when my kids eat their crayons. :p

[elrina753.livejournal.com]

Yet again, you speak the truth.