A recent flight cross-country made we wonder what some people are thinking. In an age of electronic gismos you’d think folks would remember common courtesy, but that is far from the case. There were children on this flight and children are, well, children. A certain amount of squiggling is expected on a long flight. The occasional, yet gentle, butt-massage from the kid behind me wasn’t a problem, and even my daughter could overlook the repeated hammering on her seat. It was the noise that we found irritating. I’m not talking about screams or cries, or even loud talking. This was very loud movies and TV shows playing on various devises. Hey, it’s nice that airplanes now have Wi-Fi and lots of folks have tablets with millions of downloads. That’s great, really. But that doesn’t mean everyone else wants to listen to your favorite movie for five hours. I don’t fault the kids for these behaviors, they don’t know any better. It’s the parents I hold responsible. I mean, what ever happened to earphones?
In this case, the parents wanted to watch the movie too. The parents didn’t think about others trying to sleep, read, or otherwise concentrate on other things. So where does this leave our kids?
Courtesy to others is an important lesson that needs to be taught to our youth. It starts at home. Get some earphones and start using them. Teach your kids to use them. Go buy a splitter so you can listen with your kids and friends without forcing everyone around you to partake. Otherwise, watch a silent movie.
PS: Last night, in a nice Italian restaurant with my husband, guess what we were treated to? –a twenty something couple watching a video on their phone with the volume high enough to hear across the room. Sigh.