I'll leave Sam Jackson paraphrasing to others.

I recently took a cross-country flight and after the experience posed the question on Facebook: Why do parent endure the torture of cross-country flights and the humiliation of being judged by their fellow travelers? This was not because I disliked having children on the flight, but because the parents seemed to dislike having to be on the flight. I've been a day-care teacher so wrangling wild children for an extended period of time is hardly a new experience for me and I can tune out even the most obnoxious attitudes at this point. Of course, the response was to project the problem onto me, saying in essence if you don't like it get a first class ticket.

First off, parents are too uptight; maybe if they took family free vacations they would relax about a simple question. I know that they will exchange the frustrated glares of travelers they will never see again just to make their own discomfort last a shorter amount of time; we are all selfish creatures that way. I just wondered why they subject themselves to vacationing with young children at all. A vacation should be enjoyable, and until a child can go to the bathroom by themselves I see most travel and vacations as stressful. Why that criteria? A child that can wipe their own ass and get it clean and then use a faucet to wash their hands is going to be able tackle a plate food using utensils and a napkin and you don't end up carrying them around a park all day because they're tired of walking, because unless that kid is about to pass out they're are not going to want to stay in a stroller. I'd love to hear other's opinions on when traveling with a child stops being so uncomfortable.

But it did bring up an interesting set of points to me. When did flying in a relatively relaxed environment become a luxury that costs extra? Should you have to spring for a larger seat and free wine when your wife is a 5 foot Asian that can't absorb alcohol just to avoid being kicked by a 3-year-old? Maybe, however why are there not airlines that cater to either of these two groups? Wouldn't their be some passengers willing to pay a bit more or fly at a slightly less convenient time to be assured the flight would be kid free, or alternatively that the flight will be family friendly and their kids could be less "restrained" (within reason of course)? I know that mothers love the kid-friendly movies where the people know going in that this could have some baby screaming at times, I think there is a niche market here for exploitation.

Who am I kidding? I'm just mad my wife flew through Denver yesterday instead of Phoenix. I could have jumped off and seen the intrasquad game if she had planned appropriately.

Is it bad form to have a first fanpost be so off-topic? I apologize if so.