Tantrums on the plane

I am writing  this on a flight to Hyderabad.

Thank goodness this is a short flight cos I have a terribly badly behaved child in the seat behind me.

I would have been quite happy to put up with a cranky child under five. It's difficult to soothe them when they are in a strange environment and I get it.

What I don't get is why parents would allow a child of about 6 or 7 to behave the way he was behaving.

It started with him yelling in a nagging voice about something. The mother firmly asked him why he was yelling and could he not speak normally. He quietened immediately. I was relieved - although I later realised it was too premature to have assumed that the flight was going to be a peaceful one

As the flight started he started saying "Aaaaaaaaa" in a loud voice allowing his voice to warble with every bump on the runway.  As the flight took off, so did his voice.. He hit a shrill high note which stopped abruptly. I wondered if something had happened to him when he reassured me of his existence by rhythmically kicking the back of my seat while he demanded for something to eat.

The mother dropped his tray table down and started unpacking some food. He started slamming the tray table up and down. I turned and said "ma'am could you please ask him not to slam the tray table so hard?"

The mum was completely unapologetic and said "OK" and told him something in Telugu. I understood enough of the language to understand that he was asking what I would do if he didn't stop

I hoped his mum would tell him something sufficiently horrifying. But before she could answer him, another baby wailed loudly from the front of the plane. This boy decided he would mimic the baby and started yelling "aaaaaah" for every "woahhhhh" the baby made. Baby goes "woaahhh" boy goes "aaaah - baby goes "woahhh" boy goes "aaaah"

I stifled my laughter for I did feel more exasperation than amusement. But the gentleman in the seat across wasn't amused in the slightest. He turned and glared at the boy and even through the man's shield and mask the boy could make out the unspoken threat I guess. He piped down. But not for long. He started slamming the tray table again and snorting and making spitting noises. I wondered if he had a developmental issue but it didn't appear so as he was quite clear in the way he communicated with his mum when he wanted water or wanted food. 
So I assumed it was just an astonishing display of bad behaviour which his mum ignored. In between, the bad behaviour would escalate into a tantrum and the mum continued to ignore it. I wonder if this was her coping strategy? I have always held that ignoring bad behaviour - be it in adults or in children, never got us good results. But for this mum hope was a strategy I guess!!

I felt something poke my hand and I turned to find the brat grinning at me through the gap in the seat. I'm usually a sucker for kids and would have smiled back but I had had enough of this kid's bad behaviour so I smiled briefly (which he couldn't make out cos of my mask) and turned back.

The man across turned again and glared long and hard at the boy. The boy immediately turned to look out the window and started singing rhymes and thumping the window, an occasional kick delivered to the back of my seat to punctuate an important part of the line in the rhyme

When he stuck his leg through the gap in the armrest and kicked me, I grabbed his leg by the shoe and firmly lifted his leg and put it back. I could hear him complaining to his mum and I really hoped she wasn't going to say something to me cos I was fast losing patience.

The lights came on and he gave a big yell making me nearly jump out of my skin. I realised he was cheering that the flight was landing and I silently cheered as well. 

Honestly, there was no way I would have, as a six year old gotten away with such behaviour. Forget everything else, if I'd kicked some stranger with my shoe, my parents would have made me apologise and of course I'd have gotten a whack for sure.

But we live in different times. And discipline isn't exerted in the same way. Children are different. Parents are busy.

All I can say is I don't understand how such behaviour is acceptable and I can only thank my stars that this was a short flight !!