Abusing Grandma on an Aircraft

[Syndrome]

Indeed...speaking from a professional standpoint as a counselor, he truly does show the signs of an abuser. It's not normal for someone to stew over something so minor for two hours. She sat next to him, he didn't like it and said something nasty, and she moved away as soon as she could. That should have been case closed. To lay into her in front of all those people at the end of the flight, when she wasn't interacting with him or even looking at him, is a glaring example of an anger management issue and a tendency to lash out inappropriately.

Like most abusers, he was a coward too. He was quick to pick on a harmless, meek granny but he backed down quick from someone who wouldn't take his crap. And it's weird, but I really got that "Women are inferior...how dare a woman mouth off to me" vibe from him when I confronted him. I have a pretty good instinct because much of my internship was working with families in a domestic violence program. Too bad cowards like that won't do anything in public in front of witnesses unless they know it's a meek victim. It would have been worth taking a punch to watch his sorry ass get dragged down the jetway in handcuffs. :twisted:

[NessaMcTastic]

Okay I had to come out of the woodwork for this one.

This story reminds me of when I was flying to Nashville with my mom, my (at the time) 4 year old nephew and my 8 year old neice. After dealing with a bunch of airline SNAFUs (every plane we got on broke down!) we're on our way to TN to visit my sister. Unfortunately, our tickets had us sitting one behind the other.

I was about 13 at the time so Mom let me sit by myself since I was just in the row in front of her. She had the two little ones sitting next to her hoping that who ever was given the seats next to her would understand. The husband and wife that were seated next to her insisted on making the 4 year old sit by himself.

I saw what was going on and I flagged over one of the stewards to help us resolve this. Some seats were shuffled (it was an empty flight anyway!) but there was lots of mutterings from the couple about how "Certain people think they own the place" and "those people are ruining America". I can only assume "those people" meant the fact that my mom speaks very little English and she and I were speaking in Spanish.

[Syndrome]

You just have to hope that karma comes around and bites that sort in the butt. Now mind you, I can be quite possessive of my seat, especially if I took special care to get it (got online right at the 24 hour mark etc.), and I'm not in the habit of letting a lack of planning on the part of others become an emergency on my part. But I also believe in being flexible and...dare I say it...nice to my fellow human beings every now and then.

For example, before ATA went belly up we had ultra-elite-secret-handshake status on them because we were flying every week. Mr Syndrome and I had our special two-across exit row that we took great pains to reserve. So one day the person behind me taps my shoulder and says, "I want to apologize in advance if I bump or kick the seat but I'm afraid I can't help it!" I looked at him, and he was basketball player height and folded into his seat like an accordian. I gave him my nice, roomy exit row...at 5'3" I can live with just about any seat for two hours, but for him I'm sure it made a difference.

And the karma really does come back...when we flew to Ireland last year, we were squished into a regular row with a baby behind us who was just tuning up its lungs with some gorgeous screaming exercises. The flight attendant asked if we'd mind changing seats. We didn't even ask any detail because we figured someone needed to move to be with kids or whatever, and any seats they would have moved us to couldn't be much worse. Surprise, surprise! They put us in a lovely, roomy exit row. We were very glad we had volunteered to move.

[February]

Okay I had to come out of the woodwork for this one.

This story reminds me of when I was flying to Nashville with my mom, my (at the time) 4 year old nephew and my 8 year old neice. After dealing with a bunch of airline SNAFUs (every plane we got on broke down!) we're on our way to TN to visit my sister. Unfortunately, our tickets had us sitting one behind the other.

I was about 13 at the time so Mom let me sit by myself since I was just in the row in front of her. She had the two little ones sitting next to her hoping that who ever was given the seats next to her would understand. The husband and wife that were seated next to her insisted on making the 4 year old sit by himself.

I saw what was going on and I flagged over one of the stewards to help us resolve this. Some seats were shuffled (it was an empty flight anyway!) but there was lots of mutterings from the couple about how "Certain people think they own the place" and "those people are ruining America". I can only assume "those people" meant the fact that my mom speaks very little English and she and I were speaking in Spanish.

:mad: That's terrible.

The airlines sell seats to people all the time now though without any regard as to whether or not kids and parents are separated. Every single flight I've taken to WDW in the past several years, they have to shuffle because someone's kid is going to be 15 rows away from them. You'd think that they'd have something in the computer system to catch a toddler seated alone! I know I'd better not try Southwest because the free for all seating would not be fun for me. We have a hard enough time when they're assigned.

Only once has a swap worked well for us- on our last trip, we had a lady swap her aisle seat rows closer to the front in an exit row with the very giant sized man who was seated with my husband and I. As a result, she got to sit across the aisle from her husband and two kids and dude was happy to get more leg room.

One of the lady's kids had special needs and ended up sitting in our row on her mom's lap most of the flight- and it was a gift. This tiny four year old could only see and hear on one side- and she had had a trac recently removed that she'd had since infancy so she used signing to communicate.

She fell completely and instantly in love with my husband LOL It was absolutely priceless.

The rest of the story is worth telling (and I will in another thread) meant to blog it but I'll post it- I just had to say that for once in our lives, the seat swap was a huge blessing! Even as other memories from our trip fade, we will never forget that little girl.

Bru


p.s. WELCOME!

[NessaMcTastic]

Thanks for the welcome Bru.

Fortunately, my other flying experiences have been more positive as have most of my WDW. (my last trip was a disaster! My ex's family were all a bunch of SGs and he was the biggest one. Hopefully my next trip will be a lot better.)

I do remember being on a short (less than 30 minute) connecting flight where there was a young (about a year? Maybe less?) child on board that was whimpering. Not crying. Not yelling. Whimpering a bit. The SG next to me kept rolling his eyes and getting all huffy about the baby. I was so fed up I said, "With all your flustering, you do realize that you're making more noise than the child?!" I heard a few sniggers from the back row so I suppose I wasn't the only one who thought so!

[Mayonnaise]

"Certain people think they own the place" and "those people are ruining America". I can only assume "those people" meant the fact that my mom speaks very little English and she and I were speaking in Spanish.

Meh. That's such bull. America is made of immigrants, aside from the Native Americans. Those very same people are descended of people who immigrated here as well. People are so touchy about illegal immigrants, that they get disgruntled over LEGAL ones too. Just because someone immigrated from a Spanish speaking country, doesn't automatically make them an illegal. And it doesn't make them a welfare case either. My father came to this country when he was 8, and is now a Senior Mechanical Engineer at Lockheed Martin. His mother worked as a governess and then as a seamstress supporting him on her own dime, not the government's.

It's that sort of attitude that made my father tell me as a kid, never to tell anyone I was half Colombian. (I take after my mom's side of the family in looks. Everyone assumes I'm Anglo... and I am, half.)

8^S

[NessaMcTastic]

It's that sort of attitude that made my father tell me as a kid, never to tell anyone I was half Colombian. (I take after my mom's side of the family in looks. Everyone assumes I'm Anglo... and I am, half.)
8^S

*Sigh* I'm "white looking" (pale skin but dark hair/eyes) so people are suprised when I tell them that I'm first generation American and my parents are Cuban. Most folks assume that Hispanic = brown skin, dark hair and eyes. I then remind them that Desi Arnaz (Ricky Ricardo) has similar features as me. Plus my grandparents were from Spain/the Canary Islands so that's why I look so "European".

At times my parents have urged me to say that I'm "just" American. Especially when it came down to applying for colleges; they felt that I wouldn't be accepted for being "too ethnic." (My parents came here in their late teens in the 1950s when "I Love Lucy" was still a bit of a scandal!)

[Mayonnaise]

At times my parents have urged me to say that I'm "just" American. Especially when it came down to applying for colleges; they felt that I wouldn't be accepted for being "too ethnic." (My parents came here in their late teens in the 1950s when "I Love Lucy" was still a bit of a scandal!)

Conversely, my mother kept pressuring me to put down "Hispanic" in the hopes of garnering some affective action slot in the school. I felt silly doing that, as I'm more the Linda Carter flavor of half Hispanic... my eyes are steel blue.

8^)

[BRWombat]

Okay I had to come out of the woodwork for this one....

Glad you did, Nessa!

to from :wallaby: and !!! :D: :D: :D:

[NessaMcTastic]

Aww! I feel so loved and speyschul! :p:

I'm glad I came out of the woodwork too! Those termites really bite. Badumbump!