Reply to Sooo am I just the best parent ever or are the others complete duds?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]This is partly a cultural problem. Current American culture is pretty child unfriendly. People don't like to interact with a stranger's kid, and expect kids to be quiet and mostly out of sight (just look at responses in this thread). They expect their flights to be quiet and everyone to be self entertained, as opposed to chatting up strangers like yesteryears. We had a recent flight where not a single person or flight attendant even smiled at my young kids. [b]In this environment, screen time is really a must for parents because no one wants to feel your kid's existence. [/b]

In other cultures, it could be different. I don't expect strangers to gush over my kids but when we are on flights or places with a lot of Asians (esp older Asian), for example, the adults love to try to interact with my kids. It is just a more child friendly and centered culture, and my kids can pass some time interacting with these adults. I was once on a flight when my son was 5 months old and he basically played peekaboo with an elderly foreign couple for the entire 2 hour flight. It was great for us parents.

American parenting is just exhausting, lonely, full of judgement.[/quote]

OP here. You are probably right. The prevailing attitude seems to be that children must immediately be put on a screen so they will sit down/shut up and let adults pacify themselves with their own screens. This adult dependency/ addiction is such a terrible example to set - people are claiming they only do it on planes, but I doubt it.

We take long flights to visit family in Europe and Asia annually, during which time we do a mix of screens and non-screen entertainment like cards, travel-size board games, reading, chatting. We are usually in the business class semi-private cubicles so we are not really disturbing anyone, but I wouldn’t see a problem with doing this in economy either when the lights are on. It’s what my parents and siblings and I did when we were young on long-haul international flights.

And a 3 hour domestic flight is not so stressful that you immediately need to stick your kid and yourself on a screen. There’s so many interesting things to observe, even for kids who have been on flights before. The take-off procedure, flight attendants serving drinks and snacks, landing procedure. Heck, I’ve been on hundreds of flights and still enjoy observing and chatting these things. I strongly feel that kids (and adults) who are stuck on screens miss out on observing the world. But maybe they are too sophisticated and jaded to really care.[/quote]

I want to know why you need to constantly like praise yourself for making a different parenting choice than other people. It screams insecurity. [/quote]

So, I actually don’t think I deserve any praise…[b] I think engaging your kids, chatting with them, observing the world together, [/b]showing them there’s a life outside of screens is the bare minimum duty for a decent well-educated parent. I don’t expect a pat on the back for feeding them three meals a day either!

But then I see all the other parents who can’t even be bothered, who stick their kids on screens so they can stick themselves on screens and tune out the world, and it feels like a Twilight zone. Hence the title of my post. I don’t actually think I’m the best parent ever… but I am surprised to see so many duds!

The poster who brought up American culture as a contributing factor has a very valid point though.[/quote]

I don’t completely disagree with you on this point. Engaging with your kids and talking about the world is very important. But it’s not limited to only airplanes. Who is to say that they didn’t ooo and ahh at the marvels of taking off and watching the city gets smaller as you rise up into the air? They could have and then put on a movie. That’s OK.

I have been around some parents who are constantly narrating every single little bit of life and just listening to a minute of that is exhausting. I cannot imagine an [b]entire 3 hour flight with a constant stream of narration about the airplane! and the clouds!, the seats! and pilot[/b]!

[/quote]

Agree. I have a friend like this & its exhausting to be around. Ironically I also don't think it's actually good for her kids
OP, you sound really difficult and smug. And btw, you realize those of us plebes not in business class have a v different flying environment, right?[/quote]

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