muzzled or tranquilized...

no, I'm not referring to aggressive dogs or threatening psychos... I'm talking about kids on planes.. those who are parents will definitely take up arms against what I'm about to say, but I suspect some of them would jump at the opportunity to do so if there's isn't any 'stigma' attached to it..

Kids who are noisy and/or rowdy on planes should be muzzled or tranquilized.. or parents should be fined or made to pay more if their kid(s) is gonna annoyed everyone else on the plane.. It is bad enough that we have to tolerate lousy in-flight meals, utterly uncomfortable seats, small confined space and insincere smiles when we fly.. but we did not agree to be tormented by these little devils who can't seemed to sit still and keep quiet.. They may be 'angels' in the eyes of their parents, but they are a real pain in the ass to other passengers..

Imagine being stuck on a plane for hours with 2 or more noisy kids who kept shouting, whining (which btw was confirmed by Science to be the most annoying sound), crying and making all sort of high-pitch noises that made screeching noise of fingernails on chalkboard sounded melodious... Only Asian civility and unwillingness to be the 'bad' person is preventing something ugly/unpleasant from happening (like smacking the kids, smacking the parents, etc.. one can fantasize, no?)..

With the prevalence of budget airlines, more and more people will be flying.. and since anyone (with $$) can fly, the level of courteousness and good manners will definitely plummet.. so I won't be surprise if cases of air-rage go up in the future..

p/s: I wrote this after the trip to HK..suffered the torment of noisy kids throughout the 4 hour flight.. so do pardon me if you are offended.. Just make sure YOUR kids aren't annoying the hell out of your fellow flight-mates..