Reply #75: One small thing to add

[Berry Cool]

While I agree with you in general, the reclining seat problem is one that has a domino effect.

It's often not so much leg room that is affected by seat reclining, but room for the top part of yourself.

Some buses and planes are designed with the seat rows crammed so close together than if the person in front of you wants to recline, that person's head is essentially in your lap or leaning against your chest. That means that to get any room at all YOU have to recline too, which means the person behind you also has to recline, right on down the line to the last person.

Guess what happens to the person in the last row? His seat is up against a back wall. He can't recline. He's stuck.

While I have all sympathy for people who want to recline their seats on a long trip, I think just doing it without asking the person sitting behind you is rude. I also think airlines should stop cramming rows so closely together just to fit in more passengers.

As for screaming kids or kids who repeat something to distraction, while I agree they are a fact of life, I think parents traveling with them owe it to their fellow passengers to either find a safe way to quiet them down or find another means by which to travel. I was on a bus with a screaming crying child not too long ago and thought I was going to go completely insane if the child did not stop. I think the screaming and crying lasted for a full hour if not more. I do not exaggerate.

Telling other passengers to "listen to your iPod" (which they aren't even permitted to do during takeoffs or landings...and that's assuming they HAVE one), or "put your nose in a book" (as if anyone can concentrate on reading with that noise!) or "just suck it up" is rude and thoughtless. Yes, children may be the future of all of us, but that shouldn't force us into situations where, through no fault of our own, we are trapped with other people's screaming, crying or repetitively chanting children with no chance of escape.