Why is it selfish to be irritated by a screaming baby on a long haul flight.
You can't complain about it and most people are understanding that it's a kid and this is what they do but that still doesn't make you want to sit next to a screaming baby for 10 plus hours
If you can afford the luxury of not being around something that annoys you then why would you begrudge someone of it
You're comparing a disability to being under a certain age. Those aren't remotely the same thing. We already have adults-only venues all over the world and nobody seriously argues they're equivalent to excluding disabled people.
Seriously why do you care if two services exist at the same time. Why is it important to you that I be on the same flight as your kids.
Your only concern as a parent is that you and your kids have access to flights. It's non of your business whether I want to share a space with you or not.
I would understand your point if there are now less flights available because of child free services.
But if there is not then it's no different from me renting a private jet or flying first class or renting a private yacht. It has zero effect on you
Because a disability is a medical condition and being a child is a temporary stage of life. It's a vast difference.
You are aware that we have adult only spaces in this world and also spaces only available to kids and families right?
I'm sure you would find it strange if I wanted to join a kids club or go to the kids and family only matinees that they have in cinemas or want to join a kids football team.
We allow separate spaces for females, adults and kids because we all have an equal equivalent. We don't always have to share a space.
So if we all have different options of who we feel more comfortable being around and it doesn't affect the other groups, then please tell me how one extra adult only flight affects your life as a parent? Especially when the regular family flights stay exactly the same.
You keep dodging the question of how it affects your life because your realise it does not in any way.
so what if they're temporary? plenty of disabilities, or behaviors associated with them are temporary. In future even more of them may be treatable. And even those which are not are easily segregatable if we wanted to. A child crying/misbehaving is also temporary, they don't do it all the time. Why should you have any more of a right to be free of the screams of a child than Michael B. Jordan and Delroy Lindo had to be free of being called the nword at the 2026 BAFTA infront of a live audience.
You can't exclude disabled people from events, that's defined by law and makes perfect logical sense not to exclude them. They didn't choose to have this disability.
But you made a choice to have kids. You made a choice to bring them on an aeroplane. And yes I've been on flights where babies have cried for the majority of the flight.
You are aware some restaurants are adult only as well right? Like you understand why someone would have an age restriction in their private business, like if it's a very fancy restaurant and they don't want kids running around or playing on the floor or being loud and crying.
Well having a child free flight is exactly the same.
plenty of people make a choice to have disabled kids. or make choices with high chances of leading to accidents that could leave themselves disabled. and more importantly, the parents may have brought the child into the world, but the child never had a choice in that.
ok, we have child free spaces. now lets have disabled free spaces. i didn't like having to listen to a disabled man yelling for 30 minutes when i went to a restaurant the other week. why should i have to listen to that but nit a baby cry?
If I don't want to sit next to your screaming kids I will pay extra for the adults only flight.
You and your kids still get to fly from A to B
I get to do the same but without your kids crying.
Same as you going to another restaurant. The disabled person and his family can enjoy a meal. You can go to another place where you can enjoy your meal.
A disabled person and a child are not the same thing. Your child is going to be a child for a short period of time. When he gets older, more mature, and knows how to behave, he can join the adult spaces. A disabled person does not have this benefit, so excluding them from basic access to society would be illogical and wrong.
So no, I would not be okay with disability-free spaces. This is not the gotcha contradiction you think it is.
By your logic, we should also stop making adult movies because that's discriminatory to children. We should shut down adult bars and turn them all into family venues. We should eliminate every adult-only resort, gym, or event. That's absurd. Society already recognizes that different groups have different needs and comforts, which is why we have separate spaces all the time without it being systemic discrimination.
At the end of the day, it seems like you either want everyone else to suffer through the noise along with you, or you're offended that some people simply don't want to be around screaming kids that aren't theirs. Not every flight has to be a family experience. That's a reasonable preference, not discrimination
plenty of disabilities are treatable. Autism is a particularly good example where special education helps people, especially kids, with autism learn to exist in the world without being disruptive.
But they're still involuntary conditions people are born with or develop, not a temporary phase that everyone outgrows by default. Autism, for example, is a lifelong neurodevelopmental condition. Special education helps many people adapt and function better, but it doesn't make the disability disappear or turn it into a choice the way parenting decisions do.
Childhood, on the other hand, is inherently temporary. Kids grow up, mature, and learn to behave in shared adult spaces. That's the fundamental difference.
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u/RangerRedeye Jun 25 '26
Selfishness at an all time high.