unruly kids get family booted off flight...

Okay, this is pretty much my worst nightmare ever. You're travelling with the kids and by the time you meet your connection, the airline basically says, 'There is no way you're bringing those crazy monsters back onto one of our flights.'

I have really no idea what happened except for what I saw on the Kiro news clip, but aside from the fact that getting kicked off would be a major drag (No! not 24 more hours of travel with the kids!) and expensive (especially if you really can't afford it), how embarrassing would it be to have your children's bad behavior publicized to the world?! Shudder...

Seriously, though... One of my first instincts is to maim my fellow passengers on a flight when they:

a.) take one look at me and my three children embarking on a plane with all of our crap and either roll their eyes in disgust or immediately try to get the flight attendant to change their seats.

or

b.) overreact to one of the kids' restless, but accidental, kicks to the back of the seat.

But at the same time, I am also very careful to make sure that my kids are as well-behaved as possible. I know that kids get a bad rap on airplanes and mine have been responsible for a few not so pleasant flights for people.

For example, the time that Samuel as a baby knocked over a very grumpy man's G&T onto his laptop because he was a lapbaby (Samuel, not the man), and we were squeezed into the middle seat. I'll bet that guy regretted not giving us his aisle seat for more room.

Or there were the flights when the kids as young babies cried for long periods of time because they couldn't get to sleep or get comfortable.

Or there were the flights when they've had to get up numerous times, squeezing past the unfortunate person in the aisle seat, to go back to the cute little bathroom with all the buttons that you can reach from the potty.

And when I travel without kids, I do seriously appreciate parents who help their kids understand how to behave in public. And I know it's not all that easy.

Next month I'm flying solo with the kids to go visit my cousin sister, Becky, and while it seemed like an effortless feat in April when I made my reservation, now I'm a little concerned (read terrified) about being publicly called out for possessing unruly child passengers. I know the case in the news must have been an extreme case, and my kids are generally good, but they do love those little lavatories.

So if you have any good ideas for keeping three kids between the ages of two and eight occupied for about four hours (aside from drugging them), let me know. Right now I'm planning on cheapy new little toys to parcel out, the Nintendo DS, and a video for Tali, but my toddler is my challenge.

And if you do end up hearing about me in the news, take pity. You know I tried.