Australian journalist: "I don't want my kids sitting next to a man on a plane"

whupdedo · 09-05-2014 07:56AM

GalwayGuy2 wrote: »

Hmmm, I'd be more afraid of his children being unable to sleep at night because of fear of all the potential pedophiles.

Children wouldn't usually know the dangers of the real world, thankfully innocence in a child protects them from the likes of this woman's idea of the male population,.

diveout · 09-05-2014 07:57AM

NipNip wrote: »

Indeed, statistically (since the journalist is so fond of statistics), they are actually more likely to be abused by their father than a stranger. Scary statistic right there!

If they are that concerned, why send your kids unaccompanied on an airline. Why people do this is beyond me. I know it saves time and money but still....you are the one taking the risk and trusting strangers....yes for all your talk about stranger danger these people are staff but they are also strangers...to take responsibility for your kids.

Kids are way more likely to be abused by a step parent. They hold the highest likelyhood... not just sexual but physical... about 120 more likely to be beaten to death for example. But yes it's usually someone familiar because someone familiar has trust and authority.

The J Stands for Jay · 09-05-2014 07:58AM

I would've though the best action to take to avoid risk to the child in this situation would not to put them on an aeroplane on their own. That seems a lot riskier than having a man close to them for a few hours.

donutheadhomer · 09-05-2014 08:01AM

Wishiwasa Littlebitaller wrote: »

Australian Sky News Anchor, Tracey Spicer, might not be all that well known to us over here, but in Australia she is one of the most experienced and most respected female news presenters. She is not just a TV presenter, she is a radio broadcaster, columnist and has even done a couple of TEDx talks, in which I thought she made some excellent points.

However, her recent article regarding her children and how she doesn't want them sitting next to a men on planes should those seats be the only ones available.. disgusted me. For someone who labels her self a feminist and has been championing equality for the past couple of decades, I find it astonishing that she would have the gall to come out with the following tripe:

Does anyone actually think she has a point with this?

I just can't understand how someone who is seemingly otherwise quite intelligent, could hold such a misandric view in this day and age, let alone think it printable in a bloody news paper article. If it was about skin colour, she would most likely be guilty of inciting hatred. I can't see how this is far off that to be quiet honest.

would it not be better if the kids were downstairs with the women - or perhaps the men should be caged up like in ConAir

Teyla Emmagan · 09-05-2014 08:03AM

That's so offensive! Imagine being the nurse who was asked to move so a woman could sit beside the unaccompanied kid? He must have Bern furious at the insinuation.

Surely they see seating plans in advance anyway. If they have to do this couldn't they make sure they aren't publically humiliating people?

jordata · 09-05-2014 08:03AM

I wonder when I travel can I requested NOT to be seated next to someone else's unaccompanied children?

Consciously seating them beside a female traveler turns her into an unpaid nanny. When I travel I have gone to the bother of making sure my children are safely looked after by an adult (who I pay for their time!) until I get back. So why should I have to "babysit" unaccompanied minors during the flight?

Gatling · 09-05-2014 08:21AM

whupdedo wrote: »

i feel sorry for your children, you must not be able to sleep at night with all the crazy paedophiles running loose

I sleep perfectly at night so do my children ,

Common sense vs interweb stranger quoting parenting

GarIT · 09-05-2014 08:25AM

I don't think people understand modern feminists. Modern feminism is about having control and being superior. If a Feminist wanted equality their name wouldn't be made from female. They would be equalitists which do actually exist.

Females doing the same job as a man with the same experience are paid on average 17% more in this country (Source).

I have personally talked to a representative of a large Irish feminist organisation and have been told these two statements. I asked if women should be paid less then men in jobs where on average they get less work done during the working day e.g. manual labour. I was told, no "because society needs to stop treating women like they are physically different to men based on their gender." and when I asked if you agree that men and women should receive equal time for maternity and paternity leave, or that maternity leave should be transferable if the woman would like to return to work and the man wanted to mind the child and I was told "No, because you have to realise that there are many physical and biological differences between women and men"

GarIT · 09-05-2014 08:25AM

About the plane though think about it, children should never be allowed sit near their families on planes, for safety we should even make children get a separate plane from their family because statistically the child is 4 times more likely to be sexually assaulted by their family than a stranger.

.jacksparrow. · 09-05-2014 08:28AM

Sick of listening to people's brats roaring on a plane while the parents do nothing.

One section for people with kids and another section for people who just want some peace and quite.

Brats I tells ya. Hit them a smack, that will shut them up instead of threatening to take their Nintendo ds off them.

r3nu4l · 09-05-2014 08:39AM

lollsangel wrote: »

Id never have my 2 flying alone but anyway. It doesn't bother me if the person around my kids is male or female provided they mean them no harm. When they are away from me I have to take belief that those (eg teachers) will not cause or allow hurt to be done to them. Once some8ne decides to allow their kids to fly alone, they have to put fate that the air hostesses will care for them, and I really dont see how gender should come into it. She has given one example of child molestation on a plane to back up her theory, id need more than 1 incident out of millions of flights to colour my opinion against every man

"Provided they mean them no harm"? How do you tell? Are you a mind reader?
"(eg teachers) will not cause or allow hurt". A profession is absolutely no guarantee of safety. Criminal record checks just mean someone hasn't been caught doing harm, not that they aren't a devious, clever child molester who has been getting away with it for years.

I remember a time in Ireland when we all thought that leaving our kids with priests meant they were safe...look how that turned out. Paedophiles generally like to be actively involved in organisations or professions that give them access to kids so don't be so naive as to think a profession or membership of an organisation is a safeguard against potential paedophiles, in some cases the chances of a paedophile being amongst their ranks is higher.

The two biggest problems I have with this are as follows:

1. Parents allowing minors to travel unaccompanied. WTF?
2. Airlines allowing minors to travel unaccompanied. WTF?

That said, as the father to a girl myself I wouldn't be happy with my daughter being next to ANY stranger (male or female), unaccompanied on a flight for any length of time. Ian Watkins facilitators were women. Over here in England we had a case of female nursery workers abusing kids and sending the photos to a male so to say women are 'safer' is fine if we are talking statistically but that doesn't mean that there aren't female abusers.

hatrickpatrick · 09-05-2014 08:46AM

But of course, sexism against men isn't real and isn't a serious societal problem. :rolleyes:

bnt · 09-05-2014 08:54AM

If I was in that situation, I would only consider moving seat if they could upgrade me at the same time. How many kids do you see in First Class? I don't know, because I've never flown First Class.

AudreyHepburn · 09-05-2014 08:54AM

So it's ok to put your young children on a plane alone and unaccompanied to another state or country far away from you but it's not ok for them to by anywhere near an adult male?

I've said it before but I'll say it again; we have gone completely and totally over the top in our quest to protect children from the apparent danger that it the fully grown man.

Shockingly enough most men are good and honest and would never in their lives dream of laying a finger on a child, or anyone else for that matter. The truth is, whether we like it or not, abusers can be female too and they are more often than not people known the child.

Such hysteria and over-zealous child protection is in my opinion actually more harmful than beneficial. It wraps children in cotton wool and teaches them only that all men to be feared, are out to hurt them, that all women are perfectly safe to be around and that only Mum and Dad can be trusted.

Alf. A. Male · 09-05-2014 09:10AM

Gatling wrote: »

As a father of 2 girls I agree with the reporter

"I can't wait until I have children, so I can win every argument"
Frasier Crane

As a father of two girls, I disagree with the reporter. No, wait, as a father of 4 I disagree with her even more. Don't moan about the stupidity of my argument, you started it.

In 2012, flight crew forced a male nurse to swap seats with a female passenger, because he was sitting next to an unrelated girl travelling on her own. "It seemed I had this sign I couldn't see above my head that said 'child molester'," he said later.

What a horrible way to treat the man. I'd have refused to move and let them move the other people, they were the problem there, not him.

No Pants · 09-05-2014 09:22AM

.jacksparrow. wrote: »

Hit them a smack, that will shut them up instead of threatening to take their Nintendo ds off them.

No need to raise your hand. A quick Taser shock will work just as well.

Dravokivich · 09-05-2014 09:45AM

Finally a chance I get to use this in bat shít crazy parent themed thread,

Speaking as a parent...

...I'd be more interested in the staff on the plane watching over my kid, than who my kid sat beside, if my kid was to be on a plane unaccompanied. And I'd expect to pay more for it. This is a service someone in the public spotlight should be looking to champion, but I guess it's too easy to demonize men, because we all know kids are well able to over power women.

I also don't get why people are looking down on the idea of a kid being on a plane without parents, or someone known to their family. Someone would have dropped them off at the airport and you'd want to be damn well sure someone is picking them up from where they get off.

tritium · 09-05-2014 10:05AM

Woman is a paranoid sexist pig

[/thread]

No Pants · 09-05-2014 10:07AM

tritium wrote: »

Woman is a paranoid sexist pig

[/thread]

I wouldn't get too hung up on the sexist aspect. It obviously is, but the focus should be her lack of understanding of the actual dangers her children are likely to face.

kylith · 09-05-2014 10:10AM

Dravokivich wrote: »

I also don't get why people are looking down on the idea of a kid being on a plane without parents, or someone known to their family. Someone would have dropped them off at the airport and you'd want to be damn well sure someone is picking them up from where they get off.

Probably because I'd barely trust my 13 year old nephew to get himself ready for school, let alone navigate check in, the maze that is duty free, find the right gate, and get there in time to get the plane.

Surely there has to be more to it than just dropping them at the airport? If I had to send a child on an plane alone I'd want to be escorting them to the gate and have someone collect them from the gate also.

jimgoose · 09-05-2014 10:13AM

To Hades with her and her spoilt brats. I wouldn't want any of them on the same continent as me, never mind a bloody aeroplane.

leeroybrown · 09-05-2014 10:15AM

The stigma is unfortunate but true. I'm aware of a number of retail employers who have explicitly instructed their male staff not to approach lost/upset children and instead leave the child while they find a female staff member to approach them. I'd be very reluctant to help a lost child alone because of the reaction some people have to seeing a man alone with a child.

diveout · 09-05-2014 10:16AM

Dravokivich wrote: »

Finally a chance I get to use this in bat shít crazy parent themed thread,

Speaking as a parent...

...I'd be more interested in the staff on the plane watching over my kid, than who my kid sat beside, if my kid was to be on a plane unaccompanied. And I'd expect to pay more for it. This is a service someone in the public spotlight should be looking to champion, but I guess it's too easy to demonize men, because we all know kids are well able to over power women.

I also don't get why people are looking down on the idea of a kid being on a plane without parents, or someone known to their family. Someone would have dropped them off at the airport and you'd want to be damn well sure someone is picking them up from where they get off.

Parents vet babysitters and nannies but they send their kids to foreign countries and big airports on their own to be trusted by airlines hostesses and airport staff?

Sitting next to a man, is the least of the worries.

caustic 1 · 09-05-2014 10:17AM

I don't know what her situation was that the children had to go on a plane alone in the first place, but I'm sure that it must have been unavoidable. How do we know this lady has not been abused herself therefore her fear may be heightened than that of someone who has not been. I honestly don't think what she is saying is totally of the mark. Better to be careful than regret in hindsight.

diveout · 09-05-2014 10:18AM

caustic 1 wrote: »

I don't know what her situation was that the children had to go on a plane alone in the first place, but I'm sure that it must have been unavoidable. How do we know this lady has not been abused herself therefore her fear may be heightened than that of someone who has not been. I honestly don't think what she is saying is totally of the mark. Better to be careful than regret in hindsight.

That's true. If your child has already been molested or abused then you are going to be hyper vigilant... but if you are hyper vigilant, you wouldn't be sending your kid on a plane alone.

Dravokivich · 09-05-2014 10:19AM

kylith wrote: »

Probably because I'd barely trust my 13 year old nephew to get himself ready for school, let alone navigate check in, the maze that is duty free, find the right gate, and get there in time to get the plane.

Surely there has to be more to it than just dropping them at the airport? If I had to send a child on an plane alone I'd want to be escorting them to the gate and have someone collect them from the gate also.

So I couldn't be arsed writing out all the details. Feck it, how about we leave'em off at the entrance to the driveway/car park for the airport. They can walk up and check in and all that sure.

jimgoose · 09-05-2014 10:22AM

leeroybrown wrote: »

The stigma is unfortunate but true. I'm aware of a number of retail employers who have explicitly instructed their male staff not to approach lost/upset children and instead leave the child while they find a female staff member to approach them. I'd be very reluctant to help a lost child alone because of the reaction some people have to seeing a man alone with a child.

These people badly need a running boot up the hole. What with the average middle-aged slob like myself relegated to something between Mr. Bean and Charles Manson, is it any wonder that many of our young men are confused, angry and alienated?

diveout wrote: »

That's true. If your child has already been molested or abused then you are going to be hyper vigilant... but if you are hyper vigilant, you wouldn't be sending your kid on a plane alone.

It would also be rather more in your line to carefully avoid passing on a distorted, damaged view of the world and around half of its inhabitants to your children.

Dravokivich · 09-05-2014 10:23AM

diveout wrote: »

Parents vet babysitters and nannies but they send their kids to foreign countries and big airports on their own to be trusted by airlines hostesses and airport staff? Sitting next to a man, is the least of the worries.

They aren't anonymous, they are representative of the company you pay for the service, who would not want to be held accountable for any issues. They only time they'd be "on their own" is the plane, where they aren't on their own at all.

diveout · 09-05-2014 10:24AM

jimgoose wrote: »

It would also be rather more in your line to carefully avoid passing on a distorted, damaged view of the world and around half of its inhabitants to your children.

That's what happens when people get traumatised, they lose discernment.

I think most people would rather be non PC than risk having their kids genitals up on power point displays in courtroom and then years of therapy to follow.

Which still stands to reason.... if you are that careful and vigilant you wouldn't send your kid to travel by air alone.

the_syco · 09-05-2014 10:33AM

Wishiwasa Littlebitaller wrote: »

However, her recent article regarding her children and how she doesn't want them sitting next to a men on planes should those seats be the only ones available.. disgusted me.

Statistically speaking, there's a greater chance the kids would be molested by her husband than some randomer on a plane surrounded by people...

Australian journalist: "I don't want my kids sitting next to a man on a plane"

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