Ban Babies From Planes, British Journalist Says — Calls Parents ‘Selfish’ For Traveling With Kids

Should airlines ban babies from planes? If a British journalist had her wish, it would happen, and she also says parents who travel with young children are “selfish.”

Kelly Rose Bradford — a British reporter — is raising eyebrows after she commented that airlines should ban babies from planes. While speaking to the television show This Morning, the reporter talked about child-free flights and child-free zones on planes.

“Your holiday starts from the moment you sit on the plane. You let out that sigh of relief, you’ve left work behind, left all the stresses behind, and you take off and all of a sudden you get the kicking at the back of your seat or you get the wailing.

Surely that would be better for everybody.”

Bradford — who is a mother to a 12-year-old boy — admitted she traveled with her son when he was an infant, but also said she decided not to do so on more than one occasion out of consideration for the rest of the passengers, justifying her wish that airlines ban babies from planes.

“I took him on short-haul flights when he was a baby, when they sleep and feed throughout them and then I had this little interlude from when he was 18 months until he was about two-and-a-half.

I didn’t travel, I didn’t fly with him simply because I didn’t want the grief and I didn’t want to subject everyone else to it as well because I know how irritating it is when you are the person sitting next to that family, behind them or in front of them.”

Bradford not only has decided opinions on her suggestion of banning babies from planes, but she has strong opinions about the parents who take them on long flights. What does she think of them?

“Is it really necessary to take a tiny baby on a long flight. I think there’s an element of selfishness from parents who insist on not changing their lifestyle once they have their children because there are some things that just aren’t practical.

The reason I think it is slightly selfish is that when you’ve got a child who is like 1-3-years-old, they couldn’t really care less whether they’re going to Brighton or Barbados on holiday. It’s the parents who choose to take them on these long flights.”

The controversial comments didn’t end there. Bradford suggested airlines can come up with a family section, similar to business class or first class, where kids can be as noisy as they want and “nobody would be bothered.” Some carriers, such as Malaysia Airlines, already have a child-free zone on their Airbus A380, which they instituted three-years ago after constant complaints about crying babies.

Do you think airlines should ban babies from planes or have a no-child zone?

[Image via Shutterstock]