Kids out of or under control!

Recently I read about a legal argument over who "owns" the space between seats on planes and buses. Is it the person whose knees are in the space? Or is it the person whose seat might at times recline into that space? As far as I know this is still rather a grey area. I do know that Phil had to remonstrate with someone sitting behind him on the plane last week as he keep pushing his knees against the back of Phil's seat, often enough and hard enough to make sitting uncomfortable. I am pretty sure it was not deliberate, or even conscious, nastiness on his part. I think he just had very long legs and felt confined in the space.

I was reminded of this by a news story I came across about a family who were thrown off a plane in the USA. They were travelling from Fort Lauderdale to New York, a couple with three children. The one-year-old started kicking the seat in front. The occupant of that seat suggested the mother should hold her baby's feet and eventually moved to another seat. One version says that the parents became argumentative and made threats. The mother simply says she apologised. The outcome was that the pilot turned the taxiing plane around and went back to the departure gate. The family was asked to get off the plane. They refused. The whole plane has to disembark and the family were escorted off by security personal. The cost of their flight was refunded. They had, however, to pay for a hotel overnight and the next day they took another, rather more expensive, flight to New York. All in all, a rather expensive bit of toddler kicking!

To add to the family's woes, when they were deplaned their luggage was not; it continued the planned journey to New York. By the time the family reached New York, their luggage had been sent back to Florida! Oh, and the family has been barred from travelling with that airline ever again! Such are the joys of modern life.

If only people could sort out minor problems like toddlers who kick seats in a more amicable way life would undoubtedly be much easier. I am so glad Phil's remonstration with the passenger behind him did not lead to such difficulties!

On the subject of children, here is a little extract from something by Patrick Barkham in the Guardian recently: "As Sixtus Dominic Boniface Christopher Rees-Mogg – sixth child of the Conservative MP Jacob Rees-Mogg – makes his way in the world, social media is awash with formulas for calculating your Rees-Mogg name. There’s combining the surnames of your History and English teachers with the last home county you visited – or taking your favourite monarch, adding both parents’ middle names followed by your favourite French word and favourite cheese. In another life, I’d be Charlie Patrick-Suzanne Pamplemousse Cave-Aged Gouda."

Amazing!

Some questions spring to mind. Does a child really need so many names? How will they actually address him? Do the other Rees-Mogg children have similar ordinal number names - Primus, Segundus, Tertius, etc?

The mind boggles!