travel friendly

The 10 Dos and Donts of Airplane Etiquette.

• Be kind. Help others in need to stow their bags overhead. We could all enjoy a little more courtesy while travelling.
• Don't keep using your cellphone long after the flight attendant has kindly asked you to turn it off and put it away. I don't know what kind of interference your phone will have on the plane equipment, but I don't really want to find out.
• That centre armrest serves as a no-man's-land divider. Don't hog it. Actually, just don't use it.
• Don't laugh/hmmm/comment to yourself, outloud, while reading. The person sitting beside you doesn't care that you find your book funny/interesting/perplexing. It's just distracting and annoying.
• Don't ask to switch seats. If you wanted a window or an aisle, you should have booked that in advance. 
• If you're sitting in the back of the plane, don't make a beeline for the door as soon as the fasten-seatbelt light goes off, knocking down elderly ladies and small children as you barrell forward. Relax, you will get your turn.
• Get your shit together. Nothing's worse than standing in line to board behind someone who's digging for their boarding pass or waiting for someone to pack up their belongings while other people are waiting to get off.
• Don't pack stinky snacks. I don't want to wake from my mid-flight nap to the wafting smell of your egg salad or tuna. Gross.
• Don't glare at parents who are doing their very best to calm a crying baby. They're probably more stressed than you are about it and they can't help it, so please cut them some slack.
• That said, if you are that parent and you're not doing your best, or anything at all, to deal with your screaming/misbehaving child -- especially when the child is of the age that they should know better -- get control of the situation. Just because they're a kid, they don't have the right to kick the back of my chair or anyone else's.

Thanks, as always, to Mama Kat for the writer's prompt.