Children should not fly alone....

I am sorry. I know this is a controversial subject. I have seen many articles online for and against it but I can not comfortably say that any child under 10 (and even that is pushing it to me a bit depending on the child) should fly alone. Maybe at one time this was a safe thing to do but in this day and age with terrorists, and people you just can't trust, putting a child on a plane alone for any length of time is just asking for trouble.

And before people slam me for my opinion, I understand that many airlines have "escorts" and other personnel to get the child safely onto the plane and then off again at their destination but what about the time in between??? Sure, the "escort" can check in with them just like all the other passengers but are they really there to babysit-no. Off the top of my head I can already thing of many scenarios I just wouldn't want my child or any child I know to even have to think about. When putting a child on a plane alone you have no idea who they will be sitting next too, when they will get hungry, scared or even sick? And let's not forget they might have to go to the bathroom?? Sure it sounds harmless but now they are not only sitting alone, but walking past who knows who alone to the private bathroom.

And as far as these escort services going I don't really have a whole lot of faith in their abilities either. I have already heard one story about a boy who got on a flight ok with the escort but somewhere along the way decided he didn't want to fly and walked off the plane and wandered the airport without anyone knowing! And then there is the story about a young girl who's parents thought they had an escort stuff set up but when the flight was cancelled and they waited two hours in line for alternatives and got up to the counter before anyone from the airline realized they were supposed to have a 6 year old child flying alone. The airlines response was "if we had realized she was flying alone we could have found her a flight right away". Well tell me Mr. Airline, why DIDN'T you know? If things had been worked out, wouldn't the airline have been expecting this child and when the flight got cancelled, wouldn't one assume they would have immediately looked for this child? And does it fall on the parents who "thought" they had it taken care of or the airline? Maybe the parents really didn't take care of it but thought they did? And if they did, then what kind of airline are you sending your kid on that they still don't get it when you made the arrangements??

Its stories like the two above that just make my skin crawl and stomach turn when I think of a child flying alone.I am sure that it happens successfully everyday all over the world. But what I am saying is I would never do it to my child or any child I know. And I know I am not alone in this because I have asked a number of people this question, both people who have young children and people who have grown children and not one of them thought it would be a good idea to put a child on a plane. If anything, a few said that they might have considered it 15-20 years ago but not in the world we live in today.