The 10 Dos and Donts of Airplane Etiquette

A writing prompt courtesy of Mama Kat. As someone who has had a number of flights under her belt (the longest being approximately 8,500 miles), I like to think of myself as somewhat of a seasoned air traveler. Here are some of my personal DOs and DON'Ts of airplane etiquette. These are just some general things, though I do plan to write another one geared specifically for parents of young children in the near future.

Ze plane! Ze plane!

1. If you're prone to gas while up in the air (AKA "jet bloat") DO take a Beano before take off. Sure, you can avoid spicy foods, carbonated beverages, and any other items that might cause you toot more often, but nothing saves you (and your seat mates) from your noxious ass fumes than some good old Beano.
2. Along those lines, if you're the type to take bathroom breaks often, DO request an aisle seat. It plain sucks for your seat mates if you're always getting up and asking to pass by. Better to avoid the question of giving the ass or crotch?
3. Speaking of ass or crotch, when getting up, try to use the back of your own seat to help push yourself up if necessary. DON'T grab the backs of the seats in the row in front of you, as you're essentially rocking their seat for them. Not a nice thing to do when they have not asked for it.
4. Before you recline your seat, DO check the seat behind you to make sure anyone seated there isn't leaning forward or has placed anything precarious (like a drink) on his or her tray. If the person does have his or her tray out with stuff on it. After you've checked, recline slowly.
5. DON'T be a jerk and push your seat back suddenly and forcefully without regard to the person behind you.
6. As much as possible, stay within your alloted space. DON'T hog a shared arm rest. You technically "paid" for half that arm rest, so use your half. (Doing so also makes it harder for your seat mate to hog it as well.)
7. This is simple, if you suffer from stinky feet, please DON'T take your shoes (and socks) off during the flight. Or at least take measures to avoid or minimize the stench.
8. If the person sitting next to you is a stranger, DON'T use your seat mate as a pillow. If you plan to nod off during the flight, bring your own neck pillow and/or use the pillow provided by the airline (if applicable). If you just met your seat mate, you have not known him or her long enough to use a free shoulder to prop your sleepy head on.
9. If your seat mate has headphones on, chances are, he or she doesn't want to talk to interact with you. Apart from a friendly nod or a brief greeting, DO respect his or her peace and privacy.
10. DO be courteous and polite, not just to your fellow passengers, but also to the flight staff. Like it or not, you guys are stuck together for the rest of the flight, and chances are, if you're nice to them, they will be nice to you. We really don't need any more Steven Slater stories propping up.

Paying Kids for Good Grades

I saw this post on The Stir last week and have been thinking about it since. The basic premise is: should kids be paid in cold, hard cash for good grades? While I'm many years away from even considering having to "bribe" my son into doing well in school, my personal answer to the question is WHY NOT?

Growing up, I was never paid for getting good grades. However, some time between elementary and middle school, my brother and I were paid for chores and other things around the house. Our parents offered them as incentives: remember to put the cap back on the toothpaste, get a nickel; make your bed, you earned a quarter; do the dishes, fifty cents! Thinking back, maybe the cash incentives helped set in my brain that these normal, everyday duties weren't only necessary, but not such horrible things to do after all — after all, in my current life as a domestic diva, I would probably feel incomplete if I didn't do these things. I like having a clean and clear sink free of dishes; I not only replace the toothpaste cap, but I make sure to squeeze from the bottom; my bed is always made. These are things that are on auto-pilot in my brain.

So back to cash for grades ... some commenters on the original post say that it leads kids to be materialistic or otherwise worship money, and that getting good grades should be all the reward they need. In a perfect world, yes, kids should want to do well in school because they realize it will only benefit them and their future. But we don't live in a perfect world. Sometimes, some kids need more or different kinds of motivation. (For me, I did so poorly my sophomore year in high school that I had to re-take some classes over the summer. That sucked. After that, I cleaned up my act.)

Does it lead kids to become more materialistic? I'm more concerned about all the products that are pushed onto kids these days. I'd rather have a kid who will say, "One day I want to make enough money so I can buy whatever I want," than a kid who expects me to just buy him the latest clothes and toys. Between seeing what other kids in school have and all the product advertising that we're surrounded by, how do we teach our kids the difference between need and want? I think what makes us a materialistic society is that too many parents have made it easy for their kids to accumulate (often unnecessary) things. Sure, some families can afford to buy whatever they want, but again, how much of it is necessary? How are we teaching our kids to value things? If they get everything they want without "working" for it, how is that going to help them out there in the big, bad world where, you know, most people do get paid for doing good work.

For my son, he will most definitely know that he cannot have things just because he wants them. While it's tough to say how much motivation he will need in school (or even with household chores), I have absolutely no problem with offering him opportunities to earn money. If he wants something that bad, then he can work for it, whether it's by doing extra chores or projects around the house or earning better grades. He won't just get paid for the hell of it, he's going to get paid so he can learn to save what he earned and (hopefully) put it to good use.

Down Time (Few and Far Between)

This week I feel like I've failed on my promise to write more. I have posts that have been stewing in my head, but I haven't been able to find time to sit down to write. Mostly because this was the first week my son was out of school, so I just haven't had much "free" time. Plus! Keeping him out and/or busy wears on me, so the only thing I've been wanting to do at the end of the day is play some Sudoku. Oh, and his regular sitter has also been out of town AND he only napped (I think) one or two days this past week.

Excuses, excuses!

That said, I wish there were easier ways to blog from my iPad. Writing is easy enough, but when I want to add photos, I feel slowed down by not having a mouse. I might have to give that a try though, since my iPad pretty much goes to bed with me. I'd take my laptop to bed, but it gets hot and the battery drains way too quickly. Also, more cumbersome than an iPad.

Health: Starting with myfitnesspal

I was doing well earlier this year. I really was! While I wasn't on any strict diets, I was working out regularly, having found love in Zumba. Then came a two-week trip to New York in June with my son to visit my family, and I just could find time to keep working out. (Rather, I kept finding excuses NOT to work out.)

After returning home from our trip, I just couldn't get back on the wagon. With the daily craziness that goes with rearing my son, plus other personal issues I was (am?) going through, the excuses just kept coming. I'm too tired. It's boring. My son's schedule is just not cooperating. I don't want to.

It's now almost September, and I've just been feeling BLAH. I know how much better I feel, inside and out, when I'm working out regularly. I don't even have that much weigh to lose, but I just need more help with keeping myself motivated to keep going. I was doing a lot of tracking on SparkPeople — and I love how they offer free apps for the iPhone and iPad — but I felt like I needed something new.

Enter myfitnesspal. Yes, it's another web site that lets you track your diet and exercise. What I think drew me into signing up was their iPhone app. What's different about theirs is that it has a built-in bar code scanner — when I ate my favorite low-calorie snack the other night, a pack of roasted seaweed from Trader Joe's, I was shocked that all its info came up when I scanned the bar code. Honestly, the ease of letting me do that with a specific package of food that's not available nation-wide, totally sold me. I almost shop exclusively at Trader Joe's, so being able to scan their items is a definite plus.

Oh, and yes, their service and apps are free! And they have mobile apps for Android, Blackberry, and Windows smart phones as well.

Their service also has some social networking features, where you can connect with friends who are also on there and share feeds & updates. This is also supposed to help motivate you to stay on track, but since I only have one friend on there at this time, I'm not quite getting the advantage of the features just yet.

Now that I'm tracking my food again, it's also time to put my sneakers back on. It's still difficult for me to get to my favorite Zumba class, but I still have the Wii version (which nearly killed me the other day because I've been so out of it). I also managed to get back on the elliptical machine at the gym today while my son took a tumbling class. I do hope to make the Zumba class tomorrow night, but if not, I plan on firing up the Wii at home.

So if you're also looking for an online diet and exercise tracker with a good mobile device companion, check out myfitnesspal. (And feel free to add me as a friend! My username is phoofy.) Also check them out on Twitter and Facebook.

Saturday Distractions

We had to get out of the house earlier, so we ended up at one of the local malls. I don't know how long these rides have been there, but they're new to us, and my little thrill-seeking was absolutely ECSTATIC about the "roller coaster" simulator.

Thankfully, he was appeased with two rounds. At a buck per ride, I really didn't want to spend more than $2 in one go. "You can ride again next time," I told him. To my surprise, he didn't fight me. (Of course, actually getting out of the mall was a whole other issue — one that involved plenty of stalling because he just had to "look" at this or that.)