Travel with kids: How to explain touching during pat-downs?
How will you explain TSA airline procedures to the kids?
Tammy Mayrend | Contributor
In my former life as a freelance actress and singer, I performed a program called "The Bubbylonian Encounter" throughout many Michigan schools. It is a well written program geared at first through third graders focusing on the types of appropriate and inappropriate touching and child sexual abuse.
The program itself was funny while being sensitive to the age-appropriate learning styles of the children. Even now it is a great tool for me to teach my own children about good and bad touching.
My son actually picked up on the airport body scanning debate yesterday while I was listening to NPR in the car. He asked a few questions, and I told him that the airlines were trying to make airplanes safer for those people who choose to fly by making sure “bad people” didn’t get on the airplane. Unfortunately that was my undoing, as my 6 year old asked all kinds of follow up questions regarding airplanes blowing up.
Are you traveling with kids throughout the holidays? How will you explain the body scanning machines to your children? If you opt out of airport screening body scans, what will you tell your children about the processes at the airport checkpoints? Holiday travel certainly is chaotic regardless, so how will you make travel easier on your family this year with the security procedures?
For helpful hints and tips for traveling with infants, babies and kids through airport security, check out the Transportation Security Administration’s page on traveling with children. The page even includes a video made by kids explaining the entire airport security process. The TSA website also has a more general page with helpful hints for holiday travelers.
Tammy Mayrend is a Ann Arbor search marketing professional and mother of two who blogs on low-cost local activities, events, and Ann Arbor area freebies for families at annarbormom.com.
Comments
Frank D
Wed, Nov 24, 2010 : 10:45 p.m.
@SonnyDog09 - Anyone that uses "sheeple" and quotes from Benjamin Franklin knows what is going on. It's good to see that some of us are not asleep. It would be good to get some coffee?
Allison
Wed, Nov 24, 2010 : 1:35 p.m.
Let your kids know that the airport wants to make sure that they aren't sick before flying and they scan your body to check for bugs, that will take care of the scanner. And for the pat down they want to make sure you are not bringing anything that is not allowed to be carried on, like nail clippers, and that some people are very good at hiding things so they have to check everywhere, it's the truth they are checking for things that are not allowed on.
SonnyDog09
Wed, Nov 24, 2010 : 1 p.m.
Tell your children that we used to be "the land of the free and the home of the brave." Tell them that we have been reduced to a mere herd of sheeple that will do whatever our jack-booted TSA overlords tell us is for our own good. Benjamin Franklin put it best: "They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety."
Tammy Mayrend
Wed, Nov 24, 2010 : 12:53 p.m.
@Tree logger - I don't think that even teasing my children about the rewards of inappropriate touching is acceptable; however I understand your frustration.
Tree Logger
Wed, Nov 24, 2010 : 11:38 a.m.
Explain to them that their Uncle Sam gives them X-Boxes when they let him touch their privates. That power is a force of love, and government is to be trusted.
SpartyInExile
Wed, Nov 24, 2010 : 9:28 a.m.
My children are old enough to remember 911 and have flown enough to understand the reasons behind security checks. This new level, however, will be uncomfortable. Do I expose them to "harmless" radiation or do I allow a needless and humiliating pat down? Like many others I do not understand why TSA does not adopt the El Al model. And yes, this includes profiling. I pray the next administration will abolish the TSA bureaucracy, rationalize the flying security process and end the free access to our borders.
Kim Kachadoorian
Wed, Nov 24, 2010 : 8:34 a.m.
I was very disturbed when I saw the one video of the TSA making a child that looked to be about 7 years old take off his shirt during his pat down. While I believe we should all be safe - it appears we are going about it in all the wrong ways. If I had kids I don't know that I would fly with them right now.
Stephen Landes
Tue, Nov 23, 2010 : 11:46 p.m.
As long as we encourage the TSA to look for things instead of terrorists we will be behind the curve. Follow the Israeli/El Al approach and look for terrorists -- by their actions, their patterns, not just their ethnicity or religion. We don't have to allow ourselves to be mishandled and, yes, terrorized by our own government.
Sean Gray
Tue, Nov 23, 2010 : 11:09 p.m.
You gotta tell them that what they're [the goverment] is doing is wrong. And that [if you must travel], we're enduring it for now but will try to change what is wrong and soon make it right so that people in the future won't face the same mis-treatment.
tosviol8or
Tue, Nov 23, 2010 : 10:05 p.m.
Just tell them the truth--when government doesn't know what to do, it pulls a page from the magician's book. It gets you looking in another place--the classic misdirection--while it flim-flams you into believing it's doing something it really isn't. My kids are still in elementary school, and they know how it works.
AKinA2
Tue, Nov 23, 2010 : 9:56 p.m.
I find that kids are able to understand a lot more than we give them credit. I told my kids the truth. Sometimes 'bad' people try to get onto planes. You can't tell a 'bad' person just by looking at them. So, they have rules and procedures to stay ahead of the bad people and keep them off the planes. As they learn more or get more information, they update their procedures to do their best at protecting us. My kids feel pretty safe when the travel because of these procedures.
Frank D
Tue, Nov 23, 2010 : 9:41 p.m.
I would explain that the TSA is conducting an illegal search. Call it what it is.
AlphaAlpha
Tue, Nov 23, 2010 : 9:17 p.m.
In light of the truisms expressed by Macabre Sunset, you could tell them that scared citizens are easier to control. Most children are likely intelligent enough to see through the TSA sham perpetrated upon the adult public; most grown ups don't see what children do.
Tammy Mayrend
Tue, Nov 23, 2010 : 9:12 p.m.
@Julia - I never explained anything to the kids when they were younger, but I love your thoughts! It's now that my son has reached more awareness that poses more thoughtful explanations on my part. I certainly won't be sending my children through the pat-down, while I go throught the body scan though, so as you said I will need to explain things before we travel!
JuliaAnnArb
Tue, Nov 23, 2010 : 9:07 p.m.
Without going into the merits of TSA's procedures, here's how I've explained airport security to my 4-year-old son in the past: they inspect shoes because they don't want stinky feet on the plane (silly, not scary); they limit liquids because they could spill and make a mess on the plane (makes perfect sense to a preschooler); they check luggage and passengers for things that could be annoying or messy. I'm at a loss as to how to explain the newest procedures. They are exempting children under 12 from the "enhanced" pat-downs, but he will surely see other people getting groped. Possibly his own mother. I still haven't come up with a plausible explanation that won't terrify him and lead to endless questions and speculation.
Macabre Sunset
Tue, Nov 23, 2010 : 5:59 p.m.
It's still reactive. We had a guy put explosives in his shoes, so now we take off our shoes. We had a guy put explosives in his underwear, so now we let them stick their hands into our underwear. What happens when the next guy stores his explosives in his rectum? As for the profiling, yeah, we all hear that they will recruit grandma if we only screen Muslims. Profiling is a lot more sophisticated. And, so far, even though grandma would provide easy access to softer targets, they haven't shown any indication of doing so. We cannot sanction this type of assault on our children. If this exact same groping were done by the proverbial dirty old man on a playground, he'd get 20-to-life. And the bottom line is that it's not making the airlines any safer. The most important safety change is that cockpit doors are tougher and locked at all times. I'm far more worried about the prospect of a terrorist group dispersing 20 snipers to 20 major cities over the soft Mexican border than a terrorist group being able to organize a 20-man team of hijackers who wouldn't be able to take over the cockpit regardless of their skill.
Atticus F.
Tue, Nov 23, 2010 : 5:02 p.m.
bruceae, the trouble with your mindset, is that when someone who is not Arabic commits an act of terrorism, you have already given the government carte blanche to take YOUR rights away. It's funny how people demand that their rights be protected, while at the same time they condenn the ACLU for protecting the rights of others.
Top Cat
Tue, Nov 23, 2010 : 3:29 p.m.
That it is a real life version of Tickle Me Elmo?