It’s one small step for the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) and one giant leap for parents around the country traveling with young children.
Today, moms and dads embarking on holiday flights to grandma’s house and beyond can rejoice knowing that the upcoming chaotic travel season will not require their kids to take off their shoes before stepping through airport security. Even better news: According to the TSA, pat downs of children will be drastically reduced, though not completely eliminated.
The official word from the TSA states that children under 12 will no longer be forced to remove their footwear before stepping through airport security checkpoints. However, older kids and adults will still be mandated to take off their shoes.
Frankly, I don’t care about walking barefoot on the O’Hare’s slimy floors. I am just so relieved that I don’t have to fight with my 7-year-old to take off her shoes. My kid dreaded the task and often ended up in tears before we even made it through the x-ray machines. You’d cry too if you were flying the red-eye to Chicago from Honolulu and were forced awake from dozing in a cart and made to remove your warm tootsies from your bootsies and slide across the cold floor in your socks. I would watch the scene unfold from the side of the x-ray machine trying to reassure my half-asleep child that everything was going to be okay, while silently praying that she wouldn’t be subjected to a pat-down as well for causing such a huge commotion.
Now, if the TSA could just work on eliminating (or at the very least, reducing) the confiscation of harmless items. I am referring to the incident that took place last year when a 3-year-old was stripped of a new pack of Play-Doh because a TSA agent in New Orleans felt the colorful molding compound could be used to camouflage explosives. Mind you, Play-Doh is not a prohibited item, according to TSA officials, but all 20 containers of the toddler’s “toy” were dumped in the garbage as he, his parents and his 15-month-old brother looked on in horror.
I’m all for keeping our skies safe, but exercising some common sense when it comes to kids and airport security is not too much to ask for. In the case of the modified shoe policy, it’s something I am very grateful for this holiday season.
How about you?
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