There’s a new travel craze that’s all abuzz around town these days. Remember a few months back when that restaurant owner in Maine was so fed up that she yelled at a toddler? Furthermore, have you heard about the mom who said it’s selfish for parents to fly with kids on planes? In fact, several airlines are stepping up and banning the nuggets from certain sections of the planes, and restaurants all over the U.S. are popping those NO KIDS ALLOWED signs into the front windows.

I totally understand that kids are annoying, I have my own afterall. They whine, they’re loud and some are not easy to please. When you are trying to relax on a plane or enjoy a night out in a restaurant, it makes complete sense that you don’t want that kind of energy disrupting your experience. (I certainly don’t.) However, are we starting to take things a little too far on the anti-kids front?

Whether you have kids or not, children are a part of everyday life…. because they’re people. I think some adults tend to forget this basic fact. While no one really appreciates a bratty kid—especially in an enclosed space like a plane or a restaurant—we are so concerned with our rights as adults that we tend to forget about the rights children should have as well. Like the right to explore and travel for example.

The “kids should be seen, not heard” philosophy is still alive and well in our society today, and most public places that aren’t a school or a playground are deemed—in the minds of many—as adult-only zones. Seriously though, when did children acting like children become so bothersome? There’s certainly no excuse for a parent who won’t parent, but the majority of kiddos are well-mannered and taught to behave appropriately in public. Why should they not be able to hop a flight for a family beach vacation or enjoy their hot dog in peace at an eatery of mom and dad’s choice?

It’s not a crime to be a child. It’s almost as if these little people are being discriminated against just because they haven’t attained adulthood yet, and lots of people certainly let one bad experience on a flight or even just the stereotypical image of a difficult child on a flight mar their view of what a traveling kid really looks like. If adults did this to other adults (and some do) the media would have a field day with all the accusations of discrimination flying about.

The reality is that kids who travel regularly and are given opportunities to be out in public, on planes and in restaurants usually have developed the personal and social skills needed to make many adults look as if they don’t belong there. The only way we traveling parents can fight the negative “kid on a plane” or “kid in a fancy restaurant” stereotypes is by taking our well-behaved littles along with us and show the world that not only can kids come along too, but they should.