First, TSA is wonderful. If you will read my blog post about my experience with Border Control, you will come to realise that TSA does not randomly threaten violence and while there are horror stories of how they abuse their power, they have many lessons to learn to fully exploit that. Given all the bad press, their general demeanor has overall improved, making flying really quite fine... this is of course only my perspective, but I was amused how a truly horrible experience with a different branch could improve my flying time so dramatically.
Second, while adults are generally offended with the lack of privacy and runaround of disrobing half your clothes for security measures, it would appear that children, ie, my child, is offended with the advent of being left out of this chaos. When the TSA agent informed Elle that it was not necessary for her to take her shoes off to walk through security, she was enraged. "MOMMY AND DADDY'S SHOES GET TO GO THROUGH! MY SHOES NEED TO GO THROUGH!!!!!" Slightly bug-eyed from the shock of this announcement, he tried to assure her that this was a good thing and because she's so little, her shoes didn't need to go through. Wrong tact. Totally wrong tact. I went through at this point because I was a little embarrassed and felt it was more than Eric's turn to deal with Elle's odd little quirks (and there are many... so many). I gratefully missed the final round, but turned to see Elle's socked feet walking through the security 'thing' with her chin a bit high and an expression somewhat similar to what I always thought the Queen of Sheba would have. The poor TSA agent looked a little befuddled and was blinking several times at Eric, who apparently had opted to handle the situation by not handling it at all.
The trip went smoothly after that, besides of course the announcement to the entire (and rather small) plane that "MY PANTIES ARE STUCK ON MY BUTT!!!!" in her fury that I would not loosen the seat belt. I have seriously considered the possibility that she is the anti-Christ, and this manipulation is further proof. I cannot tell you how many people I watch her melt and how many compliments of "what a delightful child we have", which only solidifies my developing belief of her anti-Christ possibilities... after all, the anti-Christ fools everybody, right?
