I recently found myself at the front of an airport TSA Pre-Check line, silently praying that my daughter wasn’t about to break down in tears. It wasn’t how I wanted our holiday trip to Disney World to start.
When you go through airport security with a child, TSA agents typically ask the child a few questions to verify that they’re not being trafficked — simple things like “what is your name?” to verify that it matches the reservation, and “who are you traveling with today?” to make sure they’re with someone they trust. It’s a completely reasonable practice to make sure that kids are safe. But there are a few problems with it:
- Many people are suspicious of men, in particular, being child predators. Single dads are, unfortunately, often the subject of scrutiny and distrust.
- Lots of kids, like mine, are extremely shy around strangers.
- TSA agents, like the one I dealt with, aren’t good at talking to young children.
“What’s your name?” the TSA agent asked, in the stony tone of someone conducting an interrogation. My 8-year-old stared back at her, silent and expressionless.
“She’s shy around strangers,” I explained. Trying to help move things along, I leaned down. “Can you tell her your name?” My daughter quietly said her name.
