Our six-and-a-half-year-old daughter is almost always asked the same question (or some variation thereof) at an airport’s security checkpoint.
(No, it’s not “Aren’t you embarrassed to be seen with one of the Eye of the Flyer guys?!”)
A CLEAR employee or TSA officer will ask our child, “Who are these people traveling with you?” They frequently ask her age, too. (They occasionally throw in something else like, “I like your outfit!” or “That’s a cool bag!” just to ) It’s not like they’re interrogating her and using accusatory tones. They’re almost always very friendly.
She always says, “Mom and Dad” (though — to everyone’s amusement — she once responded with both my wife’s and my full names before explaining our relationship to her).
My wife and I assumed the question had something to do with human trafficking. (I don’t care that I’ll get roasted in the Comments section about this “being so obvious” — but I figured a few other people have the same question.)
So, during a recent trip, we chatted with a very kind CLEAR ambassador about why kids are asked about their relationship to the adults with whom they’re traveling.
He confirmed that it is a tool to try and determine if any human trafficking or other nefarious activity is going on.
Then he told us a rather disturbing story.
He said a young boy wrapped himself around the ambassador’s leg and said, “I don’t want to go on the trip!” The child was traveling with an adult male (the boy confirmed he was his father). Apparently, the kid was crying and kept saying things like, “Don’t make me go!” and “I don’t want to take the trip!”
The ambassador’s Spidey Sense kicked in. Like, there are bratty kids and there are situations when something is wrong. This seemed like the latter.
So, he acted as if there were no problem and escorted the father and son to the TSA lectern. He gave an officer some secret code word and/or gesture (he wouldn’t go into detail) and returned to the CLEAR kiosks.
Turns out the child’s dad and mom were on the splits. Dad was from somewhere in Africa or the Middle East — and wanted to take the child back with him.
Well, that was news to Mom. I think she was out of the house or Dad pulled the kid out of school or something like that — and made a run for it. So, that CLEAR ambassador helped prevent an alleged kidnapping attempt.
We know the security personnel are doing their job — but we still thank them whenever they ask our daughter with whom she’s traveling.
Have you ever traveled with a youngster who wasn’t your child and ran into any problems with security? Or are you like someone I know who was asked, “Where did you get (your kids)?” Please share your experiences in the Comments section below!
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I take my young kids with me from USA to Canada every month for work and to see family. I never get asked any questions arriving in Canada but I always get asked tons of questions when coming back home to USA about traveling alone even with a notarized letter. Bizarre.
I’m glad they seem to have changed the questions they ask the kids. My son and I traveled without the rest of the family around 2011 when he was 5 years old. At the checkpoint the TSA agent asked my son if he was being “coerced” to travel with the person next to him. My son looked at me, and asked what that word means.
Wow!
I had a customs and immigration office ask my then 10 year old son on our way from Switzerland into London. I started to answer his questions and the officer stopped me- not asking you ma’am, asking him- and in a friendly way, drilled him on where we had been, what we were doing, what we were going to see in London…
When we travel with our grandchildren they are asked their name/where they live/ who we are etc..and sometimes other questions like where are we going ?
My last name is different than my husband or daughters. While checking in internationally an airline employee asked my youngest daughter if she helped mom with the housework. My daughter immediately looked at me with a grin and said yes. (fibber). I found the question to be very clever.
I travel a couple of times a year with my granddaughters- started when the older was 4. All the TSA has ever done is ask each her name after I present the boarding passes. Maybe it’s because it’s always been the short jaunt between Des Moines and Chicago and they’re clearly happy and excited.
We took our then 10 year old granddaughter to Europe, different last name, and she was asked that question several times. She talked so much about “her trip and it being all about her”, that they asked her (nicely) to go away. We did carry a notarized letter from her parents which we never needed to use.
I took my adult son and my 12 year old grandson [not the child of that son] from New Zealand to the Galapagos. Because we have three different surnames I foresaw some sort of investigate so I also got letters from both parents, and photocopies of their passports . It went very smoothly and it seemed that the most useful thing I did was learn the Spanish for “grandmother” and “uncle”.