There’s nothing worse for a flight attendant than seeing passengers evacuating an airplane with luggage, going down evacuation slides with suitcases and running from a burning plane with 22-inch roller bags. That is stuff that weighs them down, slows them down — when they need to be quick. Unfortunately, whenever we turn on the television and there’s an incident on the news, that’s what we see: Passengers evacuating with their luggage.

When a British Airways flight caught on fire at the Las Vegas Airport, a reporter on board tweeted not to judge the passengers who grabbed their luggage and ran.

Just evacuated on a British Airways flight at Las Vegas airport after an engine caught fire. Don't think anyone hurt pic.twitter.com/Y986xW9Wzy — Jacob Steinberg (@JacobSteinberg) September 8, 2015

Don't criticise passengers for taking their bags! People go into panic mode in that situation — Jacob Steinberg (@JacobSteinberg) September 9, 2015

But it’s hard not to judge when it’s a life or death situation.

It's hard not to judge when you’re endangering other people’s lives — hard not to judge when flight attendants command passengers to leave their bags behind and passengers choose not to listen to the very commands designed to save their lives. There’s a reason we tell passengers to leave everything behind. Every second counts. Literally.

Get in bed — LEAVE EVERYTHING. Eat dinner — LEAVE EVERYTHING. Brush your teeth — LEAVE EVERYTHING.

This was the running joke at my house after my 9-year-old son asked me why I had to yell LEAVE EVERYTHING every two seconds after he caught me practicing my evacuation commands for recurrent training.

Why? he asked. You tell me.

I’ve been a flight attendant for 20 years. When I first started flying, we only had to tell passengers to leave their things behind once. Now? Now we have to repeat it over, and over, and over — and even then some people don’t listen. Take that back: They choose not to listen.

Remember everything in your bag is replaceable. Another life is not.

Once a year, flight attendants attend a training class to review medical and emergency procedures. After all, it’s why we’re on the airplane in the first place. Oh sure, an emergency probably won’t happen on your flight, but if it does we’re ready to evacuate an entire airplane full of passengers in 90 seconds or less. (Until then we’ll serve drinks and do everything we can to make you forget why we’re there.)

Ninety seconds. That’s all you have to get off the plane. Ninety seconds is all you and 200 other people have to escape from an air-tight tube filling with smoke. It’s your Gucci bag or your life. Your laptop or your life. Taking time to stop and grab your luggage out of a bin is wasting precious seconds, and these seconds don’t just belong to you: They belong to everyone on board. Which brings us to all these new airline safety videos. Nothing annoys me more than dancing flight attendants. I think dancing flight attendants are worse than the Sports Illustrated swimsuit models — but that’s just me. Both are pretty bad.

Airlines create these videos to get your attention, some airlines create new ones — often — to keep your attention. But also to get the media talking, which equates to free publicity. The media, of course, falls all over it, so much so it’s beginning to feel like there’s a safety video contest going on. Who can come up with the most exciting video? The most talked about video?

Why are airlines obsessed with making the safety video light and fun? It's safety! — Heather Poole (@Heather_Poole) August 6, 2015

A few seconds into Delta's latest video, an adult dressed up like a squirrel shows you how to put their luggage in the bin. Talk about dumbing down. Do we really have to treat passengers like children to get their attention? This is your life we’re talking about.

Look, I’m all for having fun in flight. I like to laugh just as much as everyone else. But there’s a time and a place for everything, and there’s nothing fun about burning alive — especially if it's because you stared at a supermodel’s rack instead of listening to what was said. Do you know where the nearest exit was on your last flight? Was it behind you or in front of you? Could you find it in the dark? Do you realize white lights lead to red lights where the exit is? I know, I know, being told how to open and close a seat belt in the 21st century is more than a little mundane, but pretend this is the first time you’ve traveled on something other than a school bus from the 1950s.

Fun safety videos make my job more difficult, because when it comes to safety we’re not playing around. That’s why when you sit in an exit row you have to verbally acknowledge that you understand what you’re doing if there’s an emergency: You have to tell us "Yes," you are willing and able to operate the door. But do you really know how to operate the door? Are you really prepared? Do you know every airplane manufacturer uses a different door? While you're taking advantage of the extra legroom, you’d be wise to orient yourself.

After the safety video, I walk through the cabin to make sure everyone is in compliance, and I still have to remind many passengers to fasten their belts, put their seatbacks up and stow their bags completely under the seat in front of them. I still have to tell people what to do, and I get attitude from people who don’t feel like doing it. Of course, these are often the very same people on their phones while the safety video is on. Gotta post one last selfie on Instagram, let their Faceboook friends know they're about to depart, tweet a few things about how much you hate air travel.

If you’re a frequent flier, instead of going blank, take that safety briefing as your reminder to figure out how you’ll be an asset to an evacuation — and not a liability.

When I talk to my son about safety, I don’t go out of my way to make it fun. I think it’s important to make it clear we’re talking about something serious and important: Life and death. So I don’t dress up like a squirrel, invite a famous actor over to the house to make a cameo, or show him my latest dance moves to keep his attention. My tone changes to reflect the seriousness of the situation. It’s important he knows there’s a difference.

So we treat passengers like children so they pay attention? Ok then. If that's how you like it.... #SafetyVideo — Heather Poole (@Heather_Poole) August 6, 2015

Someone recently said to me, “But your job should be to make me care, right? To make me want to care if I don't.”

But when we talk about gun safety, do we turn it into a joke? Shall we throw in some cleavage or dancers? How about a fuzzy costume?

What about with driver's ed? Do you need a dancing banana to tell you to wear your seatbelt when you're on the road?

While we’re flying on the safest and most technologically advanced machines in aviation history, there’s always the chance of a catastrophic malfunction that may require an evacuation. Should it ever happen to me, I can only pray that people will have paid more attention to the safety briefing than their phones. That they listen to our safety commands — and leave their luggage behind.

LEAVE EVERYTHING.

Heather Poole is a flight attendant for a major U.S. carrier, and the author of the New York Times bestseller "Cruising Attitude: Tales of Crashpads, Crew Drama and Crazy Passengers at 35,000 Feet." You can follow her on Twitter at @Heather_Poole.