3 year-old Kicked Off Plane After Tantrum

[pedinurse]

I just saw the mother on Inside Edition talking about this. She said that they believe that the little girl suffered ear pain on the flight down to Florida and was just scared to death getting back on a plane. She said they were doing everything they could to calm her down.

I do agree with the airlines, though. It is a safety issue.

You know they make medication for that. Numbing ear drops - they are great. My 5 month old and 5 year old both used them back and forth to Mexico last December. Also, having the kid chew gum would have helped too. That could have been helped.
I guess hindsight is 20/20 for this couple huh?

 

[Smurf]

If it was ear pain that was causing the crying; then I wonder why the parents of this child thought they could have calmed her if given a little more time; which was the first statement they made. Seems like they would know the difference in crying from pain and just being a little monster brat. Wouldn't the child be holding her ears instead of whacking her parents? I do feel sorry for them as I know flying with toddlers can't be easy; especially if their ears are popping. I can see where they could be fussy. I have heard of a nice dose of bendryl doing wonders.

 

[Floh]

Or holding nose and blowing? maybe clears the tubes? does/did mine. when i was young too . . . but not as young as 3. admittedly.

just a suggestion.

 

[richandfamous]

I'm with you. This sounds like an occasion when a good swift swat on the backside could work wonders!

Well good for you guys! Boy did I get flamed here on another thread for saying that children should be diciplined.
I made a statement about spanking and got the "what for" from everyone about how they raised their kids without hitting them blah blah blah. All I tried to say was that there is a time and place for swatting their butts.
http://www.websleuths.com/forums/showthread.php?p=1279314#post1279314

I fear we have a generation of children who have no morals, no discipline, no boundries, no character and no spankings! I know some parents did (and do still) abuse corporal punishment but... my gawd, look at the results of our new parenting. jmo of course, but most children need a good spanking and punishment for wrong doing. Responsibilty for their actions! In fact, todays kids "make their bones" by being the most extremely obnoxious, in your face bad *advertiser censored* they can be. This is done vocally, visually and sexually!

Now I see on the news that they are trying to make it illegal to spank a kid.
Geesh.
I liked the comment made by the poster that the mother of the uncontrolable child should check out the visitation hours at the jail cause that's were her kid would be in 15 years.
Well anyway, I feel better knowing that there are some out there that do not fear making people out of their little animals before society does it for them.

 

[Mabel]

I experienced ear pain so badly once when landing in Georgia, I thought my ears were going to explode. We had to get on a connecting plane to Michigan and, if I was three years old and didn't understand what was happening, I would have been hitting and screaming too.

I'm not blaming the airline for removing the family from the plane, but if fear of experiencing that same excrutiating pain is what caused the little girls behavior, I don't see how inflicting even more pain is the solution.

 

[pedinurse]

I just saw the mother on Inside Edition talking about this. She said that they believe that the little girl suffered ear pain on the flight down to Florida and was just scared to death getting back on a plane. She said they were doing everything they could to calm her down.

I do agree with the airlines, though. It is a safety issue.

I still don't know if that hitting / screaming / tantrum behavior is a normal response to previous ear pain. I guess it could be for some children with that kind of temperment. I mean it just seems like the parents should know their daughter and should have taken steps to decrease the trauma to her while controlling her behavior. You know? And they are justifying the behavior by saying it is related to ear pain.

I guess where I am going with this is that if they are justifying the behavior by saying it is related to ear pain then, to me, they are justifying the airline's reason for asking them to leave the flight. If the child was so upset about going on the plane at the time that she was acting in this manner then she didn't need to be on that plane until her parents delt with her fear, pain, whatever. And it is not the airlines responsibility - and the other ?? how many passengers - to wait around on them to do that. So, by justifying the behavior, to me the parents need to be more understanding of the airlines position.

It makes sense in my head but it's hard to get it written out and having it make sense! I'm pretty sure that the airline didn't just yank them off because of a short (less than a few minutes) tantrum. I'm thinking that it was probably a pretty huge disruption because I have been on planes with other crying children before, and no one even flinched. I am sure that the attendents walked the cabin and secured it, probably assisted other passengers, and then spoke with the parents for a few minutes before they actually left the plane. I am sure that overall it was probably a 5-10 minute ordeal in the first place (and probably on the side of 10 minutes)or more - I mean, they will come and ask you to put up your tray, phone, gameboy, etc a few times and each time they will walk away and then come back. If you don't do it they will ask again (seen this many times with business travelers who don't want to put away the laptop they are working on).

 

[southcitymom]

Well, my kids are FAR from perfect, and have certainly thrown their own fair amount of tantrums, however NEVER have they struck me or even attempted to strike me or my DH. Seriously, not once---and I have 3 kids.

My kids have both struck out at me - or whatever else was around, but it was usually ME that was irritating them by not letting them do what they wanted to - during tantrums. It's not considered uncommon in tantruming toddlers, particularly boys.

It sounds like the little girl on this flight was sort of past the point of return. My eldest son has gotten like that from time to time - all you can do is give them time to ride it out in an environment where they can't harm themselves or make others miserable. If the child on this flight was in pain and of that tempermant, I can see a long term tantrum taking place.

 

[MSM]

I agree with everyone who said that the mother sounds like she's trying to justify her daughter's behavior with the story about the ear pain. It doesn't really matter why the child was acting that way. The rest of the plane shouldn't have to wait over 15 minutes for a temper tantrum, period. The parents should either be able to control their child or get off the plane. I'm sure the parents would be complaining if the plane left the gate with the kid sitting on the floor and she got injured somehow. What did they expect, for everyone to just sit there indefinitely? I think they got much more in compensation than they deserved, and they should stop whining.

It seems like there's an epidemic of bad parenting these days. On every flight I've taken in the past decade, there is at least one child screaming or kicking someone's seat whose parents are just ignoring the behavior. Parents shouldn't expect the rest of the world to have to tolerate that for hours at a time. Once I even asked a kid to stop kicking my seat (after about 15 minutes) and the mother looked at me like I was the one behaving badly!

 

[mjak]

My mother just called me to tell me about this. My family and I will be taking a trip in April on a plane with my 8 year old profoundly autistic nephew. Their will be 5 adults and two children on this trip. The other child is also autistic but high functioning and will have no problem on the plane. My sister will be getting medication to relax my nephew for the 3 hour flight. We will have a portable DVD player for him with his favorite DVD's and plenty of his snack foods. The bottom line is we are all aware we are traveling with a disabled child who does have tandrems and if for some reason he was unable to be quite and stay in his seat on the plane then we are prepared to leave the plane. Its not reasonable to expect other people to sit on a plane for hours with a child who is screaming and crying and refusing to stay in a seat. It is a safety issue number one, but it is also an issue of respecting your fellow passengers. We can not expect a plane full of people to just put up with a screaming thrashing child for hours on end because he is disabled and we love him. I understand the parents fustration with having to leave the plane but the bottom line is I believe the airline did the right thing.

mjak

 

[Opie]

I think the airline went above and beyond in giving this family compensation. Having a child with problems in the family, I have seen some tantrums that were pretty ugly, but it is not fair to inflict one family's problems on a plane full of people (or a restaurant full of people or anyplace else). Perhaps this particular child was too immature to be on a flying vacation and might have been better off remaining home with a relative?

 

[arielilane]

Good for the airlines.....

If the parents really wanted to go after the airlines, they should have claimed that the son converted to islam and therefore was singled out.

Cal

Now that is a hoot! ; )

I agree with what Air Tran did.

 

[arielilane]

I think the airline went above and beyond in giving this family compensation. Having a child with problems in the family, I have seen some tantrums that were pretty ugly, but it is not fair to inflict one family's problems on a plane full of people (or a restaurant full of people or anyplace else). Perhaps this particular child was too immature to be on a flying vacation and might have been better off remaining home with a relative?

Excellent post, Opie!

 

[Opie]

Excellent post, Opie!

Thank you. To use an old expression, I calls 'em the way I sees 'em.

 

[Autumn2004]

Thanks for the info. Now that we know the little girl was already in pain, a spanking is the last thing she needed!

Thank you for being the voice of reason! I wasnt going to post on this thread due to me being the only one to NOT feel this justified violence. Thank you for saying so. Even if it wasnt ear pain dear lord how would you feel as an adult if everytime you became mad you were beat? Blood flow is not even available to the reasoning part of the brain till the age of around 3 and not fully developed till 8 years old. How can they be reasonable? The reason why they behave SO well when they are spanked is because they are frightened. Discipline and anger from the parent are two different things.

How is hitting a child going to teach them anything about not hitting except you can only get away with it if you are bigger??

I personally dont take my child on flights because its very hard on a child of that age to be cooped up in a seat for hours.

Mygirlsadie- Im sure this was meant jokingly but dimetapp should not be taken lightly. My nephew was in the hospital not long ago, he is 1, and he was completely stuffed up. The hospital will not give them it because of so many side effects from it legally anymore.

 

[Jeana (DP)]

Thank you for being the voice of reason! I wasnt going to post on this thread due to me being the only one to NOT feel this justified violence. Thank you for saying so. Even if it wasnt ear pain dear lord how would you feel as an adult if everytime you became mad you were beat? Blood flow is not even available to the reasoning part of the brain till the age of around 3 and not fully developed till 8 years old. How can they be reasonable? The reason why they behave SO well when they are spanked is because they are frightened. Discipline and anger from the parent are two different things.

How is hitting a child going to teach them anything about not hitting except you can only get away with it if you are bigger??

I personally dont take my child on flights because its very hard on a child of that age to be cooped up in a seat for hours.

Mygirlsadie- Im sure this was meant jokingly but dimetapp should not be taken lightly. My nephew was in the hospital not long ago, he is 1, and he was completely stuffed up. The hospital will not give them it because of so many side effects from it legally anymore.

Excellent post!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Nova]

Great post, Autumn. Just wanted to say you are not the only one who doesn't think spanking a 3-year-old is right or necessary.

 

[MrsG728]

YAY for the airline! As a former travel industry employee, I think they were TOO nice to them, giving them all those free vouchers, etc. The refund was enough!

Who's the boss here, the parents or the kid? If I had hit my mother or even refused to do something simple as sitting down, she would have blasted me into next month! I'm sick and tired of seeing this behavior in restaurants, the stores, and even church! Parents are the parents, and that's it. I believe in kindness (not gonna be my mom) and fairness, but discipline is discipline.

MG

 

[Autumn2004]

Thanks Jeana and Nova


Its a very passionate issue for me (obviously huh ) after reading posts on here day after day of abuse I just cant imagine purposely hurting the ones you love and especially to innocent sweet children. I also was highly disturbed by name calling on this little girl?!! How can you sit as adults and call a little girl names and compare her to damien in the movie in the omen??? How very IMMATURE OF YOU!

As you have said throughout your posts that it was her parents fault so WHY are you calling this poor little girl names??????

 

[reb]

what, is the kid retarded or something?? i'm sorry-- but at age THREE a child should be able to verbally convey that they experienced ear pain... at least point to her ear or something. what is this "we think" she experienced ear pain... i don't believe the mother one bit-- now she just wants to go on TV and get all this attention and vilify the airline because she is a crappy parent.. and she wants to try to make the world believe that her kid is a little victim who can do no wrong. sorry, lady-- AIN'T BUYIN' IT. your kid's a brat,, DEAL WITH IT!!!!!!!!!!!!

btw.. i have never seen little tiny children beat on their parents with their fists until a few years ago.. apparently now this is acceptable. and i can think of one instance where the child had turned into the exorcist and was pummeling her mom, screaming "i hate you i hate you i hate you" .. and still the spineless excuse for a mother was like "ooh.. umm, oh-- could you just-- oh, come on honey,, please don't- ouch-- oh, Ok.. honey please, why don't we.. OW-- um,, OK... " bunch of damn wimps if you ask me. i want to give the parents like this a good hard WHOP upside the head and then whop their damn kid!! geeeeez.

this is why i love 'stuart' from MAD TV so much... cracks me up.. LOL

 

[reb]

autumn, they are both at fault.. but mostly the parents. and i don't believe she's a 'poor little girl'. sorry,, but the odds are high here that she's a spoiled little brat.

a agree that abuse is wrong, and you should not go around hitting your kids for no reason, obviously. but this kid is obviously WAY out of bounds and out of control. better she get it from her parents that have the real world beat her down when she's an adult. if her parents hadn't indulged her every whim from the minute she was born, and given her some proper discipline, she probably would have never gotten this bad.