Family kicked off flight for girl's tantrum

[Flashback]

Family kicked off flight for girl's tantrum

A US family has lashed out at an airline after they were kicked off a flight because their two-year-old girl threw a temper tantrum before take-off.
Airline JetBlue cited safety reasons when they removed Colette Vieau, husband Mordecai Stolk and their two children from the flight from the Caribbean holiday destination Turks and Caicos Islands to Boston.
The couple's two-year-old daughter Natalie flew into a rage which lasted for five minutes, the US Today show reported.

 

[horseman]

Good work and two thumbs up to the airline!

 

[MarkD]

Bit more to than than has been reported I think.

 

[Major]

Ch 7 Sunrise talked about a crying child and family being chucked off the flight.

Big difference between a tantrum and crying

Crying you can sympathise with, whereas a tantrum can be disruptive. After 5 minutes I would have supported the airlines positive action as well

 

[straitman]

Ch 7 Sunrise talked about a crying child and family being chucked off the flight.

Big difference between a tantrum and crying

Crying you can sympathise with, whereas a tantrum can be disruptive. After 5 minutes I would have supported the airlines positive action as well

The mother (a Dr) was interviewed and stated that the child would not let herself be strapped in. The airline sited FAA regs re seat belts etc as the reason for the action.

Good call IMHO.

 

[anat0l]

Article in the OP is definitely too thin for me to pass judgement.

I'm finding it hard to picture how a two year old child can "fly into a rage", unless they are a really smart two year old child and if so why weren't they smart enough to not complain in the first place!

The article is quite vague: when did the child eventually calm down in relation to when the pilot ordered the pax to leave?

 

[simongr]

The flight can not take off unless all pax are believed to be belted in (I am sure that on every flight there are people who take off the belt as soon as the FAs have walked past them) so they had no choice.

 

[markis10]

I'm finding it hard to picture how a two year old child can "fly into a rage", unless they are a really smart two year old child and if so why weren't they smart enough to not complain in the first place!

With all due respect, you clearly have not spent anytime at a child care centre, children and rational actions are a natural oxymoron, with kids expect the unexpected!

 

[Berlin]

Well done. Should introduce this for all non-behaved children on planes in my opinion.

 

[UP4014]

The flight can not take off unless all pax are believed to be belted in (I am sure that on every flight there are people who take off the belt as soon as the FAs have walked past them) so they had no choice.

In the first world anyway, the third world it's not always required to even be sitting down. :mrgreen:

 

[UP4014]

Crying or tantrum is no big deal for a 2 yo and should not be chucked off the flight. If they are struggling to get her belted up then a bit different.

Matt

 

[straitman]

Crying or tantrum is no big deal for a 2 yo and should not be chucked off the flight. If they are struggling to get her belted up then a bit different.

Matt

See my post #5 above. It was the Mother who stated that the child would not allow or remain strapped in.

 

[bossreggie]

I'm also pretty happy with the decision by the JetBlue crew.

There have been a few times over the many years flying I have had, that I would have appreciated a rowdy passenger being thrown off the plane. (Usually not a child BTW)

AND....... To be fair....I would have turned a blind eye even if the decision had been made at 38,000 feet!



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[dfcatch]

I'm also pretty happy with the decision by the JetBlue crew.

There have been a few times over the many years flying I have had, that I would have appreciated a rowdy passenger being thrown off the plane. (Usually not a child BTW)

AND....... To be fair....I would have turned a blind eye even if the decision had been made at 38,000 feet!



Sent from my iPad using AustFreqFly App

+1 .......

 

[Berlin]

There have been a few times over the many years flying I have had, that I would have appreciated a rowdy passenger being thrown off the plane. (Usually not a child BTW)

True. And there also cases where you see the dreaded small child entering the plane and it turns out to be completely well behaved. Very often it's the parents who actually are the issue and not the child who more often than not, probably simply struggles with the entire stressful experience while the parents are after a nice holiday and simply don't give a s+#@.

 

[anat0l]

With all due respect, you clearly have not spent anytime at a child care centre, children and rational actions are a natural oxymoron, with kids expect the unexpected!

I have a problem with the wording. To "fly into a rage" IMO implies intention. Except for child geniuses I doubt that the two year old purposefully wanted to throw a tantrum with intent to disrupt. In fact, we'd be hard pressed to even conclude this so or otherwise. They were simply reacting to the environment, albeit with unfortunate circumstances.

Had this been an adult rather than a child then the language is quite appropriate because we know the adult would've become enraged intentionally, and clearly then their fault.



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[markis10]

I have a problem with the wording. To "fly into a rage" IMO implies intention. Except for child geniuses I doubt that the two year old purposefully wanted to throw a tantrum with intent to disrupt. In fact, we'd be hard pressed to even conclude this so or otherwise. They were simply reacting to the environment, albeit with unfortunate circumstances.

I stand by my earlier statement, you clearly have not spent much time in a child care facility, or taken a child to a non child friendly cash register at woolies and tried to explain the concept of "no". Its a well known fact amongst many parents that Twenty-three to 83 percent of all 2- to 4-year-olds have occasional temper tantrums, and yes they are intentional,the good news is they start to decrease by the age of 4 in most cases (only a year to go for number 1 son, who is a rarely goes into a rage!). One could say the origins of a DKYWIA comes from those that continue beyond 4 years with the same behaviour!

Most children throw tantrums in a particular place with a particular person. They usually are a public display after the child has been told "no" to something he or she wants to do. The tantrum usually stops when the child gets his or her wish. What happens with the temper tantrum depends on the child's level of energy and the parent's level of patience and parenting skill

ref Tavris, C. (1989). Anger: The misunderstood emotion (Rev. ed.). New York: Simon and Schuster.

 

[Nigelinoz]

I stand by my earlier statement, you clearly have not spent much time in a child care facility, or taken a child to a non child friendly cash register at woolies and tried to explain the concept of "no". Its a well known fact amongst many parents that Twenty-three to 83 percent of all 2- to 4-year-olds have occasional temper tantrums, and yes they are intentional,the good news is they start to decrease by the age of 4 in most cases (only a year to go for number 1 son, who is a rarely goes into a rage!). One could say the origins of a DKYWIA comes from those that continue beyond 4 years with the same behaviour!

ref Tavris, C. (1989). Anger: The misunderstood emotion (Rev. ed.). New York: Simon and Schuster.

Yep,there is plenty on the net about "The terrible twos"!
Cheers
N'oz

 

[dk4]

Saw something similar on a Jetstar flight a few weeks back.

Parents having trouble with a lap infant: The FA advised them the lap infant must be strapped up for take off and rechecked the parents knew how to use the infant seat belt. The FA, without making any further fuss at the parents' seats, then continued down the aisle checking the rest of passengers.

When the FA returned back up the aisle a few minutes later, the tot was still not being helpful to the poor parents, continuing to struggle with legs and arms splayed everywhere, making the job of strapping the child in impossible. The FA then authoritatively and firmly, but still politely, said the child must be wearing the seat belt immediately, before moving to the forward gallery. The parents switched jobs, the child realised this was it, and things settled down.

I imagine that when the FA walked past (without stopping, but checking to make sure compliance had occurred) a few minutes later, should the parents not have managed to control the infant, we would have been in the same situation as the one in the news article ("strike 3"), and they would have been offloaded.

Infants do pick up on things, and I am sure that the calm but firm way the FA handled the situation, as an authority figure, helped the parents convince the child to comply. (But there are times when nothing is going to remedy this type of situation, and IMO the airlines can not afford to inconvenience everyone else, network-wide, by delaying the flight any longer.)

 

[Moody]

Every child goes through the "terrible-twos" at some stage. It can last a week or a lifetime, and as a parent all you can do is be calm and consistent and eventually you should prevail.

On occasions between the ages of 2-4 our kids would refuse to do up their seatbelts in their car. The upshot was that we didn't go anywhere until they did, and one time we had to abandon the whole outing to make the point that it was non-negotiable. Same thing if they undid their belt whilst moving - we would pull over until they did it up again. There was no point forcing them to do so as they had to take responsibility for their actions. This translated well to their first long-haul trip when they were 2 and 4 respectively. We explained that the rule in the plane was the same as the car and we had no problems then or subsequently. I suspect that the parents in question had under-prepared their 2-year-old for the trip and suffered the consequences.