At what point should flight attendants step in when a child is out of control on a longhaul flight?
Unruly Child On Air France Flight Raises Question Of When Crew Should Intervene
One Mile At A Time recounts a frustrating longhaul Air France flight involving a child who screamed and shouted for hours while her parents made little effort to intervene.
According to Ben, the disruption went on for an extended period of time, with repeated outbursts that made it difficult for nearby passengers to rest. But what strikes me most is not the behavior itself, but the delayed response from the cabin crew.
Eventually, flight attendants did step in. Ben notes that they stood near the child’s seat and politely but firmly told her (the young girl) to quiet down. But that intervention only came after hours of disruption, including a particularly frustrating moment when his own son was finally asleep, only to be awakened by another shouting episode.
Ben said, “Fortunately the crew literally stood in the cabin for some amount of time hovering over the child’s seat, and directly telling her (politely) that she needed to be quiet.” But that was after he said, “Anyway, we put up with this for hours. Finally at about the halfway point of the flight, our son was sound asleep…and then this girl goes on one of her shouting tirades for no damn reason, and the parents do nothing.”
That raises a simple question: why did it take so long? Why would they just ignore it in the first place?
15 or even 20 minutes of patience is reasonable. Kids cry. They get restless. Flying is unnatural and often uncomfortable for them. But when disruptive behavior continues for hours, it should not require passenger complaints to trigger action!
As a father of two, I’m very sympathetic to parents. I’ve been there. My son Augustine had a couple of rough flights, including one particularly challenging journey from Zurich to San Francisco when he was two. From the very first cry, I was doing everything I could to calm him down. That’s my job as a parent.
Not every child is easy, and not every situation can be resolved instantly. But effort matters. When parents appear disengaged, (or worse, indifferent) it becomes a problem for everyone else onboard.
This also isn’t a new phenomenon. I’m reminded of a Lufthansa First Class flight I was on from several years ago where a child was essentially allowed to run around the cabin unchecked, as passengers including Jane Fonda and Amanda Seyfried looked on. That kind of chaos puts the crew in a difficult position, but it also underscores the need for earlier intervention.
Ultimately, Ben is right about one key point: it should not be up to passengers to initiate correction. Cabin crew are there not just for safety, but for order. And while diplomacy is essential, so is timeliness.
Waiting four hours to step in is simply too long.
CONCLUSION
Yes, it is up to parents to control their children and as a father of two I am sympathetic to the occasional outburst onboard. But his point is that the crew should not wait until passengers complain to take action when the parents are not acting as they should.
Young children will cry and act out on airplanes…it’s almost inevitable at some point. But when parents fail to make a reasonable effort and disruptions drag on for hours, flight attendants should step in sooner. Maintaining a comfortable cabin environment is part of the job, and it shouldn’t depend on passengers reaching a breaking point first.
> Read More: Flying Lufthansa First Class with Hollywood Stars, Oligarchs, and Executive
> Read More: United Airlines Shines…Unlike My Son
I’ve long said that children under the age of 16 and their parents should only be seated in economy class and they should be in rows filled from the back as it used to be when smoking was allowed. That way they could disturb each other but allow the adults on the same aircraft to travel in relative peace. No other passenger deserves to be disturbed by children and there is no such thing as a 100% well behaved child. Be safe, fill from the back.
Young kids find more entertainment in long-haul economy class than long-haul business and first class as there is all the entertainment that comes from being able to see what far more passengers are doing nearby. But other than that, I don’t see why kids should be restricted from flying in premium cabins. The accompanying adults of disruptive children are the ones who need to get their act together by at least focusing and making an effort when it comes to their children regardless of seated cabin.
Benadryl or choral
Or barbitol for kids or adults
James, I would agree only if we also implement a rule that annoying adults, loud adults, boorish adults, rude adults and in fact any adult who does anything other than sit in still silence for the duration of the flight be forcibly ejected midflight from the aircraft. Deal?
Flight to Dubai in December. Emirates Business Class. Kid screamed almost the entire flight, even threw a water bottle at another passenger. No one did a thing. Fortunately, I was about 10 rows back. Our traveling companions were not so lucky.
Eh, still better than an Emirates flight to Dubai in March (2026)…
An adult doing that might ne off loaded at Anchorage. A little kid sho7ld be banished to rear economy after a warning.
No excuses for the parents, but the child appears quite troubled. I don’t think pharmaceuticals are always helpful as they can produce unexpected side effects.
Travelers in the 1970s and 1980s used to give cough syrup to kids to try to make the kids drowsy on long-haul flights. I don’t know if that worked well or not, but there were far fewer babies on board and babies were less likely to scream for hours on those flights than nowadays; also young kids were usually less likely to be as noisy on the planes (perhaps because kids between 15-months and 8 years were less hooked to being constantly engaged by entertainment and video entertainment in particular and parents less oblivious to their or other kids’ noises in public).
I don’t mind the screaming babies or an occasionally shouting kid when I know the accompanying adults are making an effort to try to soothe an uncomfortable baby or toddler or to keep older kids from being a loud disturbance or other annoyance to others in the cabin. But if a the accompanying parent or parents make no effort, it’s more annoying than the loud children.
Also, it’s noteworthy when you see one or both of the accompanying parents choosing to be completely oblivious to the noise generated by their child(ren) and trying to dump the work of engaging the child(ren) on the other parent. The FAs getting involved in such situations should get on the case of the more “tuned out” “parent” and even consider ordering a seat re-arrangement to make the point of “your kid (too), your problem (too), even if you think your spouse/partner should do it instead (for whatever reason).”
Influential phrase → “And while diplomacy is essential, so is timeliness.”
If F/A’s are needed, they should ‘suggest’ a parent & offending child should immediately go to the (rear most) lav and isolate until things calm down …. Ridiculous that some parents are so self-centered/irresponsible that they need to be told to make an effort to quiet their spawn…… A ‘courtesy’ official warning should be given to the offending parents if they’re not cooperative, advising them that they’re & their spawn are not welcome on any future flights ….( but they can keep or still obtain the affiliated credit card ! ) …
Definitely not the problem or place of a flight attendant to tell someone how to control their child. FAs don’t want to listen to misbehaved children either, it’s simply bad parenting. Place the blame where is lies.
Never had to in the past but now when I travel I make sure my noise canceling ear buds are in my front pocket and a pair of ear plugs are readily available in the outside pocket of my carry on
Based on my experience with Lufthansa FAs and my own German relatives, I find it hard to believe the FAs did don’t manage the child AND the parents!
How can you put this on the crew? What should they have done? Beat the child? Throw them overboard? Any such attempt by the crew to interfere in the least way would have had the parents screaming discrimination and lawsuit!!!! This is bad parenting and a brat……simple as that. It’s an airplane……not a suite at the Ritz!
No, sorry – the crew had hours to speak up on behalf of the other passengers in the cabin. You think Ben or Ford should have directly addressed the pesky parents? No! They should not have ever had to complain if the FAs were doing their jobs and trying to keep the unruly child quiet.
Who else to put this on? The parents did nothing > the crew needs to step in/up.
And the “lawsuit” BS is just hot air. Sue for what? Under which law? Doesn’t maritime law apply on international waters?
Airlines do a lot and somewhere in the hundreds of pages of small print they probably reserved the right to handle disruptive passengers as they please to.
“Tells you kid to shut up or you are getting new seats all the way in the back right next to the lavatory” “If you refuse to defuse the situation the captain has no other choice than to offload you”
Selfish people think they can get away with everything. This has to stop.
I agree with Widgethead. The flight attendants might approach the parents to ask if they can bring the family anything that might calm their child, but the parents are already well aware that other passengers are upset with the noise. The flight attendant is not authorized to discipline a passengers child. They cannot yell at them, tie them up, muzzle them, drug them or lock them in a lavatory so what do you actually expect them to do? If the child is older than two years old, they are likely cognizant of the fuss that is being made about their behavior and this may excite them even more. The only thing that can be done (I’ve seen it on a flight) is that the Captain may threaten to land the plane to remove the entire family. If you are over the ocean, this course of action is not recommended.
Well in this case, the FAs did end up chastising the child…which the parents should have done immediately. It wasn’t a baby, it was a toddler brat.
The biggest brats in such situations are the brat parent(s), as toddlers & young children are more likely to be more bratty when the parents are big brats and negligent.
There for safety and order, yes. However, let’s go through the flowchart here: Child Cries ▶︎ Crew Steps in ▶︎ Parent upset that crew steps in ▶︎ parent writes negative letter about crew member ▶︎ Punitive action taken against crew member. Result: Hesitation to address future situations; especially in a higher class of service, because complaints from those classes of service carry more weight.
I understand this is a lose-lose situation for the crew, but it should not be up to other passengers to have to complain about children out of control or idiots not wearing headphones when using electronic devices. The crew must maintain order.
Agreed. While it is lose-lose it is part of the job.
Just do your 101 > document what happened and make sure you have witnesses sign it to protect yourself as a crew member (or any other job in similar situations). Crew can tape on board can’t they?
Passenger should stay out of it as an altercation could escalate the situation ….