After a child repeatedly spit on a couple seated nearby on a flight from Atlanta to Denver, the man turned to the parents and warned them to “control your child or I’ll do it for you!” While that is not a helpful warning in an airplane cabin, it should never have reached that point.
Man Warns Parents He Will Discipline Their Child After They Fail To Stop Her From Spitting
View From The Wing did a great job of addressing this yesterday and I concur with his analysis and bottom line. I’m adding my two cents because I have two young children of my own who can be rambunctious, though thankfully have (at least until now) been fairly well-behaved on an airplane (there was one bad flight…).
Some observations:
- The parents “tried” to stop the child (aged 3-5), but failed
- Since the parents were masked, the man told them they should mask their daughter too
- The mother replied that he “didn’t understand” because he didn’t have children
- He responded that he has FIVE kids (and even more grandchildren) and “I promise you not one of them would do something like that”
- It seems the child had special needs
Since we are working off a story and not an actual video, I’m not prepared to condemn the parents here. But even if their child was a special-needs child, allowing the child to SPIT on other passengers was totally unacceptable. I realize that for most of the plane, they’d rather the child spit than scream. But for the passengers being spit on, there is no acceptable situation in which they should have to endure such behavior.
Even if it meant the child would scream uncontrollably, that was the better alternative in this case. You cannot allow your child to physically disturb others on a plane (including kicking the seat).
Being developmentally disabled is not a “get out of jail free card.” I do think that sometimes additional compassion is warranted for these children. If a child unexpectedly spits, patience is called for. But if a child does it a second or third time…well that is simply unacceptable.
Yes, the warning to discipline someone else’s children is not smart (not because it is inherently wrong, but because such escalation on a plane will typically make the matter worse). But the parents failed here and trying to justify the action of bad behavior (“You don’t understand, you don’t have kids…”) is wholly unacceptable.
@shaylamonnier What would you do? ✈️ #fyp #trending #airplane #travel #whatwouldyoudo
@shaylamonnier Replying to @ranger275wife
image: stock photo
Wearing a mask says it all about them. Only mistake the guy made was threatening a kid and not the “father”.
What does it say about them, exactly?
It says that they are paranoid, ignorant, and likely fatuous and weak. Your kind of folk little Aaron.
This coming from someone who is triggered by others wearing a mask lol Oh the delicious irony of it all…
Not triggered little Aaron, amused. Big difference
spitting is a bio hazard. easily could have caused a diversion
But this is what happens when a certain segment of the population, of which these “parents” likely belong to believe it is a parent’s job to be a friend to the child, not to raise them and provide the necessary discipline
disgusting. I’d have used grandpa’s exact language.
This is why I will also support making anyone flying with children to be placed in a separate, sound proof compartment in the back of the plane. No exceptions.
+1 or put them in the cargo hold with our pets
If you can’t control your child because this is repetitive, unaccceptable behavior, don’t bring them on the plane. We’re all trapped in this metal tube and have to suffer the consequences.
back in the good old days, the parents would be having a conversation with that child upon landing. Except it would not be with words. It would be with the father’s belt
Kids were so much better behaved then as well
I agree with the sentiment to tell the people to control their child or you would but realistically I just don’t see how saying that would really help the situation. If the child is incapable of traveling in public then they should not be on public conveyance except in the most dire emergencies, and then with constant control and supervision. Good parenting would have fixed this.
I’m not mad at the guy becuase he said what most of us would like to have said, but some parents get supper funny about that and it could very well escalate into a full blown fihgt on an airplane. It’s just not worthwhile to escalate in that matter, even thoguh I actulaly think it is for the beneit of the child.
It was a number of years ago now, but I had a situation that did escalate when I asked a Father to control his son who was kicking my seat.
The long and short of it, I tried to tolerate the kicking, but it did not stop, so I stood up, turned around, looked at the Father and politely asked if he could stop his child from kicking the back of my seat. I guess the child thought that he would now be in trouble and started to cry. The Father looked at me and said that you must feel like a big man now, making a child cry. I replied, that I did mean for his child to cry, which is why I addressed you and not your child directly.
The man threatened violence against me and the FA came over and said that if she heard another peep from either of us, she was going to have the Police meet the flight upon arrival. My seatmate (who I did not know before the flight) said to the FA that I was polite and simply asked the Father to stop his son from kicking the back of my seat.
The FA said, enough and walked away.
Upon deplaning the man said, “hey big man, when we get off this plane I am going to teach you a lesson”, the FA heard that, stopped the deplaning process and had the Police called. The Police came, they took us both off the aircraft, again my seatmate told the Police that I was polite and never threatened violence. After talking to me, the Police let me go, I have no idea what happened to the other guy as I had to make my connection.
You are correct that parents can be funny about their children and their behavior.
Wow, that’s crazy…but totally believable.
What airline? How ridiculous that the FA blamed you.
NO ONE should have to accept their seat being kicked.
Parents can get funny when someone confronts them about their children. I was on the other side of this years ago.
In first, the elderly woman loudly complained all thru boarding that my son was kicking her seat, which was impossible because his little legs were at least six inches too short to reach her seat. He was seated with his seat belt on.
I was so angry, I told her to stand up, turn around and look at him. It was a mama bear moment for sure.
I prefer dogs
I was in a store and a 20??year old male came around the corner and pushed me into the shelving.. His father said he is mentally challenged…I said that is NO excuse and if he cannot act appropriately in public…(pushing strangers) he cannot be in public till he is able to behave civil .. The look and talk back I got from the parent was over the top… I have worked in a Psych..Hospital and the expected behavior was to act appropriately or the clients could not go out of the facility with family or friends or field trips,
Bad behaviour is cross-cultural. I try to stay away from kids anywhere I am. But having one in an airplane seat next to you is a risk and you might have to deal with the unexpected…
I was flying US Airways from CLT when the incident I relayed happened.
Whoever wrote this blog is an idiot. Someone going to the parents like that is a threat and a threat of violence at that.
It’s not up to some random person to intervene.
I’m sorry you skipped reading in school.
If I was nearby and a FA asked what he said, I’d say he made a threat. He did assuming what was told was accurate. Yes the kid spitting is all the terrible things it ought not be but threats of violence are not acceptable. That kicks up 10 notches.
Spitting kid aside – Adults are far worse far more consistently than kids. That’s life. You find jerks everywhere. Traffic. Supermarket. Restaurants. Take a tip from Marcus Aurelius and stop letting things you can’t control bother you.
The kid grows up flying with ESA and the parents got a service animal vest for the kid’s puteketeke.
Even in the confines of a plane, there is room for a child to go over a parental knee and room for a hand to be sharply applied as many times as necessary to the rear. This can be ‘topped up’ with a belt on landing.
The passenger who was spat upon needed to get a flight attendant involved after it happened a second time. The parent should have moved the spitting child away from the fellow passenger by sitting between the child and the other passenger. Special needs or not, a child SHOULD NOT be permitted to spit at anyone for any reason. And if said child screams, the parent needs to quiet them down.