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This happened Monday, on a Southwest flight. I'm on the mother's side on this one. Parents know what's best for their kids and some of these kids need more than a slap to stop screaming for no reason on these flights! Sucks that they now have a CPS charge against them because of some crappy FA! It's no wonder kids are running around, being totally disrespectful these days. You can't even discipline your own child!
Location: We_tside PNW (Columbia Gorge) / CO / SA TX / Thailand
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Difficult to judge (having not been there). But from all accounts I can find, the FA took the appropriate action to keep ALL those in their charge safe and to defuse a potential crisis.
There are far more irrational parents out there, than bad FA's.
Spoken from one who has done plenty of discipline of my own and other kids (on flights), and have had to defuse a few crisis situations myself.
I'm sure if there would have been further physical contact the results and attitudes of others would have been more escalated, and potentially SWA would have been at a liability risk.
No good answer in these uncomfortable and potentially 'explosive' situations.
The FA most certainly had advice from other passengers and flight crew, and was attempting to keep the flight in control. I do not see any indication (in several reports) that the FA forcibly took the child from parent.
FA did the right thing - you smack a 1 year old on a flight then you should answer questions
doesn't seem like there was any harm done
no charges were pressed or action taken so the parents are vindicated, the kid settled down while under the FA care which gives the parents a break and a situation is diffused on the plane
This happened Monday, on a Southwest flight. I'm on the mother's side on this one. Parents know what's best for their kids and some of these kids need more than a slap to stop screaming for no reason on these flights! Sucks that they now have a CPS charge against them because of some crappy FA! It's no wonder kids are running around, being totally disrespectful these days. You can't even discipline your own child!
MAK i typically agree with you, but where in your mind does hitting a 1 year old equal out to being ok? Its not like this was a 5 year old, its a baby!
From another article I read (I wish I can find the link), passengers that witnessed it said the FA was in the wrong, which is why they were given the child back and not arrested upon landing and received no citation from cops. Taking away the baby for a short cool down period, fine. But to call authorities because a parent decided to discipline their child the way they saw fit? A bit exaggerated.
On a side note, I'd love to see the Southwest FA contract. Who do these people think they are? First, they kick off a girl because she's dressed too sexy (according to some bitter FA), kick of a guy because he is too fat (sadly for them, it was someone famous), and now this! There is either something in their contract stating that they are allowed to do things like this or they are all crazy and use poor judgement. It's a good thing I don't fly with them often!
Total BS by some of you people.
I bet had the mother slapped the baby and the crew did nothing, but later its reported that the mother injured the baby from that slapping, those of you supporting the mother now would be the first calling for the head of the crew for not acting. I does not matter if the FA was right or wrong, some of you would jump on the bandwagon of whatever gets to blame someone for being wrong no matter what happened.
Typically we associate the word 'slap' with hitting the face, but I don't see anywhere about where the child was hit. If the mum slapped her child in the face, I say good for the flight crew, let the parent feel what it's like to have the child taken away for a moment, might make her rethink things a bit. If she slapped the child on the hand or butt, I can't really see taking the kid away unless she was totally losing her cool while doing so. Still pretty grey, both sides have valid arguments.
Edit: Also, kind of conflicting statements in that article...
Quote:
The flight attendant did return the 1-year-old girl to her parents just before the plane landed.
Quote:
Police returned the child to her parents after speaking to the couple, the flight attendant and other witnesses.
From another article I read (I wish I can find the link), passengers that witnessed it said the FA was in the wrong. which is why they were given the child back and not arrested upon landing and received no citation from cops. Taking away the baby for a short cool down period, fine. But to call authorities because a parent decided to discipline their child the way they saw fit? A bit exaggerated.
First it was the passengers that went to the FA to complain and alert them about what was happening.
Second the parents were in a verbal confrontation with each other and disturbing the flight.
Third it was not one slap but repeated slaps to the face.
Fourth the child had physical bruises on the face.
Fifth the passengers did back up the FA.
Sixth, the police released the child back to the parents after a medical examination and determining the parents were sorry and it appeared to have just been one of those spur of the moment loosing control.
Finally, care to explain these in context of your bogus, know nothing about the facts, assertions: "I think it was a solid move from the part of the flight attendant to take custody of the child," airport police chief Marshall Katz said. "It neutralized the situation, it calmed everybody down."
“During the repeated open hand slaps and seeing the black eye on the child, I was afraid for that poor child especially with the parents yelling and screaming at each other the way they were, its so upsetting” said one passenger.
Also what does not appear in some news stories is passengers were trying to call authorities from the plane to get help for the child. That does not sound like they thought the FA was wrong!
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