A passenger on a Continental ExpressJet flight from Houston to Oklahoma City says she was removed from the flight because her toddler would not stop repeating the phrase, “Bye, bye plane.”
Her two-year old, Garron, repeated the phrase all through the flight attendant’s safety speech. Afterward, the passenger, Kate Penland, said the flight attendant told the man sitting next to her to shut the baby up. From ABC13:
“As she finished, she leaned over the gentleman who was sitting next to me, and she said, ‘OK, it’s not funny anymore. You need to shut your baby up,’” Penland said.
Penland told the flight attendant that Garron would fall asleep soon enough. Penland told Eyewitness News, “She said, ‘It doesn’t matter. Regardless, I don’t want to hear it.’ And she said it’s called baby Benadryl and (made a drinking motion.) And I said, ‘Well, I’m not going to drug my child so you have a pleasant flight.’”
Soon after the baby Benedryl incident, the flight crew made an announcement that they were returning to the gate. Authorities at the airport were notified of a “passenger disturbance,” but arrived to find only Kate and Garron being escorted off the plane.
Continental ExpressJet responded: “We received Ms. Penland’s letter expressing her concerns and intend to investigate.”
We really can’t figure out why they’d go so far as to kick the woman off the plane. Maybe a creepy kid chanting the phrase “Bye, bye plane” scared them? We know that’s lame but that’s all we can think of. Too weird.
Talking toddler and mother removed from flight in Houston [ABC13]
(Photo:ABC 13)
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By the way — I didnt have a chance to edit this into my prior comments — I am not taking sides on the matter with either the parent od F/A. I think, based on what’s been published so far, that if everything int he story is true, it could have been handled better by both sides.
@Televiper: I’ll remember to munch on some bean burritos on my next flight. I hope you don’t mind my farts because I sure as heck don’t.
Maybe driving from coast to coast is an easy thing for you but sure aint for me. You can take your crying children on your road trips. Just do us all a favor and avoid flying will ya?
True, kids cant always be controlled but if the parent doesnt make any reasonable attempt to get their to child behave, social niceties are being trampled upon and somebody’s gotta do smth.
Kicking them outta the flight was a bit too harsh though.
Yall are missing something. It’s a 2 year old. Benadryl for babies does not calm them down – it makes them agitated. If she dosed her baby up – imagine the terror he would become.
Comparing a toddler/infant to an older child who can respond to your requests is beyond stupid.
@Televiper: Hence your presence here, Televiper.
@axiomatic:
no we are not the center of the universe, but neither are “mommy’s with their Daaaarling kids”
after having been on a cross-atlantic plane ride for 17 hours next to a “daaarling” kid,
I would pay a premium to fly an “adults only flight”
Clearly he was a terrorist. “Bye-bye plane?”
Seriously, though, come on. I’d just be grateful he wasn’t kicking my seat.
No one is the center of the universe, including mothers.
I’m sick of this maternal sense of entitlement. The whole world does not revolve around you and your spawn, nor should it. You, as a mother, are responsible for the behaviour of your child and if the child is loud enough that even on a loud plane it is disturbing to the flight attendant or other passengers, you need to shut the kid up. Her refusal to do so is exactly the problem in this situation.
The needs of the other 119 passengers trump the mother’s desire to let her child say whatever it wants at whatever volume it wants.
Anyone who says the child should be allowed to disturb all the other passengers because the other passengers aren’t the center of the universe have it backwards. The other passengers shouldn’t have to deal with a wailing child because the child is not the center of the universe.
This thread has been comedy gold.
“Breeders SUCK!” “No, childless hipsters suck!”
Hi-larious.
Anyways, I fall somewhere in the middle. I’m a breeder hipster. (Actually, I’m totally unhip.) I have a 2 year old who, luckily, has been well-behaved on the three flights I’ve taken her. I only say luckily because two of those flights were taken when she was 4 months and 12 months.
When I flew with her in March, I made sure to have some snacks and juice handy for the 3 hour flight. As soon as we sat down, I kept her entertained with the goings-on outside the window. The older she gets, the more I’ll make sure the keep her entertained with books, crayons, what have you, so she doesn’t get bored – that’s when most kids get cranky, when they get bored. (She even kicked the seat in front of us, and I firmly grabbed her leg and told her “NO”. She didn’t do it again.)
I flew last year to Pitt from Philly, and my sister wanted me to bring the baby along. I refused. We were going for the weekend, there’s no need to have a baby along for that. (Good thing I didn’t. There was a 4 hour delay – in the plane – on the way there.)
I agree with everyone saying we should be a bit tolerant of a child when we see that the parent is actually trying to do something about his/her unruliness. And I also agree that not every place is intended for children. My daughter’s been to the movies twice. Both were early shows of cartoons. She will NOT be going to the movies at night till she is older and knows how to sit quietly for 2 hours. (Unlike my cousin who recently took her 1 month old baby to an evening showing of some adult movie or other. Seriously, I just do the opposite of whatever she does.)
I see I’ve rambled on for far too long. Let me shut up now.
@Skyoodpov: I have flown A LOT with a small child (family overseas). NOT ALL AIRPLANE BATHROOMS HAVING CHANGING TABLES. I have flown on many a plane that didn’t have one. If I can change my baby in the bathroom, I do. But, as stated by others, there often isn’t any room, and then it becomes a safety issue for me and my child to try to maneuver in that cramped space, with no flat surface large enough to make the change. As for the health “issue” everything should be contained in the diaper, and if I ever have to change my child in a non-standard place, I put something down to protect it. However, if you make me not change my child when s/he needs to be changed by not allowing me to do it where it is SAFE, there very well may be leakage, thus creating a biohazard. Deal with it.
@Hodo: IAWTC!
@emilayohead: You should watch a show like Supernanny where jelly-spined parents are taught to turn monsters like that into civilized human beings with a little bit of firm discipline.
@Islingtonian: Of course not, but my mother didn’t hesitate to discipline me so I didn’t do it again.
@brokennails: “Heh. Both the ‘breeders’ and the ‘iPod-wearing hipsters’ love to accuse each other of believing that the world revolved around them.”
No shit, right. So, if I complain about parents not attempting to discipline a child (“what do you expect me to do about it?” etc), then I must automatically be a grown-up child. Uh no. These undisciplined children who think the world revolves around them are probably the ones growing up to be the annoying, self-centered, self-involved “hipsters” these holier-than-thou parents are bitching about.
I have 3 children, never have road on a plain, by choise. a child is going to be a child. sure they can drive you batty, and make you want to run screaming into a burning buliding. but they are still children, and a 2 yeahold, does not know anybetter , he was not acting out , he was just repeating the new words he had learned. I will be the 1st to say parnets are letting their children get out of control and run amock, but that was not the case here and the airline should have handled this a lot better. becaouse there are alot more parnets flying and when you mess with our kids you will start to lose bussness. and no matter what you say today when you were a child you did the same thing. look at it this way, child or adult if you have a problem and needs a helping hand whould you want this flightattindent helping you or just embarrsing you and making the matter worse.
@honu-girl:
I have flown A LOT with a small child (family overseas). NOT ALL AIRPLANE BATHROOMS HAVING CHANGING TABLES.
You can do what you like on some piddly little 3rd world airline overseas. The flight TAKING you there I guarantee has a changing table. No international flight will NOT have a changing table because they are all larger planes.
Secondly I have personally, successfully changed a diaper on the lid of a bus toilet seat. I guarantee a BUS bathroom is at most the same size as an airline bathroom. So once again, yes there is room, if you are considerate enough to find it.
But if you are alright being a disgusting human being with no consideration for those around you, knock yourself out. Your kids will probably end up the same way.
“Shall we drug EVERYONE that talks on a plane so they pass out and are silent?”
YES!