Peekaboo is one of those games that has plenty of opportunity to go awry. Don't pay enough attention and you get a tantrum; pretend too hard the kid is missing and they may get scared; play too intensely and you may get sued ...
OK, so that third scenario isn't likely, but for an air steward on Virgin Blue, a game of peekaboo meant his job and now the airline is being sued. Natalie Williamson claims he put her 17-month-old son Riley in the overhead locker while on a flight from Fiji to Sydney and closed the latch for "up to 10 seconds" after getting a bit overzealous during a game of peekaboo with the toddler.
Note, the child was only in the compartment for one sixth of a minute, but his mother claims he has been traumatized. The child's mother told Nine News:
He won't leave my sight now. He sleeps with me. If I'm not in the same room as him, he will scream and yell, "Mum, mum, mum."
Does anyone else think this smacks of money grubbing? I'm not suggesting that putting the child in the compartment was a good thing. Most certainly it wasn't and the air steward should have been reprimanded. I could even see a few free tickets going to the family in order to make it all better. But come on? Traumatized for life? Really?
The story makes a small note of the fact that the parents of the boy are currently estranged. Not to extrapolate too much from that, since we never really know what goes on in another family, but isn't it possible that there was fighting going on? Perhaps there were other things that the child might have been scared of?
I am no child psychologist, but I find this pretty reprehensible. In no way do I actually believe that 10 seconds in an overhead compartment traumatized this child for life. This mom wants money and she thinks this is a good way to get it. They fired the steward, which maybe he deserves (especially because those compartments are really not safe for any human, let alone a baby), but come on now. This is just ludicrous.
Do you think it's possible this child was "traumatized" by 10 seconds of peekaboo?
Image via jeremyfoo/Flickr
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Comments 63
I agree with firing the steward (what a moron...who does that?), but I hope this woman loses her case. I mean really, this is why the courts are so backlogged, and you end up with violent criminals free after waiting for too long to get their cases tried. I hope this smut gets thrown out the second the judge hears it.
Forget punishing the stuardess or the airline for that matter WTH is wrong with the parents!! Where were they?? I've only flown 1 time and with only 1 of my 3 kids, and she never left my side! She was 8! Since when is an airline also a nanny service? Since when is it in their job description to entertain the children on the flight? I brought crayons, a new toy, a leap frog game system with lots of games, extra batteries, books... It's MY job to entertain!!!
Traumatized uh no.
They just want money.
would I be pissed? Hell yah! of course it would have never happened with me I would not want a stranger to play any game with my child. idk who they are!
You bet your ass I would sue...who the hell thinks they have the right to scoop up a child and put them in an overhead compartment for ANY length of time? I wouldn't be suing because my child was traumatized, and I would be suing for ignorance. I hope this steward gets into a shitload of trouble.
Both adults were not thinking--mom, why would even allow anyone to scoop up your child, open the overhead compartment and stick him in there. Seems like somewhere along the way, she should have jumped up and grabbed her baby. (And JAFE--a 17-month-old is still a baby--not even a year-and-a-half. If you had a child "that old" as you say, you would probably be holding it and maybe walking up and down the aisles a lot. Keeping the child in their seat on a flight of any length is unrealistic.) But the steward was incredibly stupid. If this happened out of sight of the mom, she has a right to sue. If she was watching, then she is a money grubber. Traumatized for life? Probably not. But traumatised somewhat--absolutely. But, either way, WTF with both "adults" in this story?
I think everyone can agree that putting the baby in the overhead compartment was dumb!! I'm sure the steward will look back on this and realize that it was most definitely not one of his finer moments, and I do think the mom has every right to be pissed about it...However, the steward has been fired and the company has apologized. I can see asking for free tickets... Suing over it though?? I do believe that's a bit munch! I don't think Riley will be scarred for life over this incident, I do believe that mommy has found a way to line her pockets though.
if anything the mother should be knocked upside her head for even letting this guy put the baby up there, who lets a stranger pick up your child then ALLOW the stranger to put them in a compartment,really?? It took more then 10 seconds to pick up this 17 month old and put him up there, i know my son would not willingly go in a small cubby without his hands feet or something getting in the way so the mother shouldn't of allowed it to get that far, and the airline attendent is just,ignorant...all parties should be cole cocked def not sued.
I honestly believe that the child could be traumatized. I would go so far as to sue the airline company, though. My pediatrician's office measured my daughter's head, saying it was too large. They ordered a CT scan, and I took my daughter. This was in January, my daughter was 10 months old. Try getting a 10 month old to hold still while they strap her down on a large machine. The results came back negative, and at the next pediatrician's appt, I was shocked to find out that they mis-measured my daughter's head, which meant that thare was no reason for the CT scan. To this day, my now 16 month old daughter screams bloody murder whenever we try to change her diaper in any public restroom. I believe she thinks that the changing table is the CT table. She starts going into a full mode panic attack when she sees the changing table. So yes, I DO believe that this child is traumatized.