Poor Dr. Colette Vieau. All she wanted was to return home from a vacation in Turks and Caicos with her two daughters and her husband. But 2-year-old Natalie would not sit belted into her seat (as per FAA regulations). And so the family was booted off the flight. That is, after Colette and her husband finally succeeded in wrestling Natalie down and getting her belted in.
It seems a little mean-spirited, don't you think? I mean, if you're going to kick a family off, don't wait until AFTER they get their kid under control. That just sounds like you're trying to make a point. The airline (JetBlue) should have had more compassion.
Or anyway, that's my "as a parent" perspective. That kind of changed when I saw the family in action on Today. Hmm, on second thought, maybe I would have booted them off, too.
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Yeah, they don't seem to have a grip. Not that I'd do much better, with two kids that age! But now I'm thinking that Colette and her husband just took too darn long to get Natalie under control -- the crew had lost faith in them by then. It wasn't about getting Natalie under control eventually. It was about showing the crew that they can depend on you to do your job as a parent through the entire flight.
That said, I think the crew could have done better, too. They should have given the parents to the count of ten to control their kid. "And she has to stay in her seat until the seat belt sign goes off." I'm serious! In a situation like this, the airline needs to act like a good parent: State your expectations, make the consequences very clear, and then give the family a chance to make a good choice.
Toddlers are not going away any time soon -- we keep making more and more of them. And with seats getting smaller and prices going up they're becoming everyone's favorite airline scapegoat. But before we start kicking every tantrum-throwing toddler off the plane I think airlines need to come up with some smarter strategies that will work for all their paying customers, big and small.
Do you think the airline was right to kick the family off the flight?
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Comments 135
My daughter is generally well behaved, but when she does throw a tantrum, it's a doozy. (It's also embarassing, because it's usually in front of someone I've just braged to about how well behaved she is.)
On an airplane, your disipline options are very limmited. You can't remove them from the situation (which in my experience is the best to deal with tantrums) because you'll miss the plane and it ain't waiting for you. Waiting for the next plane (assuming that's even an option with your tickets) will make the kids crankier and lead to another melt down. Time out is essentially what the parents were trying to do anyway, get the kid to sit in one place. Spanking may work, but iy could backfire
I don't spank my kids. I don't have to. Why do people assume that if your children are well-behaved that you must have smacked them into it? And someone please enlighten me: what is "blanket training"? I have never heard this term...
Please, those kids were talking over the parents and they ignored it! If that were my child, I would have stopped my interview (and stopped repeating "FAA regulations" 50 times to distract from bad parenting) and told them to sit still and be quiet. They could have made SOME attempt to quiet the kids during that interview.
From what I could see on the video clip, these are the normal behaviors of 2 and 3 year old children. Children of these ages don't sit still and that is perfectly normal for that age. As parents, you just have to work through that stage. This is why there are baby / toddler quiet rooms in almost any church you go to. Kids throw tantrums at times and all parents know it. Traveling is especially hard on children and quite stressful on parents because routines are disrupted for the children which only adds to the behaviors. The only suggestion I would have for the parents is to consider not traveling with their children until they get a little older. Make their vacations closer to home until they outgrow this loving but trying age for parents. Best Wishes to both Mom and Dad!
And since when do an airline and other passengers have to put up with 2 brats and their folks? Jetblue was absolutely right. I hope they don't get a refund for getting booted off the flight, they totally had it coming.
I agree with ele4phant. The tantrum probably went on for way longer than 3-5 minutes. If you can't control your kid in the few minutes you have before take-off, what the crap is going to go down mid-flight? Hubby and I already put the kabash on any trips that require airplane travel until our son is old enough to sit still, sit quietly (HA, I have no idea when that will happen), and not disrupt everyone else around us. Oh, and Turks and Caicos isn't exactly like Disneyworld, is it? I doubt there were many other kids--if any--on the flight, so her tantrum was probably all the more annoying.
squirmy, yes. endangering the flight??? lol. I saw kids like this when I flew 15-20 yrs ago. Not a problem then, magically a problem now. And the younger one-the one they were booted for - was fine on the vid too. American flights have become so unpleasant now. wth is going on over there? And not just the flights.