One of the message boards I frequent posted this article yesterday. Apparently, on a Southwest flight a woman slapped her baby to make her stop crying. The baby girl also had a black eye, which was supposedly from a dog bite. A flight attendant held the baby for a minute so the father could get out of the row, and according to the video that was controversial (although I don’t really agree). Southwest had authorities meet the plane once it landed in Albuquerque, but the family then boarded another flight. One of the worst quotes of the article:
“Asked if she thought it was okay to hit a 13-month-old baby, the woman nodded to police and said, “She’s my daughter,” according to the police report.”
The article states that several passengers were upset by the behavior. Uh, yeah! If I witnessed that on a plane I don’t know what I would do. I don’t have kids so I try hard not to judge the way people parent their children. But still–who slaps a child to make them stop crying? And not just a child, a baby. Seems like that would have exactly the opposite effect. A black eye caused by a dog bite? Sounds suspicious to me, considering the behavior. If the mother would slap her child in front of a plane full of people, who knows what she would do in private? The flight attendant probably had a hard time handing a child back to her parents when she knew what would happen later.
So now I am sad. Sad for the passengers who had to witness that, knowing they couldn’t really do anything. Sad for the flight attendant. And of course, incredibly sad for that poor, poor baby.
Wow! As you said, I think that someone who slap a baby in a plane full of people is clearly not innocent! Very sad!
That brings up an interesting subject: what do you do when your child cry on the plane? Does anyone have tips? (obviously, any type of violence is unacceptable!)
The sad thing is, baby’s ears might be hurting – they are very sensitive to pressure. Sometimes you can give a little decongestant before getting on the plane. It sucks once they get wound up in that situation – walk them up and down the aisle if you can, but the best plan is be prepared with a lot of stuff to distract them – books, snacks, toys, new if possible so they are excited. And of course a movie on a portable DVD player – you can rent them at the airport if you don’t have one. Thank you RW for this post and for being understanding as a non-parent – we can’t always control how our kids are behaving but still I would never ever hit one of my kids.