I previously shared an incident where a woman seated in front of my daughter hit her legs mid flight. Apparantly this situation is not unique as Phoenix police are currently investigating an incident on a Southwest Airlines flight where a woman allegedly grabbed a child who was kicking the back of her seat in March.
A mother is now pressing charges against a 42-year-old woman who allegedly assaulted her 3-year-old boy while they were on Southwest flight. The mother described the incident to police:
“Her three-year-old son either kicked or put his feet up on the back of the woman’s seat when she turned around and grabbed him. The woman told the child, “You’re not going to be kicking my seat all the way to Las Vegas,” while she shook him and then slammed him back on the seat.”
Talk about an over-reaction. I have to admit when the passenger in front of me hit my child’s feet, I was ready to let loose on my four letter, words, but shaking a child is an entirely different story.
So, what do you do?
First, separate the woman from your child. Physically intervene to get her away from her.
Second, calm yourself down. There is no way any of us could transition from the fight or flight stress level necessary to protect our child to a rational conversation. Ask fellow passengers or the flight attendant to intervene while you take a break. Walk yourself and your child to the back of the plane for some water, juice and a cooling off period. Tricks to calm yourself down include noticing your breathing, counting backwards from ten, spelling your name backwards. These tricks all re-engage the rational part of your brain.
Once you are calm, try to define the problem: i.e. she doesn’t want to sit in front of your child and fix it, either she moves or you do. As long as your child is physically safe, there is no need to escalate the issue (especially with someone irrational enough to shake another person’s child).
2 Comments
I disagree that walking away and changing seats is the proper way to handle the situation. Not that I think putting your hands on someone else’s child is appropriate either. But my question would be, what was the mother doing to prevent the situation from happening? Had the child been kicking/hitting the seat repeatedly? All to often I see parents who seem to want to excuse their children from proper manners just because they are on an airplane and everyone else is just supposed to tolerate the child’s improper behavior. Again, not saying that what the adult passenger did was ok, but as a responsible parent you have to understand that there are other people on the plane, and their feelings need to be considered too. Some options could be to sit in the front of the plane, where there are no seats in front to kick or hit, teaching children proper manners is never a bad idea, and ensuring that there are items available to your child to keep them entertained will go a long way also. I don’t mean to sound harsh, or to say that the mother is at fault- just making a general statement that if the child is being disruptive that needs to be addressed, yes adults should act like adults and never discipline someone else’s child- but there have been many times I’ve been on a flight and felt like if the parent wasn’t going to do it, then someone should! I travel alone with my two children frequently, an 8 year old and a 3 year old and I receive compliments often as to their behavior, and its because we talk about proper behaviors, I try to sit in a spot that will provide the most comfort to not just myself but the passengers *I do this by looking online and selecting my own seat based on availability or by calling the airline and asking for special considerations, most of the time they are happy to oblige.* And I’m always sure to have coloring books and crayons, puzzles and small toys to help keep them busy.
Now I’m really nervous for our flight to Calif in July! Yikes! People are NUTS!