Flying the child-unfriendly skies - Salon.com |
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Posted: 30 April 2014 at 04:41 |
The story of a mother who was kicked off a Continental flight because she refused to medicate her 19-month-old at the flight attendants request has stirred up a poop storm of opinions and accusations in cyberspace. Last month, Kate Penland was flying from Atlanta to Oklahoma with a stop in Houston. As the plane was taxiing toward takeoff, for its final leg, her son Garren began saying Bye-bye, plane repeatedly. Penland told WSB-TV in Atlanta that a flight attendant said: Its not funny anymore. You need to shut your baby up. After Penland questioned whether she was joking, the flight attendant reportedly answered: You know, its called baby Benadryl. Penland told the flight attendant that she wasnt about to medicate her child so that the flight attendant could have a pleasant flight, and the flight attendant announced that they were turning around and kicking the woman off the plane. In the updated story the flight attendant allegedly told the captain that she had been threatened by Penland, something Penland denies. Powered by Goldvk Forum ,the perfessional game raiders forum,including game raides,instance,Game Gold(Guild Wars 2 gold ), equipment, pvp, quests, etc.Powered by Goldvk Forum ,the perfessional game raiders forum,including game raides,instance,Game Gold(Guild Wars 2 gold ), equipment, pvp, quests, etc. Bring on the child haters, the airline critics, the lazy parenting theorists! If you think this story sounds like an urban legend designed to foment sippy-cup culture wars, I dont blame you. I too would have found it difficult to swallow had I not experienced a similar treatment on an airline just last month. The details are tedious they involve me tapping the flight attendant on the shoulder trying to pass along some trash, him informing me he didnt appreciate being touched, and me asking why he was being so rude. He then snarled at me: Your children are totally out of control! If youd just discipline them, youd be much better off. Granted, my kids often give an unfortunate impression given that they both look two years older than they are, but definitely act their age. In public situations, Ive been known to whisper, hiss, threaten, cover a screaming mouth, and take away beloved privileges until Im literally dripping with sweat. But this wasnt one of those occassions. When the flight attendant a young man who I assumed had no children told me off, both children were sitting absolutely silent, enraptured by a Hello Kitty DVD. Perhaps something had happened while I was in the bathroom and they were with my husband, Ill never know. After the event, I had 20 more hours of traveling to soul-search. Perhaps my children are monsters and I would never really be able to see it. Maybe in the wake of 9/11, flying and the jobs of flight attendants had become too stressful and high anxiety for them to be able to deal with squirmy passengers with squeaky voices or anything out of the ordinary. (Do a search for kicked off airplane and you get all sorts of stories about American flights dumping passengers for virtually nothing: a coughing fit, a political T-shirt, for a father asking if a pilot is sober.) Find cheapest gw2 gold new from us.Find cheapest Guild Wars 2 gold new from us. Once we switched flights to Lufthansa and a number of smiling, toy-bearing
German flight attendants charmed the socks off my kids, I couldnt help thinking
that it wasnt air travel but an American cultural divide about the place of
children in society. The recent story about a woman who was kicked off a Delta
flight for not covering her toddlers head with a blanket while breast-feeding
offers more evidence of some weird attitudes toward children. The experience of
Kate Penland vindicates this hunch. Obviously suggesting that a child be
medicated goes far beyond any rational response to a chatty 19-month-old no
matter how repetitive he was being. (Baby Benadryl can be a beautiful thing, but
its a parents prerogative to use it, not a flight attendants place to demand
it.) But according to many of the readers of this story who are sick and tired
of obnoxious booger eating animals disturbing their peace, she did the right
thing. Now lets be clear; most of the posters sympathize with Penland, whether
they have kids or not. But for a certain child-free percentage of the
population, ordinary kid behavior is so reprehensible as to warrant turning
around flights and creating child-free restaurants. you can Guild Wars 2 Gold
kaufen from online shop with safe transaction.you can Guild Wars 2 gold kaufen from online shop with safe transaction. |
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