Society's Child

Unruly child & family kicked off flight in Portland

Associated Press
Thu, 29 Mar 2012 10:58 UTC

An unruly child put an end Tuesday evening to a plane trip by a family flying from Long Beach, Calif., to Vancouver, B.C., authorities said.

A young child refused to stay seated during an Alaska Airlines flight, according to Port of Portland spokesman Steve Johnson, and neither the parents nor flight attendants were able to control the child.

The pilot radioed ahead to have police waiting at the gate in Portland to remove the family of four from the plane.

Officers spoke with the family but did not arrest or cite them. They were not allowed to get back on the flight to Vancouver. Johnson said the stop in Portland was a scheduled stop for the flight.

He was unsure of the exact age of the child.

Comment: How does a child 'refuse' to be seated? Parenting is not a Democracy!

Reader Comments

Noise · 2012-03-29T11:12:00Z

If those were my kids..

I prefer not or threaten or hurt (smack on the butt) a child, but I think a parent should have a healthy set of boundaries set for their child(ren). And when those boundaries are crossed there should be consequences. Punishment should not be dealt based on emotion or level of (real or imagined) embarrassment, but more in terms of level of boundary crossing. That might sound vague.

I think there are occasions where a good scolding or a firm pat on the butt is needed. And I don't think it is inappropriate (unless it is cruel..) publicly or privately. Any thoughts?

Luke · 2012-03-29T14:38:48Z

My thoughts are that smacking is wrong, because if you do it once, you can do it again and again and again.

I think the problem here is that kids don't understand the concept of "embarrassment" or "being a nuisance" because they haven't developed that sense of "narcissistic" boundary(like don't breach this space or boundary because its going to infringe on how I look to others as a parent or guardian). I mean I remember once when I was kid, was busy minding my own business playing, jumping on the sofa, just being a 6 year old, only problem is my parents had visitors and afterwards it turned out that I was "embarrassing" them in front of friends. Honestly, at the time I had no idea, they were busy talking I was busy minding my own business. I think same applies here, the kids didn't understand the gravity of being on a plane and what is required and the parents hadn't developed a level of communication with there children where they could if not make them understand make them act differently in the situation etc.

I think the most important thing is that a parent must learn to build a level of communication with there child even when they are really small without resorting to Pavlovian techniques like "go stare at the wall" "smacking them" "leave the dinner table" etc etc to try and condition some behaviors into them.

Luke · 2012-03-29T15:00:36Z

Just to expand, I think smacking is wrong because:

When you hit, you inflict physical pain and that doesn't necessarily translate into a greater understanding in the child. The child gets hit and probably cries at which point they stop doing what it was they were doing and the parent starts nursing them and acting like they are all sorry etc etc. Or they see the anger in there parents eyes and get scared and so comply(because of fear). Or maybe just comply because of the pain.

How is any of these useful to the long term development of the child?

OSIT.

Beauzy · 2012-03-29T19:10:25Z

When your child runs out on to the road & seriously endangers themselves ones 1st instinct as a parent is to give the child a jolly good spank.
That 1st instinct carried out with love totally flies in the face of the reaction the PTB are globally mind programming us to believe is the correct response.The child WILL remember the smack,your words it will only recall as adult whining
As with most of the mumbo jumbo modern science has produced in the last century,50% of it is absolute shite.
These kids are out of control due to weak parenting.

Luke · 2012-03-30T04:55:14Z

Well I also did that once. Just walked into the road on a bend without looking when I was a child and I was pulled back just in time before a passing car went by. The thing that caught my attention the most was the look of sheer shock in the eyes of those there. They were so shocked that it had an effect on me and I knew that I shouldn't ever do that ever again because i'd get hit by a car.

No need for spanking.

Ruth · 2012-03-29T19:07:54Z

Parenting is not a Democracy?

No, sometimes its more like WWIII.... or herding cats!

The parents may have decided to let children run up and down the isles rather than just picking the child up and having a wriggling screaming banshiee manifest.... all the way to where ever they were going. Perhaps they took the quieter option. Interesting to note, that even the flight attendents couldn't control the child either.

As everyone knows, the rubbishy diet that most children have to eat, combined with the excitment of being on a plane, that will not make for an easy time of it!

deej · 2012-03-29T22:24:00Z

Good points, Ruth. If you haven't had to fly for hours with a suffering 1 or 2 year old while trying to comfort/control/entertain the child, you just don't know enough about it to judge fairly.

When you add in that most children are damaged in some way, more or less, by the toxic soup they're exposed to -- well, spend some serious time with autistic children and you'll start to have some experience that will open your eyes and mind (if you're capable of compassion).

As an example, one physician is finding young children with very serious adrenal burnout. Serious to the point of life-threatening over a period of time. Such children simply do not have the physical resources available to "behave" once they crash, hormonally speaking.

Almost certainly, there's much more to this story than good vs bad parenting.

In the future, they may be used to replace cells and tissues that have been damaged or lost due to disease.

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Unruly child & family kicked off flight in Portland

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