Or was cabin crew? My child scolded herself.

[maxbradbury]

Ok flying home from Easter holiday. We went with a large group of us so all four children sat in the row in front with us sitting behind them on the plane. Cabin crew come through serving hot drinks and I have my nose in a book so do not notice. All of a sudden my six year old starts to scream. She had split hot chocolate all over herself . Turns out a member of crew asked if she would like a hot drink and she asked for a hot chocolate which was given to her without a lid or my consent. A member of crew took us to the loos and dressed to burn. I asked if it is normal procedure to give a young child a hot drink without consent and a lid. She said it wasn't and they would normally get consent and even then water it down with milk and pop on a lid.

Husband wants to make a complaint but I sort of feel I was partly to blame as I was not sat with her. She still has marks on her legs five days on. So am I to blame for not sitting with her or should I make a complaint?

I would send a letter just so their procedures are re looked at. Why all this obsessing with seeing a Dr on landing very strange.

Incident forms were designed by the airline industry to prevent accidents and near misses, should be as a no blame culture and used for training. This is an ideal scenario and exactly why the op should write not necessarily complain so training is kept upto date. An accident form is not a incident form just saying do no one needs to point out an accident form was filled in.

Max.

Of course you are not a shit Mum for letting your kids sit together while you relax. It shows you are a good Mum that they are happy and well behaved enough to sit together I just think this type of accident is one of those things where it not really anyone's fault.

I wouldn't worry about it but I wouldn't report it.

YANBU to complain.

Like a poster upthread says, it depends on what you want to get out of complaining, but in your shoes I definitely would.

This is not about whether you should or shouldn't have been sitting with the DCs. or what you could have done to prevent it. That's totally irrelevant in relation to whether you should make a complaint IMO.

It's a more general issue - should Cabin Crew give drinks which are hot enough to cause damage to DCs who are not being closely supervised by an adult? (On another occasion it might happen that the adult is in the toilet when Cabin Crew come round for example).

The answer to that is quite plainly no. The Cabin Crew member acted improperly - possibly simply because s/he isn't experienced with dealing with DCs. However that's not good enough. The actions of the Cabin Crew member led to your DC being injured. There is an obvious training need IMO. I would complain, and what I would want to get out of it was knowing that the company was taking genuine steps to make sure they don't put a child at risk in this way again.

Why are so many posters being so mean to the OP? She's not after compensation, she's not trying to pull a fast one and she isn't an irresponsible parent - jeez, cut her some slack. Ain't never met a perfect parent yet - we all make mistakes (as the steward serving her DD clearly did).

No one should be served a drink so hot it leaves burns on skin on an airplane. Ever!

Oh FFS, so none of us can have a tea or coffee now? Perhaps we should wear nappies on board too, in case turbulence hits while we're walking to the loo? .

A child can sustain a scald from 10 seconds' exposure to water at only 54 deg C so banning any drink that can scald means no hot drinks at all.

kim that's a totally irrelevant argument, if that situation had arisen I'm sure they would either have taken the child with them or informed the cabin crew of the situation.

OP and her party were in the wrong, as was the person serving the drink, why does someone have to be 'blamed'

Would the OP have been to blame if it had been a single parent on holiday and they'd left the seat to go to the toilet? well given you can see they are coming up with the food/drinks before they get to you (unless you are on the first row) then yes it would be daft to leave your young child (especially if they have allergies and are too young to understand) when you can see the drinks/food is coming.

birds There's no need to complain though. She is responsible for her child.

Well Kim, looks like this thread has taught you nothing whilst I think the OP has probably learnt from the situation.

Yes we all make mistakes, so no need to make a song and dance about it and complain is there?

I am amazed that so many posters are saying YABU OP.

Really?

This miraculous thing called 'supervision' was somehow meant to pre-empt 6 year old being served a scalding hot drink which splashed on her and left marks that are still there 5 days later.

The steward was negligent imo serving a drink that hot to a child.

How was the OP meant to mind read that the steward would do something so stupid on a moving aircraft?

I am quite frankly astonished that neither the parents nor grandparents took notice of two flight attendants with a drinks trolley clattering along a narrow aeroplane aisle, stopping beside them and offering drinks to all around them.

The grandparents were in the row in front of the children and the parents in the row behind. There is no way that none of those adults noticed what was going on. Not a chance. They are the ones who should have taken the decision as to whether the child was allowed a hot drink.

It doesn't sound as if the drink could have been all that hot if there is no real damage done to be honest.

I was burned by a hot cup of tea as a child, resulting in a six week stay in hospital with severely burned skin and scarring, which I still have now, so I'm not trivialising the damage that can be caused. In this case there wasn't any last damage.

Oh and incidentally, it was also my mother's fault that I was burned.

some replies are ridiculous, why should the op have thought it necessary to sit in the row with the children in order to keep them "safe" on a plane?????

If the parents and grandparents were in front and behind that means the crew were directly on side with each aisle of the parents and the truck thing in line with the kids. Seems the op can't admit responsibility

Oh and I would complain too.

Not to 'get someone in trouble' but to make the airline aware that this accident occurred and that children should never be served scalding hot drinks and especially not without a lid... in a MOVING aircraft.

Common sense innit.

Neither is leaving your child unattended whilst hot food and drinks are being served kim.

FFS why does someoe have to be blamed for a mistake which was partially created by your own actions. It's no wonder the world is becoming full of litigious, money grabbing chancers.

Yes, it was a very unpleasant accident.
I can't believe the number of people that feel that it's reasonable to jump in and complain though, it was dealt with at the time, and was probably put in the accident book.
Surely that should be it.

I fly frequently and whenever I have a cup of tea it's served with a lid and so hot you can't go anywhere near it for 10 minutes, let alone drink it. If you spilt one of those on your skin yes it would cause damage. I find it odd that other posters say they've never had a hot drink on a plane.
OP: Yes I'd contact the company to let them know that they didn't follow their own procedures - ie not necessarily complain but just explain what happened. But you are also right in thinking that the responsibility for supervising your child is ultimately yours.