AIBU to think cancelling the flight over a child was excessive

[MrsShawnHatosy]

An airline cancelled a flight because a child refused to sit down and put their seatbelt on. AIBU to think they should have asked the parents to get off, rather than cancelling the flight and stranding the rest of the passengers?

https://www.mirror.co.uk/travel/news/flight-cancelled-passengers-stranded-due-37532204

Makes me wish it was the seventies .. a quick slap and issue sorted

That's what I thought.

I agree with this.

They should be put on a no-fly list. Pathetic "parenting".

Yes I think adults could do it but they would possibly injure the child. If they are in a state they seem to have phenomenal strength. If the parents plus crew couldn't do it then it was pretty extreme.

Except that doesn't work on distress (or at all because it's piss poor parenting) and illegal in Canada for under 2s. Or if done in anger.

And everyone is seeing this as a failure of gentle parenting. But I grew up in South London with people who were parented the opposite way. Lots of physical chastisement and shouting. And it did not result in wonderfully behaved upstanding citizens. I aslo lived for many years in Canada with gentle parented snowflakes. And they are, day to day, wonderful, helpful, famously wellbehaved people.

I think it’s easy to underestimate how strong a determined child can be

i am sure the parents tried but while you can restrain a child forcing someone into a sitting position is much harder

Luggage NEVER travels without the passenger who checked it in. Unless there has been a serious security breach

If I don't mention it someone will - strictly that's not quite true.

If it was true lost baggage would never get back to it's owner.

There are ways of transporting unaccompanied baggage/cargo/packages safely, but none of those would have helped in this case 🤔..

In this instance the bags had to come off.

But this article is like catnip to a certain type of person

I guess this is a very good point

no I haven’t. I don’t have Netflix

Maybe aircraft should carry something like the CARES harness for children who need more than the lap belt?

Safety level 0/10.

The parents should have been heavily fined. Apparently other travellers were left trying to scramble for hotel rooms, as the airline didn't arrange that. And I gather some people weren't able to find overnight accommodation.

I'd have been furious.

Absolutely! He's have been I jured if the force required was applied!

She has apologies. Maybe you need to read the thread again.

Same, grew up on Ireland parented in 80s style hit first ask questions later. My sister is exactly like my son, I remember my dad beating her trying to get her in a seatbelt to get to school, this girl was 6 and she unbuckled herself and jumped out of a reversing car. They had to admit defeat and he was a big man happy to hurt you.

The article says that the child was buckled in but would then slide out underneath.

Incompetent parenting.

Mind boggling, those poor people getting so delayed and then being stuck overnight because of someone's ineffective parenting.

So what if it was 11 pm. Don’t fly if your child is a brat, or if your child can’t behave, or if the time is too unsettling for your child.

I'm inclined to agree, in that I really can't imagine one of mine doing that, but in reality, if you've got one who is determined to slide out of the belt, how do you stop it?

I'd be very surprised if the child had sat like a model passenger right up until the moment they pushed back, possible but unlikely. I suspect the parents thought the there would be little the airline could do once they'd left the gate.

Yes it's scary to think what could happen.

I think it's entirely possible a child could be comfortable until the plane started moving.

Yes indeed.

The full story of how this played out would be interesting to hear, but we may not get it.

I’m inclined to think the parents were despairing and probably very upset.

apart from anything else you’d have to have the hide of a rhino not to feel the disapproval and hatred.

It’s hardly a common occurrence, even though MN would have you believe feral children are grounding flights routinely, and is indicative to me of some other issue