Sweety - Calm Down

First let me start off with saying that relatives and friends who know me well enough would know that today is a special day for me. I will talk about it in a bit.

While browsing the news today, my eyes caught on to this news where a family was expelled out of the plane because of the temper tantrum that their 3-year old daughter was causing. What had happened was that the family boarded AirTran Flight that was leaving Orlando, FL to Boston, MA. After boarding, the flight crew was getting ready for take-off. But this 3-year old would not take her seat on the plane and causing havoc while her parents were trying to calm her down and getting her to wear her seat belt. The kid was screaming, climbing under the seat and hitting her parents - ouch! (I had to throw that bit in).

The flight crew made an operational decision and followed the Federal Aviation Administration rule where kids above two years of age should be in their own seat, buckled up, ready for take-off. The crew booted the family out of the plane, so the plane could take off. I would say that this was a good decision that the officials made, keeping the sanity of the other 112 passengers on board. The parents were reimbursed their flight cost in addition to boarding them on the next flight along with 3 round-trip business class tickets to fly anywhere in U.S. This is a good deal that the parents can opt for, despite the delay they caused, putting the 112 passengers under sanity-check while forcing them to listen to the screams of the 3-year old (screams of a 3-year old girl can be harmful to your ears).

Who is in control of the situation here? One would think - the parents. But I digress. Looking at this whole situation, I feel that in addition to the family being thrown out of the plane, the parents should be given admission to a course that teaches them to deal with tantrums of their child - Parenting 101, instead of all the other goodies that they were offered. It is a 3-year old that they are dealing with and how difficult it is to seat a toddler and strap the belt around her. They could have avoided all this commotion, embarrassment and the feeling of being insulted and they could have been to Boston in that very flight.

I could understand why the kid did what she did. They were leaving Orlando and the kid wanted to stay back and enjoy Disney for the rest of her life and didn't want to leave. Perhaps. But what about the parents? Did they know that if they let the screams and squirmy behavior to continue, they would be off the flight with a sweet deal aftermath? Airlines should do this to more parents and be strict about it and parents - "you are in control and not your kids". Keep them distracted with other activities like a story book, a coloring activity, music to sooth them, a chocolate reward for being seated. There are at least a dozen things you can come up with if not a zillion.

Back to my special day. Today is my son Yash's Birthday. Happy Birthday Yash :-) Now you know, I was just not saying what I was in taking control of the situation. I have been there, done that.