Last month, Pamela Root and her son Adam got kicked off a Southwest flight when the 2-year-old toddler got unruly during a pre-flight safety instruction. Later, Southwest apologizes and gave her vouchers for her inconvenience (though not for the decision to yank her off the flight).
Amy Alkon of Advice Goddess Columns disagrees with Southwest's apology. She wrote this op-ed at the Los Angeles Times on how parents with unruly kids are "stealing from the rest of us":
There is a notion, reflected in numerous blog comments about the incident, that other passengers should "just deal" and "give a kid a break." This notion is wrong. Parents like Root and others who selfishly force the rest of us to pay the cost of their choices in life aren't just bothering us; they're stealing from us. Most people don't see it this way, because what they're stealing isn't a thing we can grab on to, like a wallet. They're stealing our attention, our time and our peace of mind.
More and more, we're all victims of these many small muggings every day. Our perp doesn't wear a ski mask or carry a gun; he wears Dockers and shouts into his iPhone in the line behind us at Starbucks, streaming his dull life into our brains, never considering for a moment whether our attention belongs to him. These little acts of social thuggery are inconsequential in and of themselves, but they add up -- wearing away at our patience and good nature and making our daily lives feel like one big wrestling smackdown. [...]
I know, I know -- because I am not a parent I cannot possibly understand how hard it is to keep a child from acting out. Actually, that probably has more to do with the way I was raised -- by parents I describe as loving fascists. As a child, I was convinced that I could flap my arms and fly, but the idea that I could ever be loud in a public place that wasn't a playground simply did not exist for me.
I hear claims that some children are prone to tantrums no matter how exquisitely they are parented. If this describes your child, there's a solution, and it isn't plopping him in a crowded metal tube with hundreds of people who can't escape his screams except by throwing themselves to their deaths at 30,000 feet.
What do you think? Was Amy right? Link
(Photo: Karen T. Borchers / Mercury News)
For those arguing "well, no one wants to be the parent of a screaming child in an airplane!".. no duh! But just "not wanting" something does not remove guilt and is not a proper excuse. I "didn't want" to fail my college Chemistry 101 exam, but I did anyway -because I didn't study hard enough-! I accept this now. It's time you did too.
The way your child acts is more often than not a reflection of your parentining skills. I was also raised by "loving facist" parents... I grew up with my head in the clouds, but pitching a tantrum in public was simply unthinkable.
Entitled whiners. The world does not revolve around you. I blame a culture that gives trophies to all the little leaguers instead of making people work for a reward. Jeebus - grow a skin.
*ssholes annoy the crap outta me too - it's part of life and no one said it was "fair."