Posted on 07/12/2007 9:10:39 AM PDT by Abathar
GWINNETT COUNTY, Ga. -- A Georgia mother said she wants answers and action after she and her baby were kicked off a plane.
Kate Penland said she was glad to board the plane in Houston to visit her father in Oklahoma after an 11-hour delay. But she said a rude and aggressive flight attendant caused her to get to Oklahoma a day late.
Penland thinks her 19-month-old son, Garren, has a bubbly personality. But Penland said when they were aboard a Continental Express plane, a flight attendant became annoyed by Garren's personality when he kept saying three words.
"As we started taxiing, he started saying, 'Bye, bye plane,'" said Penland. "At the end of her speech, she leaned over the gentleman beside me and said, 'It's not funny anymore. You need to shut your baby up.'"
In disbelief, Penland asked the woman if she was kidding. It was then, Penland said, the flight attendant went too far.
"She then said, 'You know, it's called baby Benadryl.' And I said, 'Well, I'm not going to drug my child so you have a pleasant flight,'" Penland said.
Penland said when the other passengers began speaking up on her behalf, the flight attendant got angrier and soon announced they were turning around and that Penland and Garren were going to be taken off the plane.
"I was crying, I was upset and I was thinking, 'What am I going to do? I don't have anything with me. I don't have any more diapers for the baby, no juice, no milk," said Penland.
The mother said she later learned the flight attendant told the pilot that she had threatened her. Penland said that never happened.
Express Jet Airlines released a statement that said, "We received Ms. Penland's letter expressing her concerns and intend to investigate its contents."
A fellow passenger told Atlanta TV station WSB that none of the other passengers had problems with Garren and that Penland never threatened the flight attendant. Penland said she is considering legal action.
I have another, even more sure-fire way of quieting my two year olds; No child of mine has ever cried on an airplane.
The point here, though, is that a total stranger in a position of authority told this woman to drug her baby.
The use of Benadryl as a sedative has been winked at by the medical community for a long time, but that doesn’t make it safe or right.
Perhaps not, but nor does it make it wrong or unsafe.
That’s not an argument, it’s contradiction.
I watched the video. He behaved like a typical 19 month-old boy who did not want to sit there. The mother was holding onto him as tightly as possible. The article made it sound like knocking the toy on the floor was so terrible. On the video, he’s trying to make it roll across the table and it fell on the floor.
I didn’t realize that you were a doctor, apparently you know more than I as to the effects negative or positive to giving it to children. There have been a few posters on this thread that have indicated that they have given benadrylo to their children under a doctor’s advice to know adverse effect.
Perhaps he was acting in the same manner on the airplane?
LOL. Good one!
Thanks for bringing me back to reality though. I've got a ton of housework to do. Better get to crackin'.
So do I! I'm kicking myself for continuing to check in here.
Look, you can give your child turpentine if you want to. Just don’t order me to give it to mine.
That was typical behavior for a toddler on that video, especially if he’s tired and irritable. The mother was keeping as much control as possible on that video, and they finally led him out of the room. Toddlers don’t sit quietly with their hands folded all the time. A few are naturally very passive, but that’s rare.
If the airlines don’t want toddlers on a plane, they shouldn’t be selling tickets for them.
LOL, lady calm down, but then your attitude is quite often what one finds on these parenting threads. I wouldn’t order you to give your child anything, I would just hope that you would have the decency to try to control your child when you are in a public place.
Hey can't argue with that....
That early in the morning, especially after a good night's sleep I would assume that he wasn't tired. So that leaves, irritable.
Oh, it’d take more than a few emotional outbursts from a faceless internet entity to get me riled up. :-)
So, can we agree that suggesting someone else drug their child for your comfort is wrong?
Sure, if you can agree that the parent should do all that is humanly possible to keep the child under reasonible control.
No argument here.
Want some popcorn?
Emotional outburts? From me,? Can you give me some examples of that?
I didn’t realize that you were a doctor, apparently you know more than I as to the effects negative or positive to giving it to children.
A little passive aggressive.
Perhaps not, but nor does it make it wrong or unsafe.
A contradiction, usually indicative of an inability to argue.
So I take it you would just sit there and let your kid scream his head off? Would you do anything to try to calm him at all? Or the rest of our ears just be d*mned?
This sounded very angry. Of course, this may tell you more about how I interpret the emotions of words than how you meant them. :-)
LOL, you definitely have a different idea of what constitutes an emotional outburst. But then I don’t want to appear to passively aggressive, you might give me some benadryl.
“Agreed. We are becoming not only a society which is unfriendly to family but down right hostile”
I’ve noticed that everywhere there are more and more people who hate the sight of kids.
They especially get hostile when they see alot of kids.
This is unfortunate for me as I have a large family.
I am resigned to the fact that I should not attempt to fly anywhere for quite a few years.
“You can’t control an infant always, but a toddler is eminently controllable. Mom did it all the time.”
No...a toddler is not “eminently controllable” at times as well.
And what people seem to forget is that there are many more autistic children out there who appear “normal” but do not have normal brains.
What some people see as bratty behavior, is actually the behavior of a child with a disability.
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