Posted on 07/13/2007 2:03:55 PM PDT by Cagey
NEW YORK -- The Gwinnett County mother kicked off an airplane with her 19-month old son tried to tell her side of the story Friday morning, but her son's crying drowned out part of the interview.
Garren Penland, 19-months old, got so unruly during his mom's chat with 'Good Morning America' anchor Diane Sawyer, co-anchor Chris Cuomo had to take the toddler off the set.
While Kate Penland explained her child was well-behaved on the Continental Express flight, little Garren kicked, wiggled and squirmed out of his mother's arms.
At one point he climbed up on a coffee table and rifled through Sawyer's scripts.
When Sawyer handed him a model Space Shuttle to distract him, Garren rolled it off the table and onto the floor.
Kate Penland said she and Garren were booted from the flight last month by a flight attendant who suggested she use benadryl to calm her son down.
I do that drill with my grandkids.
After all, if drugs are good for the baby, then they are great for the stewardess.
Apparently not, at least not in his case. He had to hold her the whole way. I can’t recall how old she was but this was a few years ago so things may have changed by now.
For a meek, passive type of child, maybe.
If she had spanked her child in front of everyone simply for saying, "Bye, bye, plane," she might've been arrested for child abuse.
Nah, in this case, the flight attendant abused her power.
And how are the little robots?
Well, she is now forty and has her own law practice. As for early behavioral problems, you just don't tolerate it from the get-go. Understandably, that may not altogether work with every child. We used some corporal punishment light and never did it in public. Public corporal punishment should never be attempted these days, and especially in light of all the sob-sisters and weep-easies that we have out there.
Back when I lived in WA state, the bar section of a restaurant was just that. Until the smoking ban went into effect, I would go to places like Red Robin, that didn't allow smoking anywhere in the building, and had a great meal smoke and kid free. But here in NY, kids are allowed in bar areas for some strange reason.
LOL! Kids.
I was told by my pediatrician not to use benadryl on my child when flying many years ago.
Too bad he didn't drop trou and take a dump on her scripts. Now that would be must-see TV.
I’m not sure what part of my post you were responding to.
In discussion with other posters it came up that even good kids can get irritable and fussy - especially when flights are delayed and there is no access to food or drink.
In this particular situation the plane did not turn around because the child was misbehaving - the stewardess told the pilot she had been threatened by the mother.
There is alot of talk here about making kids and behave - and alot of posters bragging about how perfect their kids were.
What used to be acceptable forms of discipline will now get you arrested or reported to DSS.
my only intention is to show not everyone’s situation is the same.
What works for some people may not work at all for others.
It never hurts to give a struggling parent the benefit of the doubt.
Judgement and harsh words don’t help the situation.
I’m sure there is policy that if a child is being too disruptive, and the plane is still on the ground - the parents are asked to delay to another flight?
Regardless - that is not the situation here.
The stewardess claimed she had been threatened - when apparantly that wasn’t true.
I’m sure that even you could have handled hearing a child say “bye bye plane” ???
“For a few moments, perhaps. Done properly it is all over-and-done-with in about five minutes”
Louder screaming and possible arrest on returning to the terminal (or at least a report to DSS)
You asked earlier if yours was the only kid who went ‘nuts’ with Benedryl. I have one that couldn’t take it when he was a small child either; made him MR. HYPER. His asthma meds did the same thing to him. Fortunately for me and the flying public, we didn’t need to fly anywhere. He’s deplorably healthy now, so I don’t know if Benedryl would still make him hyper.
> Louder screaming and possible arrest on returning to the terminal (or at least a report to DSS)
I thought you Yanks weren’t afraid of your Gummint, and that’s what you have your Second Amendment for? Seems that all that you’ve managed to do is keep your guns and lose your right to raise your children properly as you see fit.
Not a good trade.
From the sounds of it the DSS is a secret police institution that you should dismantle pronto.
> If she had spanked her child in front of everyone simply for saying, “Bye, bye, plane,” she might’ve been arrested for child abuse.
Our gummint in New Zealand recently passed a Bill removing the “reasonable force” defense in the Crimes Act for parents who discipline their children. It was an immensely unpopular move, driven by the Green Party, and it will cost Helen Clark the election in 18 months time.
Since passing this law, Helen Clark’s Labor Party has fallen way behind in the polls and looks unlikely to recover the ground that was lost.
As it sits now, it is up to the Police to decide whether “abuse” has happened, or merely trivial parental discipline. This situation is unlikely to be allowed to persist with a change in government.
From the sounds of it, the US needs to define in law what is “abuse” and what is “parental discipline” — as we will need to do in New Zealand.
I don’t think that you have the story quite right. Maybe this is a different 19 month old, but it looks like the same one.
“Bye Bye Plane,” over and over, interrupting the flight attendant who was trying to give the safety speech, several times. The mother thought that the kid was just being cute. The stewardess disagreed. The mother made no attempt to hush the child so that the flight attendant could get through her little speech.
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