What if he had autism? The parent may not know, he’s only three. What if he was her first child and she didn’t know if she was doing something wrong or what? I don’t know why one would be forced to travel with a child who couldn’t handle it (maybe a funeral or something) and the poor parent wouldn’t find out until after trying a first flight. But at this point perhaps she needs medical help to sedate him somewhat (a tegretol patch might do it, but you have to be so careful medicating a child so far from hospitalization, and you’d need to sedate him first on a practice day closer to medical help ) for the ride home, and try never to fly with him until he is much older.
I have been there and I do understand that a new parent doesn’t have the dx or understand the special needs of her child yet. I feel bad for all involved.
I disagree. I GUARANTEE you that this level of behavior had previously manifested itself in other situations requiring the child to be static for any period of time. It didn't require just stepping onto a plane for the first time to trigger this.
If this had been the first time ever that the mother had observed this behavior in Junior she would have been crying for help and desperate for any assistance at seeing this level of extended out of control behavior for the first time. Instead, she tried to "manage" while being oblivious to the impact of this extremely disruptive behavior.