Posted on 01/23/2007 10:26:18 AM PST by Fawn
On Jan. 14, 3-year-old Elly Kulesza and her parents, Julie and Gerald, were kicked off an AirTran Airways flight from Florida to their Worcester, Mass., home because Elly would not stop crying.
Elly, who had been a model passenger on the flight to Florida four days earlier, began to cry uncontrollably once she got on the plane, throwing a temper tantrum on the floor.
AirTran employees demanded that the Kuleszas calm down their child. When Elly didn't stop crying, the crew banned the Kuleszas from flying for 24 hours. Later, AirTran offered an apology to the family along with a refund on their tickets.
"As we have an obligation to the 112 other passengers onboard the flight to operate the flight on time," AirTran said in a statement, "we had to make an operational decision to ask the Kulesza party to deplane so the flight could depart."
On "Good Morning America," the Kuleszas insisted that their toddler wasn't doing anything out of the ordinary.
"I don't know what happened. No one can tell when something like this is going to happen. She had a great morning, but then she got on the plane and she started to cry," Julie Kulesza said.
"She's like the typical 3-year-old. She has her moments, but overall she's a very, very good child."
The Kuleszas said that unlike the AirTran crew, the passengers on the flight were sympathetic to their situation.
"I jokingly turned around and asked the three gentlemen behind me, 'Aren't you glad you got these seats?" Julie said. "Another passenger offered up a lollipop to try and calm her down."
Despite AirTran's apology and offer of a complimentary flight, the Kuleszas don't plan to fly with the airline anytime soon.
"We'll pass on that," Gerald Kulesza said. "After that, I told them I'd never fly with them again." PAGE 2 CONTINUED AT SITE
I wear jeans and make sure my shirt is cotton. If we crash, I'm not having any polyester melting into my skin on the way out of the plane.
As most parents of 3 year olds would tell you, the 90% likelihood in this case is that the child was either hungry or very thirsty, and the parents let it go far too long.
90% of the time our kids act this way, it is fixed by a juice box or snack. Do you agree with me that the parents likely let the girl's thirst or hunger get out of hand?
I don't think I own any polyester...
OK, you got me, I should have said "synthetics." Pretty much anything they make clothes out of that isn't cotton or wool is bad news in a fire.
I doubt it. From the article:
Elly, who had been a model passenger on the flight to Florida four days earlier...
We have "the look" and we have the "I'm going to give you something to cry about". We have the very effective "your bike/dirt bike are going bye bye". And the line that shakes kids to the core, the "wait until daddy gets home."
When they have misbehave in restaurants, it lasts for a minute, tops. They get the message pretty quick when they know they can't get away with it. I have flown with them and they were very good. I brought a carseat for the little one, they each had their own seat for the flight and had a steady flow of lollipops. They fell asleep pretty quick too because we booked flights that would coincide with naps, etc. I am a stickler for schedules.
How hard could it be for the flight attendant to ask the person sitting in the same row with the parents to switch seats?
I didn't know that, but what parent would let a three year old sit alone on a flight. The child should have been by mom or dad, and the other parent sitting alone. That would have been the easiest and made the most sense. Parents should be in charge of doing what's right for their child, not a flight attendant. If the seating is as you say, it should have been a no-brainer for the parents that one of them should move.
Ok, I'll bite. Why would it have been more acceptable to disturb the passengers on a bus or train? Is there something sacred about air travel that I don't know about?
I mentioned bus or train because they are ground transportation. Another poster had told me that they read in another article that the child had an ear infection. You should never fly with an ear infection, due to the changes in pressurization.
I doubt that story though, because the flight crews are aware of that and if the parents had said that their daughter had an ear infection to any of the flight attendants, they would have refused to allow her to fly FOR THAT REASON.
I agree
I took a train trip from Chicago to Maine back in the srping of '98. I was stuck next to a pack of loud college girls for half of the trip...12 freakin' hours, much of it at night.
Had I been on a plane, it would have been two hours, maximum. Big, big difference.
How horrid! I hope you reported him! I am surprised he didn't knife you. What in the world are parents thinking these days? One more future juvenile delinquent, I am sure.
When my brother returned FROM COLLEGE years later, he and my parents witnessed a child of about 4 pitching a screaming tantrum in the floor of a restaurant. Of course, the kid was in total control, the parents were captive, and the restaurant was, too. My brother never broke stride as he helped himself to a roll and said "you know, I bet no one has ever given him anything to help him control his temper." My sister and father dissolved in paroxysms of laughter (my brother is very understated).
Discipline for a child is NOT to make the child behave. Only the child can do that. Discipline (especially spanking) is to make the child aware that there are rules in life and that breaking them means pain. The chld can usually figure it out for himself from there.
"I didn't know that, but what parent would let a three year old sit alone on a flight. The child should have been by mom or dad, and the other parent sitting alone. That would have been the easiest and made the most sense. Parents should be in charge of doing what's right for their child, not a flight attendant. If the seating is as you say, it should have been a no-brainer for the parents that one of them should move."
TOTALLY agree with you!
Once, I was taking my 2 year old on a non-stop from Seattle to Newark...5.5 hours!!
They tried to tell me that they COULDN'T get any seats for us together..
I gave the attendant a HUGE SMILE AND SAID, something like..AWESOME! Who gets the diaper bag?!!!
Funny..they FOUND a way to put us together..
:-)
I wonder if they couldn't give their daughter something to drink because of new safety rules. It makes me wonder if the crew could have given the kid a drink and she would have calmed down. I do know that having my daughter drink something actually did help with tantrums.
It's also kind of strange that the parents weren't sitting with their daughter.
Grant it, I've flown alone with 3 kids so we usually sit 2 and 2. The one that has the temper tantrums usually sits with me because most of her tantrums are caused by her brother/sister annoying her.
One of my daughters was the tantrum queen when she was little, but I will say that all 3 of my kids are great on planes. They love flying!!!! I've also really prepared them about things like you don't joke about bombs on a plane. You follow safety rules and the reasons why there are safety rules. You can't go to the bathroom while it's taking off and landing.
This year, we were on a trip to Texas when the whole banning liquids came up. My kids are older now (10&12), so I explained what we had to do. I didn't even know if they could take their Nintendo DS on the plane. They were so helpful with packing and getting ready. We put most everything in our luggage that we checked. We ate and drank before we got on the plane. They weren't even scared. (I was the one a bit nervous.)
They are also very respectful of other people in the plane. In fact, almost every time we fly people around us comment on how well behaved my children are. (If only they saw them at home.)
Unless you have more than 2 kids like I do. If my family had to travel when my kids were little, my oldest would have sat alone. I have my son is 2 years older than his twin sisters. Each parent would have been with a baby, and my son would have had to sit alone.
We ended up not flying because we never had to, but I know of a lot of people that have to fly with small kids.
Me too. I was always more concerned with the reaction of my parents when I misbehaved than any outside situation.
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