Posted on 01/23/2007 7:35:25 PM PST by don'tspeak4me
ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) -- Flight attendants often deal with obnoxious passengers who won't listen to instructions by kicking them off the plane. But a Massachusetts couple think AirTran Airways went overboard by treating their crying 3-year-old daughter in much the same way.
Julie and Gerry Kulesza and daughter Elly were removed from the flight when the girl refused to take her seat before takeoff, airline officials said Tuesday. But her parents said they just needed a little more time to calm her down.
The Kuleszas planned to fly home to Boston on Jan. 14 from Fort Myers after a four-day visit with the girl's paternal grandparents. She was removed because "she was climbing under the seat and hitting the parents and wouldn't get in her seat" during boarding, AirTran spokeswoman Judy Graham-Weaver said.
AirTran officials say they were only following Federal Aviation Administration rules that children age 2 and above must have their own seat and be wearing a seatbelt upon takeoff.
"The flight was already delayed 15 minutes and in fairness to the other 112 passengers on the plane, the crew made an operational decision to remove the family," Graham-Weaver said.
But Julie Kulesza said: "We weren't giving an opportunity to hold her, console her or anything."
"Elly was sitting in front of our seat crying," she said in a phone interview. "The attendant motioned to a seat and asked if we purchased it for her."
They had paid for the seat. Gerry Kulesza said another attendant then approached the family and told him: "You need to get her in control and in her seat."
The couple told the attendants they were trying. Julie Kulesza said she asked the attendants if Elly could sit on her lap, but they said no.
The family flew home the next day.
The Orlando-based carrier reimbursed the family $595.80, the cost of the three tickets, and offered them three roundtrip tickets anywhere the airline flies, Graham-Weaver said.
But that's too little, too late for the Kuleszas. The father said they would never fly AirTran again.
My 5 year old did something wrong...I've already forgotten what...last month. I asked her to stop and advised her that she would not be allowed to play video games for a day if she persisted. She did it anyway, so I took the games out of the living room. Her response as I was doing so?
"No...you should just warn me again..."
I promise you that child has never been spanked.
You've seen this commercial, no doubt:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x-OqKWXirsU
A Mistake !
If AirTran was going to offer tickets, they should have been on some other airline.
Remember those day of the quick cure?
"you better stop crying or I will give you something to cry for!"
But I did hear the child had some trouble with her ear (an operation or something?) and the father thinks she might of reacted to being in the plane I don't know??
It had to be a blessing to the passengers not to have to endure that and maybe parents will take notice their children have to behave in public.
RE: Parents with small children get to board first on every airline I have ever flown.
Ryan Air (Europe) stopped this a few months ago.
My mom always relied on the "wait until your father gets home" approach. It's all she really needed. Without that she might not have fared so well.
Have any idea why?
LOL! Girl, i've trained you right!!
You got that EXACTLY right. NO CONSEQUENCES. When I was a kid, there were no freaking "time outs." You got your ass smacked. Kids now days have nothing to worry about or fear. Get a spanking, tell teacher, mom and day go to jail. None of that when we were kids that is for sure. Call a cop on my dad, the cop would probably have held you while pop smacked your ass some more. Kids doing some of the things they do now, they know there are no consequences for their actions. The BLAME will be on someone or something else. TV, games, mom and dad's drinking/drug use, mom and dad having no time for them because it is taking mom and dad to both work to let kid have all the crap kid wants to keep whining kid happy.
I know exactly what you are saying. I could see my Dad's eyes in the rearview mirror. They never left you. That is all it took 99.8% of the time. That .2% of the time you wanted to see if you could get away with it left you at 100% next time. My Dad has been gone 31 years now. I miss him every stinking day.
IMO, that's precisely why God made parents bigger than their kids, so when the little darlings wouldn't behave you can physically make them.
When my youngest was about two, she refused to pick up her toys, so I placed her feet on mine, held her hands, *walked* her over to the toys, *picked* them up with my hands over hers, *walked* her back to the toy box, pried her fingers open to make her drop the toy in. She screamed bloody murder the whole time, but it went a long way.
So much else of the story bears out that the parents don't have a clue.
I don't know about flying out of Fort Meyers, but the last time I flew out of Orlando, they didn't preboard children because, as they said, most of the people flying had children.
...probably a first flight...very scary for a 3 year old
Don't think so. From the article: The Kuleszas planned to fly home to Boston on Jan. 14 from Fort Myers after a four-day visit with the girl's paternal grandparents.
They got to Florida somehow & I'm betting that they flew.
I am confused on the seating arrangement of the family. From the story, the mother states the daughter was in front of her. No mention of the father. They describe the daughter hiting them, which i take to be both parents.
I'm thinking the parents were together and the daughter was between strangers in the next row. If this is true, these parents are idiots and nothing Trans Air could do to save the girl from her parents.
I asked my daughter what she thought of "time outs" when she was four years old. She told me she thought they were "stupid". I then asked her which was worse, a "time out" or a spanking. "SPANKING" - she "HATED" them.
I view parents who use this silly "time out" as "STUPID" and irresponsible.
God has it right -
Prov. 13:24
[24] He that spareth his rod hateth his son: but he that loveth him chasteneth him betimes.
Bet you respect him too ... .
He loved you then and still loves you now. Consider yourself lucky that you had him as your dad.
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