Mom and Chatty Toddler Removed From Flight

nimh wrote:

Setanta wrote:

Any rutting animal in the forest can get pregnant and drop a litter. That doesn't make her a competent parent

Has anyone here claimed that having kids automatically qualifies you to claim to be "a competent parent"? Or are you just making a general observation a propos of nothing in particular?

No, you snotty so and so--Linkat has been crowing about being a parent and having been a childless adult and attempting to claim that people who don't have children don't know. So à propos of that ludicrously unfounded assertion, i was pointing out that even if someone were a parent, it would not be evidence that they were a competent parent, and their opinion might therefore not be any more valuable than someone who has never been a parent.

From the time i was six years old, i was placed in exactly the same situation as all the other children in our family. You were responsible for all children younger and smaller than you, and we were frequently left, several of us, or just one of us, to care for the smaller children for hours on end, perhaps even all day, which included, but was not limited to, bathing them, dressing them, changing their shitty diapers, feeding them, putting them down for the naps, and keeping them out of the dirt and out of trouble.

And no, i don't for a moment accept your silly contention that simply having a child gives anyone any insight into children. In many places and in many times people have had children whom they have immediately turned over to a wet nurse, and who were then subsequently raised by a nanny or nurse, and one or more housemaids. Simply giving birth is not evidence of insight into children and their behavior.

From the time i was six years old, i was placed in exactly the same situation as all the other children in our family. You were responsible for all children younger and smaller than you, and we were frequently left, several of us, or just one of us, to care for the smaller children for hours on end, perhaps even all day, which included, but was not limited to, bathing them, dressing them, changing their shitty diapers, feeding them, putting them down for the naps, and keeping them out of the dirt and out of trouble.

Linkat has been crowing about being a parent and having been a childless adult and attempting to claim that people who don't have children don't know. So à propos of that ludicrously unfounded assertion, i was pointing out that even if someone were a parent, it would not be evidence that they were a competent parent, and their opinion might therefore not be any more valuable than someone who has never been a parent.

I STILL disagree. Every parent is different, and every child is different. Parents might have special knowledge of their particular child, but I don't think anything they might know about their child can be extrapolated beyond that particular kid. So just because one parent knows what their child will or won't do in a certain situation, or how their child might react in a certain situation, doesn't necessarily mean that they know anything more or less than anybody else about the child of another person.

Well Kick, lemme come up with a parallel that might work for you.. what about a guy who's never had a girlfriend? Never even had a lover? Has seen and talked with many girls - colleagues, schoolmates, friends - but is still a virgin, literally and relationship-wise. Wouldnt you say that there's just some level that he would by definition miss when he's talking about how girls are, how they work, how you should treat them, etc?

I dunno, I'm just shrugging now, so I guess Id better bow out on this.. beaten it into the ground enough. And you know how Joefromchicago gets if I start using "action brackets" like <shrugs>..

Frankly, this is all irrelevant. Nothing about this episode requires any great insights into child behavior. After all, even the mother admits that the kid was being "fussy," so there's no need to speculate on how the kid was acting. The kid was acting "fussy." You want to know what "fussy" is? Check the video. That is what it means for this kid to be "fussy." Do you need to be a parent to figure out that the kid is being "fussy?" I sincerely doubt it.

So let's assume the kid was acting like on the plane. Or that he was acting at least as fussy as that on the plane. Would that alone have been a sufficient reason to kick mother and child off the plane?

joefromchicago wrote:

Frankly, this is all irrelevant. Nothing about this episode requires any great insights into child behavior. After all, even the mother admits that the kid was being "fussy," so there's no need to speculate on how the kid was acting. The kid was acting "fussy." You want to know what "fussy" is? Check the video. That is what it means for this kid to be "fussy." Do you need to be a parent to figure out that the kid is being "fussy?" I sincerely doubt it.

So let's assume the kid was acting like on the plane. Or that he was acting at least as fussy as that on the plane. Would that alone have been a sufficient reason to kick mother and child off the plane? I sincerely doubt it.

old europe wrote:

So let's assume the kid was acting like on the plane. Or that he was acting at least as fussy as that on the plane. Would that alone have been a sufficient reason to kick mother and child off the plane?

Of course! Well, maybe not the mother, but the least they could do is strap the kid to the wing or something.

What JPB said.

She said the airline representative told her, "The reason I was removed from the plane was because the flight attendant told the captain I had threatened her. And that was the reason I was removed, not because of the baby ... I told her that I did not threaten that woman, and I had a plane full of witnesses."