W hile reading a discussion posted on FlyerTalk earlier today, I encountered the following content posted by FlyerTalk member KevinDTW which left me astonished:
The other day I was in Row 1 on a 738. 1A was empty, I’m in 1B, 1C is empty, and someone is in 1D. Towards the end of boarding a family comes on with Dad carrying two infants, each in a bassinet. He puts one child in bassinet on the floor in front of 1A and puts the other child in bassinet on the floor in front of 1C. Then he and his wife go back to find some OHB space for their luggage. I’m getting ready to offer to switch to 1C so they can sit together. But then both parents sit down…in Row 3. And there they stay with no further involvement with their two infants on the floor in Row 1.
Now I see the FAs starting to exchange … looks as it becomes clear that the parents are thinking they are going to sit in Row 3 and leave the children where they are. So they approach the parents and are asking them if they purchased separate tickets for the children, when the GA comes onboard with some paperwork. The GA takes one look at what is going on and she goes up to the FAs and the parents and says that she went through this with the parents at the gate and told them they would have to gate-check the bassinets and travel with the children on their laps. Then she picks up one of the bassinets and pulls out the pink tag from where the parents had apparently tucked it in so it wasn’t visible. They didn’t want to travel with the kids on their laps and really thought they could leave the kids on the floor, unsecured, in another row. I don’t know what their plan would have been if there hadn’t been empty seats in Row 1.
During the flight I was passing time talking to the FAs and they both agreed that in all their years of flying they hadn’t seen anything like this before.
Are you as surprised as I am to read that something like this could actually happen? What kind of parents are these, anyway?!?
“That’s so awful….”, opined FlyerTalk member steppie. “Wouldn’t that be a form of child abuse (certainly negect)!”
Do you agree?
Could the following account posted by FlyerTalk member jrl767 also be considered a form of child abuse?
a family with a bunch of rollaboards and backpacks boarded as the FAs were making the “stow your carry-ons in the overhead compartments” announcement in both English and Japanese … next thing she noticed was the mother placing the bassinet in the overhead WITH THE CHILD STILL IN IT
I cannot imagine being so incredibly stupid as to treat these poor children the way they were allegedly treated by their parents. I cannot even fathom thinking that way — that is, if there was any thought at all.
Can this be considered child abuse? What do you think?
