Interesting (in a good way) how the both the nature of a similar BB story (crying/tantruming child) and the comments about the situation have changed over the years.
I’m glad BB no longer chooses words like “demonic” to describe human children and we have fewer commenters who feel free to criticize the parents in an obviously difficult and stressful situation.
I’m not able to watch the old video because it seems to be marked private now, but it may be a different situation? The older the child gets, the more the calculus shifts on bad behaviour in public.
Baby gonna baby, but a five year old? A ten year old?
To be clear, I do think the opinion of strangers (ie. us) should still default to empathy, since we know nothing about the situation with this child or the parents.
My wife had to fly from Chicago to Missoula with our two small children, aged 2 and 4 at the time. No direct flight so they had a layover in Denver each way. My son is autistic but he was not diagnosed yet.
Outbound Leg 1, 9am flight: no issues
Layover Denver
Outbound Leg 2, 1pm flight: no issues
Then three days of funeral activities with my kids meeting strangers. My son does not do well with strangers.
Return Leg 1, 3pm flight: no issues
Layover Denver
Return Leg 2, 8pm flight: kids were very upset, bedtime hours with turbulence, my son was panicked and wailing. Lots of nasty comments directed at my wife.
Apparently my wife lost all her parenting capability during a layover in Denver, if dickhead passengers are to be believed.
Do you know about the sunflower lanyard? It symbolizes ‘hidden disability’ for things like autism. Not every flight attendant recognizes it yet, but it’s becoming more and more known in the travel industry. You can even get them for free from the Customer Assistance desk at some airports.
I hadn’t heard of it. This flight was in 2004 and we didn’t have a diagnosis at the time. Good to know these conditions are being recognized now though!
I first read that as “Twitterers pick up on emotions around them…” and it also worked.
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