Screaming 3-year-olds on a plane! No one likes a fussy kid when you’re stuck on a flight but should you be able to sue over it? A 67-year-old American woman who was on a Qantas flight as part of her Australian vacation sued the airline over a run-in with a vocal three-year-old, who allegedly yelled in her ear, causing bleeding and deafness. Her lawyer argues Qantas is at fault because the plane's crew failed "to take all the necessary precautions to prevent the accident.” Qantas claims the child was well-behaved in the terminal and up until the incident, on the flight. We’re not sure what kind of precautions they could have taken, other than not allow any preschoolers – an age known for rollercoaster mood swings – to board at all.
More interesting details: it’s come out that the woman was wearing hearing aids, suggesting she already had hearing issues. And listen to the e-mail she sent the day after the incident:
"I guess we are simply fortunate that my eardrum was exploding and I was swallowing blood. Had it not been for that, I would have dragged that kid out of his mother's arms and stomped him to death.”
Whoa. That 3-year-old will grow out of his tantrums but sounds like her nasty streak is permanent. Even so, Qantas has settled the case for an undisclosed amount.
Holy hearing aids, Batman!
Having been a mom for 2.5 years, I've learned there are two types of people in this world.
- Those who feel the world revolves around them - and heaven forbid anything, least of all someone's child - somehow enter the gravitational pull to hinder the world's revolution around them. When a kid acts up somewhere remotely within their eyesight or earshot, expect a nasty look, a rude comment, them making eye contact with you before inching (or running for dear life) from you and your child - or, if you're lucky, all of the above.
- Those who see you struggle with your child, shoot you a sympathetic look and a smile. In half of those cases, they will actually stop and engage your child, or tell you not to feel bad because their kid did it too and they were actually grateful to learn they weren't the only one who dealt with said problem that led to the public tantrum.
It is, however, a risk we take to go out to dinner. We're aware of it. We try our best to control it, but we can't always. There are times her will, and her attitude, are bigger than us both. Anyone who has dealt with a toddler before knows what I'm talking about.
We will probably fly with her for the first time in March, and I'm not exactly looking forward to it. Why? Simply because I can stick with my usual tricks, but the be-all-end-all equalizer of "do you want to go home?" is not an option. There isn't even an "outside" to give her an attitude adjustment. The worst I can do is give her a blue swirly in the minuscule airplane bathroom - and even then, she's not old enough to care she's blue (in fact, she'll probably think it's cool) and then I'd just be embarrassed to be walking to my connecting flight with a Smurf in tow.
(Seriously, any of you who picked up the phone to call CPS - it was a joke. I would totally make the pilot turn the plane around before I gave her a swirly. I might go to jail for hijacking a plane, but, you know, it's the sacrifices we make for our kids.)
Now, you realize I have not addressed the issue at hand yet ... the crazy 67-year-old woman who SUCCESSFULLY got money out of Quantas airlines because she's a bitch.
I really feel for the mom in this situation. How embarrassing for her to know it was her kid who set off this shitstorm of stupidity that went through the legal system. Just goes to show how much people have been conditioned to sue over any little thing. First of all, suing is ridiculous anyway, but the airline as the defendant? That's as ridiculous as suing a four-year-old. (No, couldn't sue the kid, because the kid wasn't four-and-a-day, but I'm absolutely sure this crabby old bitch so would have if the kid was old enough. In addition to the airline, I'm sure.)
So, how much merit do I think this woman's case has?
Can you say, none?
I mean, first of all, if anyone is liable, it's the mom and not the airlines. And I wouldn't really think the mom could be held liable - I mean, what was she expected to do, shoot her kid with a tranquilizer dart to avoid potential run-ins with crabby women? Obviously the kid doesn't meet the four-and-a-day test, so there's really no one available to sue. Oh damn.
Now, how about the "injuries" she sustained? Her eardrum apparently ruptured and her ear bled. Well, yeah, I can see how her ear bled if her eardrum ruptured. Let's walk through this, shall we?
- SHE HAS HEARING AIDS! Obviously she had prior hearing damage. Was it a birth defect? Or the result of a previous accident? If it was the result of an accident, how do we know this particular incident wasn't related to that? We don't.
- SHE WAS ON A PLANE! You know, a plane, where there are changes in air pressure and your ears pop and stuff. Perhaps your eardrum ruptured as a result of the elements to which it is exposed while you were flying, rather than the bratty child you encountered.
- SHE WAS ON A PLANE! Yeah, again ... umm, there are other loud noises you encounter on a plane that could have contributed (if you believe a loud noise caused the eardrum to rupture, which I really don't).
- SHE IS OLD! This kind of stuff randomly happens to old people. No, that's not an ageist comment - it's a fact. Deal with it.
- SHE'S AN IDIOT! If the three-year-old in question got close enough to her head to scream in such a way that caused her eardrum to rupture, I'm sure he did other irritating things before this. A three-year-old does not (traditionally) just scream at a stranger unless prior attempts to get said person's attention were futile. Therefore, if she didn't speak up to tell the mom the kid was annoying her and she would like him to stop, then she deserved what she got.
There is no way the airline should be responsible, unless it was a flight that was deemed a kid-free zone and this child violated that. (But see, yeah, that won't happen... people with kids will sue for being discriminated against - it's a vicious cycle.) So, how they were even remotely willing to settle for this case is beyond me. Either Quantas has crappy lawyers or there's something they are trying to hide. Kind of makes you wonder, doesn't it?
Furthermore, read the text of the e-mail she sent to one of her fellow old biddies again:
"I guess we are simply fortunate that my eardrum was exploding and I was swallowing blood. Had it not been for that, I would have dragged that kid out of his mother's arms and stomped him to death.”
This whole thing really just makes me think of Jefferey - the four-year-old Bill Cosby encountered on a plane. Irritating as all get out, but this is how they dealt with irritating children on planes in the early 80s. Hmmm ... maybe we need to go back 30 years.
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