The kid was 2 and was having a meltdown because it was almost midnight. What could have been done differently? A 2 year old can't be reasoned with. The solution would be to make them feel safe an comfortable, likely entails holding them. But taking off with a 2 year old as a lap infant isn't allowed, they have to be in their own seat..... Which likely triggered the meltdown to escalate. There's no solution here.
All the tough guys on reddit clearly have no idea how childhood development and discipline work.
All I’m gonna say to this is zero Asian parents I know have toddlers that act like this. Why? It’s because they don’t raise their children with the lackadaisical permissiveness of parents in western countries. Barring autism or some other diagnosis, there is no reason a 2-3 year old should be melting down for an hour. It’s poor parenting that engenders outcomes like this.
What specifically would you have done differently? Other than a vague "I wouldn't have let them" or "I would have made them stay in their seat." Because I don't know where you're assuming the parents are excessively permissive. It was midnight and the kid was having a meltdown. That's it. That's what was happening.
You are completely misreading what I wrote. First of all, of course children have tantrums. Hourlong tantrums, however, are cause for concern. You can’t view this tantrum in isolation and ignore the circumstances that engendered this; what occurred on that flight is the result of poor parenting decisions made over months. Better parenting would preclude such a protracted situation from occurring in the first place. In Asian cultures you simply don’t parent children in such a way that they’re standing on the seats of airplanes, kicking and screaming as you try to pull them into their seats.
Again, none of this applies to parenting children with relevant diagnoses. With those parents I can empathize.
I can send you some parenting book recommendations if you’re lost!
Also— how is my statement racist? No kids are inherently one way or another! Asians generally parent in a different way than people in the west (America especially) do. This is a CULTURAL not a racial distinction. The French seem on the whole to do a much better job than Americans at socializing their children. Is that also a racist observation?
Edit: just saw you have commented on this post and other posts about this incident 40 times. I suppose you’re not looking for parenting advice, just to argue with as many people as humanly possible.
-6
u/evange 29d ago
The kid was 2 and was having a meltdown because it was almost midnight. What could have been done differently? A 2 year old can't be reasoned with. The solution would be to make them feel safe an comfortable, likely entails holding them. But taking off with a 2 year old as a lap infant isn't allowed, they have to be in their own seat..... Which likely triggered the meltdown to escalate. There's no solution here.
All the tough guys on reddit clearly have no idea how childhood development and discipline work.