CONTENT WARNING: Child Abuse
Several years ago, I visited Germany with some friends to see a band on tour. I’m American, so that involved a lengthy transcontinental flight over the ocean. This happened on my flight home.
It was the dead of night, and we were somewhere over the middle of the ocean. We flew into some sort of weather or pressure pocket, and I could feel my ears go all funny for a couple of moments.
A little girl, maybe four or five, was half asleep a few rows up, but this apparently startled her awake, and she started crying. And you can’t really blame her. We’d been on that plane for quite some time, she had probably got a confused sleep schedule, it was an unfamiliar environment, and now something startling had happened.
Instead of comforting her, which would likely have solved the problem and left me with no story to tell, the mother took a different approach.
Mother: *Sharply* “Girl! Stop crying. You’re waking people up.”
The little girl continued crying. And again, can you really blame her? She was reasonably upset, and now it seemed as if her mother was yelling at her.
Mother: *Sharply. “If you can’t be quiet, I’m going to put you outside the plane until you can calm down.”
Me: *Mouthing to my best friend* “What the effing eff?”
Now, I’m pretty sure all of us, when we were the little girl’s age, had some understanding of the concept that planes fly very high up, and if you go outside the plane, you will fall. That, of course, terrified the little girl more.
Little Girl: *Sobbing* “Mommy, please don’t. Please don’t send me outside. Please don’t, Mommy, please, please, please.”
Mother: “Be quiet, or you’re going outside.”
At this point, a middle-aged woman two rows up had had enough — not with the child but with the mother.
Woman #1: “Mein Gott im Himmel. You’re frightening her! Stop screaming and comfort her.”
Mother: “Don’t tell me how to raise my child.”
Woman #1: “Raise? This is not how you raise a child. This is how you ruin a child.”
Another woman motioned to the mother. She spoke with a heavy German accent, but her English was good.
Woman #2: “Here, she can sit with me. I will calm her.”
Mother: “She wouldn’t be able to understand you. I am perfectly capable of raising my daughter.”
At that point, the flight attendant arrived. She had a look on her face that I’ve not seen since my days in Catholic school when one of the nuns was about to mete out serious punishment. The look alone could wither most problems, but the mother was of a special breed.
Flight Attendant: “Please attend to your child. Passengers are trying to sleep.”
Mother: “I told her to stop crying. I can’t do anything if she refuses to listen. You’re clearly not parents, or you would know that.”
Some cheeky young man piped up.
Young Man: “You’re clearly not, either, or you’d be parenting right now.”
The flight attendant shot him a look. Then, she returned her attention to the mother.
Flight Attendant: “Your daughter is clearly distressed. We cannot land should she require medical attention. You need to attend to her.”
Mother: “She will stop crying when she stops crying.”
The flight attendant began to head to the front of the plane — maybe to speak to the pilot or something? I don’t know, honestly.
The mother, dozens of sets of eyes glaring at her, turned to the little girl and hissed.
Mother: “Shut up, girl! You’re going to get in trouble. The pilot is going to kick you off the plane, and then you’ll never get home!”
Brilliant thing to say to a frightened child. A man behind me snapped.
Man: “Shut your mouth, lady. The kid’s only crying because you’re a psycho. If you’d sit down and shut up, the kid would probably calm down in no time.”
Mother: “Don’t you take that tone with me!”
Man: “I’ll take any tone I like — especially with a psycho, child-abusing b****.”
The mother got up out of her seat and got in the man’s face. She was standing right beside me, screaming at him. It was terrifying, and I don’t know how he kept calm.
Then, she slapped him. Big mistake. BIG MISTAKE.
The flight attendant, returning from the front, saw this.
Flight Attendant: “I recommend you sit down and remain seated and quiet for the rest of the flight. Authorities will escort you off the plane when we land.”
The mother sputtered and attempted to protest. The flight attendant would have none of it.
Flight Attendant: “You committed an assault, and things are now out of my hands. Any further issues will likely compound your charges.”
The mother got up, stomped down the aisle to the bathroom, and shut herself in.
Immediately, the German-speaking woman sat in her seat and started comforting the little girl. She soon calmed and ceased crying.
The mother stayed in the bathroom for the rest of the flight, until it was time to land and she was ordered out. True to the attendant’s words, we were told to remain seated while she was escorted off the plane. The man who she’d slapped followed shortly after.
I have no idea what transpired after that, as I had to catch a connecting flight to my hometown airport. But hopefully, she faced some serious charges and that poor kid got someone better to care for her.
I’m planning on going back to Germany for the band’s next tour. Hopefully, this flight will be a lot more peaceful.
