Mom's Reaction to Flight Attendant Crying Baby Comment
You’ll Applaud This Mom Who Stood Up to a Flight Attendant Who Said Crying Babies Were “Unacceptable”
While on an United flight from Sydney to San Francisco with her husband and 8-month-old son, Ronan, Krupa Patel Bala was told by a flight attendant named Linda that having a baby cry for more than five minutes was "absolutely unacceptable." As any mom can imagine, that conversation didn't exactly go swimmingly. In fact, Krupa was so taken aback by what Linda told her, she splurged on in-flight WiFi at $28.99 to live post what went down.
"I'm travelling with my husband and 8-month old son and we purchased business class seats with a bassinet for the baby," Krupa wrote on Facebook. "Now, I don't really know what's wrong with my baby, but he tends to cry from time to time. I hear that's common with newborns but this is my only child, so I could be mistaken. After about five minutes of the baby crying in the bassinet, Linda (the flight attendant manager who is also our server and the purser) came over and *yelled* at my husband [that] it was 'absolutely unacceptable' for the baby to cry."
Letting that conversation play out in your head is cringeworthy enough, however, things actually got worse after Krupa asked Linda to revisit the topic again. Linda told the superstressed out mom that they'd have to have to talk further in economy class, and ushered her to the rear of the plane. That's when Linda made a few "points" about bringing babies on planes that make us want to smash our computers:
- "I should have given the baby his bottle back." (He'd finished it but that doesn't seem to be an important detail in Linda's book.)
- "I shouldn't have tried to put him to sleep because the lights weren't down and he's 'obviously' too excited" (OK Linda, whatever you say.)
- "Some airlines don't even allow babies in business class." (When I asked if United was one of those airlines, she said clearly it wasn't but that the baby needed to be quiet. So, I guess silent babies are allowed to fly in business class.)
- "Babies are not allowed to cry for more than five minutes and (This part was yelled) it REALLY STRESSED THE CREW OUT." (Funny; it also really stresses me out when the baby cries . . . oh, and we asked a few other crew members if we disturbed them and they had zero idea what we were talking about.)
Infuriated, Krupa returned to her seat, logged onto the internet, and posted a detailed account of what happened to United's Facebook page, vowing to never fly on the airline again. She then continued to update her readers on the situation, and yes, her posts are pretty rich.
