In which I scald a small child with hot tea

[AirHostess]

On my flight yesterday I had a really annoying small child who kept running up and down the aisle, when we were serving hot drinks. I told him to sit down and repeatedly asked the parents to make their child sit down. They said that little Johnny didn't want to sit down and who was I to tell him to etc

Anyway...the flight got a bit bumpy and the little brat ran straight into me when I was holding a pot of tea. He then burnt itself and started screaming.

Another flight attendant treated the kid with first aid whilst the parents screamed at me and said they would be suing the airline!

I filled in an incident form as did the other crew and several passengers around also gave me their details to back me up.

Oh well, I'm leaving! If the little brat had simply sat down it wouldn't have got burnt. I blame the parents.

[calulu]

Was the kid wearing Wheelies? Bonus points for a Wheelies scalding.

This seems to be a trend these days. I've witnessed a number of out of control kids/waitresses carrying hot food/drink lately. The parents always threaten a lawsuit and almost always management has asked them to make Junior behave and sit down.

That must have been some fun flight with the screams of boiled brat in that enclosed space.

[customersruinmylife]

A few years ago a co-worker of mine warned the parents of an out of control kid and got the same reaction.

Five minutes later the kid barged into him and he knocked a bowl of soup over it's head. I have never heard a child scream like that in my life.

Of course, all of a sudden, the parents started to care about their kid, and my co-worker, who was so shaken by what happened screamed:

"I WARNED YOU THIS WOULD HAPPEN! HOW DARE YOU SHOUT AT ME! YOU NEED TO TAKE THAT CHILD TO THE HOSPITAL NOW!!"

They stuttered a little and finally left.

[unholypet]

They said that little Johnny didn't want to sit down and who was I to tell him to etc

Another flight attendant treated the kid with first aid whilst the parents screamed at me and said they would be suing the airline!
.

I've done that with boiling tea on a screaming child.

Its terrible that the parents don't seem to care what their kid does in an enclosed area until they're hurt. Even better, that they threaten to sue when you have so many witnesses!

[BaristaTrav]

Not to threadjack, but that reminds me of the time I worked as a green-aproned coffee drone and some woman was sitting in the store listening to some Amway pitch or something (our store was a notorious meeting ground for that stuff). With her she had 2 rugrats about 4 and 5 respectively. Said kiddies were literally using the store as a jungle-gym, crashing into tables, knocking into people, etc. Several attempts by other customers and staff requesting she control her kids were met with her dispassionately saying "<kid's name 1> and <kid's name 2> come here and sit down." Which caused the kiddies to look at mom for about 2 seconds, ignore her request, then resume wild, uncontrolled romping, much to mom's apathy. It just so happens at the time, we were getting rid of a lot of last season's dishes, coffee mugs, etc. So we had shelves, many at kiddie height level, stocked with all manners of breakables..

I said to CW: "Wait for it.. wait for it." Sure enough... within a few minutes.. [SMASH..CRASH....THUMP!!] [sounds of children wailing] [store full of angry customers and employees glaring at mom]

Kids, fortunately, were not seriously damaged. Much stock, albeit clearance items within a day of being marked out and shipped off, lay in ruins. What does mom do? She dispassionately walks up to the counter, takes out her wallet, halfheartedly apologizes and says "how much for the broken dishes?"

No disciplining of children, no real remorse to anyone in the store, nothing. Just.. ok, my uncontrolled offspring broke something else, apparently the price of actual parenting is too much when you can just whip out the wallet and pay for resulting damage done.

By the way, we said don't bother, just please control your kids. She just grabbed them and left.

[blas]

Anyone else remember the thread about the out of control kid at the music store who knocked down an entire shelf of guitars and the worthless mother grabbed the kid and ran out of the store?

[Nayeli_Sabia]

I HATE Wheelies. I was in a Fast Food establishment, with my two holding onto my skirt. This 10 year old in Wheelies comes and whips around me, nearly nocking her over, then shimy-slides backwards and DOES hit her. I yelped something like 'Hey watch it, you just hit my daughter!' and the mom gave ME a dirty look.

[blas]

I don't think Heelies are allowed on airplanes....that may be the one and only place you won't see them out in view.

I got whacked in the hip by some obnoxious little kid at Wal-Mart wearing those. Good thing I have hipbones that stick out....I came out the winner in that one!

[BaristaTrav]

There are lots of places here that say "no wheelies," but it's apparently not enforced, as there little unguided misslekinders wheeling around everywhere.

[EricKei]

They said that little Johnny didn't want to sit down and who was I to tell him to etc

...You're the person whose directives need to be followed in order to protect their safety, that's who. Federal laws in the UK, US, and elsewhere, as well as common sense, say so...

[magician5]

Wait a minute, let me try to comprehend:

You're in an airplane several miles above the ground (loooong way down)...

Any little misbehavior, even a misunderstanding (judging from recent news reports) might be interpreted as a horrible terrorist act!

Somewhere on the plane might be some incognito Federal air marshals just waiting to straighten things out...

and anybody is gonna argue with you?

I feel for you ... there is clearly no intelligence test or common-sense-check required before boarding an airplane.

[Jay 2K Winger]

There was a time we tried to strictly enforce the "no heelies" policy at the wholesale club.

To the best of my knowledge, no kid ever got hurt on them in our store, but we weren't taking chances.

One night, I'm closing FDLP, and one of our regulars comes in with his two kids, both riding around on heelies. I hadn't seen them come in, so I couldn't give them the heads up then, but as they were leaving, the boys come zipping up on their heelies, so I pointedly, but politely say, "Please don't ride the heelies in the store," while I check their dad's receipt.

Two seconds later, the kids start zipping toward the door, so I snap, "WHAT did I just tell you?!" They look startled, and their dad just gives them a look that said quite plainly that I was in the right.