Originally Posted by
WorldLux
If the child in question is disabled, then these parents are likely to have this 24/7 and that probably for the rest of their lives.
It could be worse. Comments elsewhere have been way worse with some suggesting tasering the child, euthanasia, and simply drugging the kid to the point that it's just a mindless zombie. Without wanting to go too deep into the political, this pretty much reflects society's reaction to mental illness: Drug them and put them away. Don't want to hear, see, or interact with them. Sad, but unfortunately true in most countries...
For a start, the child would have to be able to understand the objective of shaming and the reason of shaming. I have serious doubt that the child in the video can understand either which makes the whole idea pretty pointless.
You could blame the parents given that more intense parenting and special needs education could go a long way in teaching the child to understand and handle its own disability but even if parents do everything right there's guarantee of success. Some children react much better to special needs education than others.
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Here's my .02: While this was without a doubt an unpleasant flight, I have some sympathy for the child insofar that he almost certainly didn't do it intentionally (i.e. merely for the purpose of annoying everyone else). I even have sympathy for the parents. They have this 24/7 for the next decades. Mental health is a topic that is unfortunately not receiving the attention it needs and making the symptoms of a failing system go away seems to be more important to some than looking into how individuals could be helped master their disability.
While your message is thoughtful, and I appreciate another point of view on FT given that there aren't that many most of the time I do still disagree with you.
The mother (I'm presuming) chose to fly, and she knew full well if her child had any kind of unnamed disability by then. I do not think it is fair to make the child's disability the problem for 200 other people simply because you want to go to Germany. That isn't in the best interest of the child, regardless of how much he yells at home. Having kids sometimes means giving up on things you want to do.
It could always be worse, but with regards to the suggestions towards the child - who isn't at fault here - and the mother - who is, and for the passengers. But that argument is pointless, it could always be worse.
Mental illness as an excuse for an ever-expanding list of deficiencies in human behaviour is something quite new. It wasn't always acceptable to allow kids to get away with what is presented in the video, and it most certainly isn't so easy as saying with good parenting and good education about the specific disabilities it couldn't be helped - and presumably not by stating that it is the airline's fault because the wifi wasn't on early enough.
But it also isn't my problem, in any way, shape or form. The mother should fix it. If that is impossible, even with proper preparation, the child shouldn't be on an 8hrs plane ride. While mental health problems are real, and a serious issue, the way to deal with them isn't to pretend they don't exist as the mother here appears to do.