Erm - it's a 9m old. You sure that's a relevant comment here?

Fwiw I think I would also have intervened here, if for no other reason than that this idiot would probably have been ruining MY own F experience by then (cabins are rarely so large that this stuff can't be heard elsewhere). Also, the poor CC are probably in quite a difficult position at that point.

However, even as father of a young child who has flown myself, I don't have infinite compassion for parents who take crying babies in F. We've done J down to JNB, once, but
1) We were nervous as hell about whether he'd sleep in the bouncy seat thing
2) We bust our collective asses making sure he was quiet and occupied.
3) We wouldn't have contemplated it if we had erasonable grounds to suppose he would be a big burden on a flight.

As your little one, who is no doubt lovely, had been making noise for 1.5 hours at that point, it might not have been unreasonable for the guy to assume that this could have been the pattern, on and off, for the remainder of the flight (depending on circumstances). Which to some people is in fact a HUGE stress trigger. Babies cries are DESIGNED to make us feel on edge. It's hard wired that we feel that way as that's what gets us up at night if needs be, etc etc.

So I suspect I'd personally have ended up trying to mediate between the two parties to calm things down. No-one has the right to be that rude (to me whether your child can hear it is not relevant). But then again I am not sure there is a divine right to have kids cry for long periods of time, in a hugely expensive premium cabin, without the understanding that it will possibly be surprisingly distressing to others around you in that relatively confined space.

So at the end of the day the only thing that can be done is people behave like adults. Apart from the kids of course - they're gonna be kids whatever.

Fwiw on the JNB flight my little one was very cranky as we boarded as it was well past bedtime, and I could see a few other J pax inwardly groaning. And then once he'd got off to sleep for a decent length of time (and spent the remainder grinning at pax and CC), a lady 2 seats over came and collared me at baggage claim and was nice enough to say that she had been one of the inward groaners on boarding, but that she had spent 11h being proved utterly wrong, and how lovely he was. I nearly burst with pride at that point (it was his first LH sector).

He's just over 2 now, I think 16 sectors in (mostly SH but some LH too) and even has a cockpit visit or two under his belt. It's getting more challenging as he hits terrible twos, but it's all do-able with thought and planning I find. Just don't forget the birth cert on way to JNB or all your 'we'll feed and calm him in the lounge before boarding' plans get thrown out the window ;-)