Two airline passengers who locked a stranger’s crying grandchild in a plane restroom have caused outrage in China and sparked a heated online debate on how to handle upset children in public spaces.
The incident went viral this week after one of the two women involved posted a video on Chinese social media, which showed them inside a locked lavatory with the wailing girl, who appeared to be about a year old.
“We won’t let you out unless you stop crying,” a woman sitting on the toilet told the toddler as she struggled out of the adult’s lap and reached for the door, according to the video posted on Douyin, China’s version of TikTok.
As the girl stopped crying, the woman filming the video picked her up and told her: “If you make any noise again, we’ll come back (to the bathroom).”
The incident took place August 24 aboard a Juneyao Airlines flight from the southwestern city of Guiyang to Shanghai.
The toddler was flying with her grandparents and cried non-stop during the nearly three-hour flight, the airline said in a statement Monday. The two passengers took the child to the restroom to “educate her” with her grandmother’s consent, the statement added.
Oh yeah, definitely.
It was actually smart to bring the kid into the bathroom to isolate them from an envrionment that may be overstimulating and give them the change of scenery they need to calm down.
But… the kid was given to strangers, and apparently someone thought “Let’s film this moment” (lol), and that is just odd…
I’d never give my kid over to some stranger to be hugged and comforted in a bathroom - in this case it is the grandparents doing that, still, no bueno.
So it is a strange story.