[...] Southwest Flight Attendant Who Took Baby From Mom Alters Story [...]

No matter how it happened, she did the right thing by removing the girl from a situation she shouldn’t have been in to begin with.

Several years ago, when my daughter was about 18 months old, we had to fly as a family on a 14 hour flight. That day, we had gotten up in the (very) wee hours, gotten on another plane to fly to the hub that would begin our international flight, and then waited for hours and hours in airports before boarding the plane for the last leg of our journey. We were tired. We were stressed. And although I know it cannot be literally true, my memories of the trip made it feel as though my 18 month old was screaming The Entire 14 Hours. She was buckled in her car seat for safety, but she wanted to toddle around. This is just not possible on an airplane. There are carts going up and down the narrow aisles, people trying to go to the restroom, and let’s not forget that the lights have been dimmed and everyone is supposed to be resting. I held her and jiggled her and sang for her and rocked her and walked up and down and up and down the aisles until I felt like my arms were going to fall off. She did not sleep. She did not even glance at the in-flight movies (which were completely inappropriate for her anyway, being some violent Clint Eastwood film and foreign-language news programs). She didn’t want food or snuggles or toys – at least not for more than a minute or two. I cannot say how much I wished for a break during that flight. I think there was more than one moment when both my daughter and I were in tears. Of course I didn’t yell at or intimidate my baby – although I think there was definitely some pleading – but I would have been eternally grateful if anyone – another passenger or a flight attendant – could have offered to try something I hadn’t thought of to settle down my angry baby. I feel for the woman on the plane who made such horrific choices – my husband was on our flight but he sat in a different aisle and slept and pretended not to know us. It is NEVER okay to strike a baby. But I can empathize with the exhaustion and frustration and yes, shame, that may have caused her to go over the edge. Sometimes a mother just needs a minute of respite before she can jump back into the trenches.