Toddler Wets Herself Mid-Flight After Flight Attendant Bars Her From Bathroom
Airlines are not winning many fans these days, with dragging passengers off planes, refusing to let girls wearing leggings board their flight, and threatening a family with jail and foster care for not giving up a seat they had paid for. And now, an airline has committed what every parent knows is a huge no-no: Not letting a toddler go to the bathroom when she says she has to.
On a recent Air Canada flight from Nova Scotia to Calgary, a flight attendant told Stacy Osmond and her 2-year-old granddaughter that they had to stop using the bathroom in business class. Osmond had specifically reserved seats close to the bathroom because she knew the toddler would need to use it frequently during the five-and-a-half-hour flight. But her plan was thwarted by a flight attendant.
"The second or third time I tried to take Ruby to the bathroom, the flight attendant told me, 'I can't have you coming up here anymore,'" Osmond told Canada's CBC News. "I said, 'She's a baby. I was given those seats by a booking agent for that reason, so that she would be close to the bathroom.' She said, 'That doesn't matter, you are not to come up here.'"
Osmond was angry, but didn't want to cause drama in front of Ruby, so the two went back to their seats and the little girl tried to hold it. You might be wondering, why didn't they go to the bathroom at the back of the plane? A giant beverage cart was blocking the way.
Well, we can all predict what happens when a 2-year-old tries to hold it. Yep, poor Ruby had an accident in her seat. As a grandma who hadn't flown with a small child in 15 years—and who had planned on easy airplane bathroom access—Osmond didn't have a change of clothes, so she could only clean up the little girl with napkins and then had to sit in her wet clothes and seat.
When the flight attendant passed by them, Osmond told her the girl had peed in her seat, with a sarcastic "thanks." She got no response.
Luckily, a nicer flight attendant must have heard the news, because about 20 minutes later this second one brought a complimentary blanket for Ruby to sit on for the remaining three hours of the flight.
Osmond reached out to Air Canada, which offered a $200 voucher and to send some items for Ruby, but refused to refund the ticket price. Osmond declined, because she is more upset about the way she and her granddaughter were treated than about the money. "I would have liked a little common courtesy," she said. "You can't just treat the passengers beyond the curtain like they are not worth your time. Air Canada would not be able to operate on business class alone. And I didn't pay $1600 to be treat[ed] like garbage."
While an airline might have rules about reserving the business class bathroom for business class passengers, a little common sense and courtesy would have gone a long way here. Does it seem like flight attendants and airline employees have just lost their minds lately? Let a little kid use whatever bathroom they need! Seriously.
