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Is it okay for a bus driver to kick a mother with crying toddler off the bus?

should a bus driver be allowed to kick crying babies and their caregivers off the bus

  • Yes. It's distracting to him and irritating to others

    Votes: 10 18.5%
  • In some circumstances I suppose

    Votes: 10 18.5%
  • I'm not sure

    Votes: 3 5.6%
  • No, children cry sometimes, they have a right to ride the bus

    Votes: 27 50.0%
  • I hate kids and they shouldn't be allowed in public

    Votes: 4 7.4%

  • Total voters
    54
It still doesn't address the OP, Goshin. If Mom was ejected from the bus because of noise, how is spanking the baby going to get it quiet in the bus?

You see what I mean?


.

EDIT: NVM. I read too quickly. I missed the point you were making here:
Okay, I missed that the kid was 20 months old. That does make a little bit of a difference, when they're under 2 yrs old a certain amount of crying episodes are almost unavoidable.
 
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Okay, I missed that the kid was 20 months old. That does make a little bit of a difference, when they're under 2 yrs old a certain amount of crying episodes are almost unavoidable.

However, 20 months old isn't too young to spank, in a controlled and careful manner, and the measured and deliberate application of correct discipline will tend to minimize brat-fits, even if it doesn't eliminate them entirely in that age-range.

Exactly my point. I'm not against disciplining a child, I do if often enough with my own. My point through out this whole thread has been that the child is not even two years old yet. Crying is going to happen at this point, it doesn't mean the child is misbehaving and it doesn't make the mother a bad parent. It just happens and it's ridiculous that an intolerant individual threw her off the bus for this.

Further, the mother says she tried to quiet the child. I don't know if that involved a swat on the butt or a slap on the wrist. I wasn't there. Going solely off of what was written in the article, the driver overreacted. The mother and the other bus passengers all thought so and they WERE there.
 
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Haven't read all 13 pages to this thread but I'm with Jerry back on page 1. Unless it would put the child and it's guardian in imminent danger, the child should be expelled from the bus.

HOWEVER, this should NOT apply to airlines. :rofl
 
20 month old babies are often still breastfeeding for comfort and nourishment. A simple solution would have been to offer the breast to pacify the child. But, in our child un-friendly culture, public nursing is frowned up in many quarters. What's a mother and child to do?
 
20 month old babies are often still breastfeeding for comfort and nourishment. A simple solution would have been to offer the breast to pacify the child. But, in our child un-friendly culture, public nursing is frowned up in many quarters. What's a mother and child to do?

OR... she could just offer her breast to me. I could probably deal with her screaming kid better then. Seems like a fair trade. :mrgreen:
 
It still doesn't address the OP, Goshin. If Mom was ejected from the bus because of noise, how is spanking the baby going to get it quiet in the bus?

You see what I mean?


.

EDIT: NVM. I read too quickly. I missed the point you were making here:

Ok. I'll address the OP question directly anyway.


The driver's first responsibilty is to the safety of the passengers on his bus, and indirectly to the safety of other motorists on the road with him.

It is a judgement call as to whether any given individual on the bus is creating a distraction that is impairing the driver's ability to cope with that primary responsibility, and if the driver is not allowed to make that judgement call, safety will suffer as a result.

Therefore any individual who distracts the driver from Task #1 is subject to being removed from the bus.

If I were the driver, would I have put her off? Probably not. I'm arguably a bit more used to crying children as a single parent. I might have asked her to move to the rear of the bus if it was loud enough to be distracting.

I wasn't there, I wasn't the driver, and the driver is the one making that call as to what interferes with his ability to perform Task #1.

Riding the bus isn't a right, to my knowlege. It is a convenience provided for city dwellers and provided by gov't or private contractors, either to make a profit or to keep auto traffic down or as PR bait, or all the above. I don't know that anyone has a right to ride the bus if they're making it hard for the driver to fulfill his number-one responsibility.

Now, the driver's employer has decided that he acted inappropriately... or at least that is what they're saying for public consumption. They gave her some free tickets and said "sorry" and said the driver would be monitored more closely in future. Ok then. What do you want, the guy's head on a pike? :mrgreen:

Frankly I just don't see this as that big of a deal really. If the Mommy in question wasn't a reporter herself this probably would not have made the news.

If it had happened to me, I'd be annoyed, yeah. But if you don't want to risk being removed from the bus for having a crying child, get a car and drive I suppose.

I guess you could mark me down as "Meh." :mrgreen:
 
OR... she could just offer her breast to me. I could probably deal with her screaming kid better then. Seems like a fair trade. :mrgreen:

heh, heh...:lol:
 
I voted the same. To me, the following circumstances would warrant a kicking off of the mother and child:

(1) Child is running around the bus and endangering him/herself or doing something that is physically impacting the driver (trying to grab the wheel or step on the gas). No question--kick that kid and mother off the bus.

(2) Child is throwing up all over the place. OFF.

(3) Child is sneezing openly on other people. Sorry, but with Swine Flu--you're outta there, bud.

Those are the type of circumstances that I think a child w/ the parent can be kicked off. The circumstances in this case? NO WAY.

I hate it when parents don't control their kids as well. I would rather leave a place if my child was out of control and would inconvenience myself to avoid the disruption.

Sneezing, for reals?

That's crazy. I remember when my kids were in preschool and I'd be in class helping out. There seemed to be a constant stream of wee ones with perpetually runny noses. Gross but common in the little ones. They're perpetual germ factories whether they sneeze openly on you or not. There's nothing much to be done about it. Pointless to get hysterical and toss them off of a bus for openly sneezing sheesh.
 
Sneezing, for reals?

That's crazy. I remember when my kids were in preschool and I'd be in class helping out. There seemed to be a constant stream of wee ones with perpetually runny noses. Gross but common in the little ones. They're perpetual germ factories whether they sneeze openly on you or not. There's nothing much to be done about it. Pointless to get hysterical and toss them off of a bus for openly sneezing sheesh.

I agree. Punishing children for an involuntary body function is grossly inappropriate.

As usual, Jerry's solution is WRONG.
 
You obviously haven't raised many children...

A smack to a 20 month old will elicit a wail of uncontrollable, ear-piercing screams that will be very upsetting to all within earshot.
 
A smack to a 20 month old will elicit a wail of uncontrollable, ear-piercing screams that will be very upsetting to all within earshot.

If somebody smacked my 20 month old, I would have to kill them.
 
I've got no problem whatsoever with kicking them off the bus. Riding the bus is not a right, it's a public service. There are rules that must be followed when riding the bus and those who do not follow the rules, the mother in this case, ought to be let off.

Back when I had young children, if they caused a fuss, I automatically removed them from public places where they could bother others. Too bad many parents don't have that amount of respect for everyone else.
 
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