If you don't comply with crew-member instructions, you're likely to get kicked off a plane. And if you're 2 years old, you're no exception to the rule.
Toddler Natalie threw a tantrum when her family boarded a JetBlue flight traveling from Turks and Caicos to Boston. According to NBC News, her parents tried to calm her down but were unsuccessful at first. Eventually, they got both Natalie and her 3-year-old sister, Cecilia, seated with their seat belts fastened -- the family was asked to leave the plane anyway.
NBC reports that the captain didn't feel safe taking off with the Vieau family still on board.
In a statement, the airline said:
"Flight 850 ... had customers that did not comply with crewmember instructions for a prolonged time period. The Captain elected to remove the customers involved for the safety of all customers and crewmembers on board."
But Dr. Colette Vieau said she and her husband did what they were told to do -- they were just struggling to keep their children calm. Vieau suggested putting her daughter on her lap, but federal regulations only allow this accommodation for children under 2 -- Natalie had just celebrated her second birthday.
The family had to spend an additional $2,000 to find a hotel and rebook their flights, since there were no other trips that night.
A similar altercation took place in 2007, when Kate Penland's son, Garron, repeated the phrase "bye-bye, plane" during the flight attendant's safety speech on a flight from Atlanta to Oklahoma City. Penland said the plane was returned to the gate and she and her son were asked to get off when she refused to give her son Benadryl.
To avoid toddler-on-plane disasters, a new on-flight babysitting service, "Nanny In The Clouds", is available to parents. The website pairs families with nannies (passengers who already have a ticket for the same destination) to help the process, from security to landing, run smoothly.