Mum filmed and shamed for toddler's 'demonic' tantrum on plane

“Watch as this kid runs and screams throughout the entire flight while the mother does little to nothing to stop him. 3 years old on an 8 hour flight from Germany to Newark NJ. He never quits!”

And, watching the vid, it doesn't paint a pretty picture: the clips show the little boy banging on the ceiling of the plane, climbing on seats – and yes, making a lot of ear-splitting, rhythmic screeching sounds ?

(We’re not gonna post the vid here because it shows the child’s face – so if you want to listen to the so-called ‘demonic’ screaming in question, you can hear it on YouTube.)

Naturally, the video's received loads of comments and backlash: a few sympathising with the mum; many others slamming her for not controlling her child.

Look, from what we can tell, it totally sounds like a nightmare flight – for the mum (many of us know how grim it can be to try to cope with a unco-operative toddler or a wailing baby on a plane) and for the other passengers (nothing brings on a headache like the sound of a someone else's child screaming when you're 30,000 ft up and can't escape).

But we have to ask: why film it? Why make this mum’s already nightmare day 10 times worse? What good does that do? It certainly doesn’t stop the tantrum…

There’s also SO much we don’t know here. And we hope people will think before they judge.

It’s not known whether the child has special needs that affect his behaviour, or if he was unwell at the time of filming. We also don't know if the mum spoke to the other passengers about this.

We also see, at one point, that she’s got another little one in her arms. Poor woman! Why didn’t anyone think to offer to take the baby, so she could take her toddler off for a word? There’s not much she can do to bring him down from the ceiling with her hands full…

And then, of course, the (edited) video only shows a snapshot of the flight, not the full 8 hours – so we can’t be sure if this really went on the entire time, as implied.

In other words: you can’t judge a book by its cover, and you certainly can’t judge a mum or a family’s situation by a short video.

We really hope this mum’s doing OK post-plane-journey – and we hope everyone else on board had a calmer flight home ?

Image: YouTube/Shane Townley

Read more:

• Stranger uses 'power of the boobies' to calm baby on plane
• Parents on planes are doing this more and more - and we're not sure we approve
• Woman gives birth on plane - unaware she was even pregnant