Because the kid was unbuckling, or sliding out from under the seatbelt, as mentioned above.
I have no idea what you are saying. What does that have to do with you saying the parent must not unbuckle themself and stay seated? If this person tried for an 30+ mins to get the kid to sit down without ever unbuckling themself and standing up, Jesus Chris what a moron.
I’m saying that if a parent is buckled in, they might be unable to prevent the kid from either unbuckling or sliding out from the seat. At which point the parent would have to unbuckle to rebuckle the kid. That rinse&repeat scenario would also prevent the plane from taking off.
My kid tried this in his car seat on the freeway while on a road trip when he was a toddler. He was warned to knock it off. He didn’t listen. We pulled over. He was spanked. He found a more productive use of his time, and we never had a problem with him squirming out of his car seat at dangerous times again. 
Ah ok I see what you mean now. Once he’s already in he keeps taking it back off. Yeah that would definitely contribute to the delay.
Yeah, I think spanking a child on a plane full of people with phones is not a viable solution either. They probably would have been removed from the plane, arrested and had their child sent to CPS.
Somehow I doubt that.
To be clear, I’m not asserting that’s what happened. I’m throwing it out as a possible scenario as to why the parent couldn’t physically restrain the child.
I imagine all the other passengers would have burst into applause and cheers.
Googling the story turns up multiple accounts but oddly they are all almost word-for-word repetitions of the original story AND each other. IOW no new information, just repeating the original story over and over. Strange. Hasn’t any news outlet interviewed the other passengers?
Why would they interview other passengers other than out of a sense of macabre interest? This isn’t exactly some major story demanding already limited media resources be spent on followups.
And jokes and personal takes on spanking aside, I doubt unstrapping and spanking a child on an airplane would be without consequence for the parents or for the crew. I’m assuming the suggestion was it should have been done before the flight so it wouldn’t occur on the flight itself, not that I think it’s a good solution in general (I’m generally against). That would have turned into a story in itself had it occurred.
You think experience being a toddler helps with controlling a toddler? Not enough eyerolls in the world.
We are all speculating here. Those who are absolutely sure they know what happened beyond the sketchy details are projecting massively.
I mean it’s pretty obvious to some people that the child hasn’t been beaten often and severely enough to behave properly.
I think anyone who applauds or cheers at a toddler being spanked is a sick sadist.
A pre-emptive spanking in case they won’t sit down? That seems pretty counterproductive.
It wasn’t my idea. I was trying to find the least counterproductive rationale for the suggestion
At least he can look forward to a lifetime of shame memories and ridicule.
It’s so amusing when non-parents assume their own experiences as children 20-30-60 years ago is somehow more applicable than a parent’s experiences yesterday.
So, when the mom asked, “Please, PLEASE sit down so I can buckle your seat belt, oh pretty, pretty, PRETTY please?!”, and was unsuccessful, she and the crew then gave up and an untold number of passengers were punished instead? Next time, try placing one hand gently on each side of kid, raise him/her up in the air, and spike his/her ass firmly into his/her seat and firmly buck the belt. If that doesn’t work, eject the people who caused the problem, don’t punish a ton of innocent people instead!
Please read the thread. They did return to the gate & remove the parent & child, but unfortunately by the time that occurred the runways had closed and the flight had to be cancelled.
Curiosity? Human nature? That’s what people do, namely, report on the crazy behavior of other people? And yes, macabre interest-- absolutely that.
Not a chance. People would have lost their minds. Those parents would have had to change their names if video of a spanking got out.
Read the thread and the linked articles. The parent did EXACTLY THIS, and the terrified youngster wriggled back out of the buckled seat and hid under the seat.
They did that too. The parent and child were removed from the flight around 11:30, per the cbc.ca article above linked. However, an hour was not sufficient time to redo the paperwork, get the luggage sorted, and get back into takeoff position before the runway closed.