Narrative:

We were taxiing out in las for around 20 minutes when a call light when on at mid-cabin. I walked out and a mother said her toddler had to use the restroom and couldn't wait. I told the woman that I needed to contact the captain and see if it was possible to let her use the facility before departure. I walked back to the aft inter phone and called the cockpit. The captain said we would pull off to the side and she would have about 2-3 minutes to use the lavatory. I walked back out into the cabin and relayed the information to her and said to wait until the plane stopped and to make it as quick as possible. The aircraft turned and when we stopped the woman handed the toddler to her husband and they headed to the back lavatory. As the father and toddler entered the lavatory there was a single high-low chime. I headed back to the aft inter phone as the [flight attendant] a cleared us for departure. I called the captain to remind him that we had a passenger and toddler in the lavatory and he responded 'we are going; tell them to hang on'. I knocked on the lavatory door and told the passengers to hang on; that we were taking off and to please stay in there until I said it was safe to come out (keep in mind that there were no empty seats towards the back and they were about 15 rows from their seat). It is very bumpy for the first 5-10 minutes in las this time of year and I didn't want them up for initial ascent either. We took off and around the 10;000 ft. Ding I escorted the gentleman and toddler back to their seats. The captain called back via the inter phone and apologized and said something to the effect of 'we were supposed to be second for departure but they moved us up'.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: Flight Attendant reported that Captain elected to take off with a gentleman and toddler in the lavatory.

Narrative: We were taxiing out in LAS for around 20 minutes when a call light when on at mid-cabin. I walked out and a mother said her toddler had to use the restroom and couldn't wait. I told the woman that I needed to contact the Captain and see if it was possible to let her use the facility before departure. I walked back to the aft inter phone and called the cockpit. The Captain said we would pull off to the side and she would have about 2-3 minutes to use the lavatory. I walked back out into the cabin and relayed the information to her and said to wait until the plane stopped and to make it as quick as possible. The aircraft turned and when we stopped the woman handed the toddler to her husband and they headed to the back lavatory. As the father and toddler entered the lavatory there was a single high-low chime. I headed back to the aft inter phone as the [Flight Attendant] A cleared us for departure. I called the Captain to remind him that we had a passenger and toddler in the lavatory and he responded 'we are going; tell them to hang on'. I knocked on the lavatory door and told the passengers to hang on; that we were taking off and to please stay in there until I said it was safe to come out (keep in mind that there were no empty seats towards the back and they were about 15 rows from their seat). It is very bumpy for the first 5-10 minutes in LAS this time of year and I didn't want them up for initial ascent either. We took off and around the 10;000 ft. ding I escorted the gentleman and toddler back to their seats. The Captain called back via the inter phone and apologized and said something to the effect of 'we were supposed to be second for departure but they moved us up'.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.