alt Hacker News> It is extremely unlikely that this would lead to a felony conviction
Uh, you'd be surprised. Once you refuse, they are going to insist, and if you still refuse to comply, or they're going to return to the gate and have your ass removed. They don't pick and choose which rules to enforce.
And yes, they do enforce this rule. We experienced it all the time when my son was a baby.
I doubt this. I mean, to begin with, on landing there is no way to "return to the gate". Prior to landing, it seems very plausible that a flight attendant would come by and ask me to take my sleeping baby out. I may make politely decline or make some movements to suggest I'm going to do that, without waking the baby up. It is possible that the flight attendant would then stand there until it actually happens. Maybe, but this seems unlikely to me. My experience is not, in fact, strict enforcement of all these silly rules. Some of them - tray tables and seat backs for instance - yes, others - seat belts and electronic devices for instance - no.
If the flight attendant did stand there, I would probably wait for awhile for them to decide to move on. I would certainly not become angry or loud or aggressive (definitely a bad move). If they really can't let it slide, I'd probably stop being stubborn at that point. But an initial polite "no" seems like a reasonable battle to pick even so.