Commercial Fixed Wing
Flight Crew Multiengine; Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP); Flight Crew Instrument
Situational Awareness; Workload; Time Pressure; Communication Breakdown
Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Weight And Balance; Flight Deck / Cabin / Aircraft Event Passenger Misconduct
General None Reported / Taken
Environment - Non Weather Related; Human Factors
After block out and starting our pushback from the gate; a Flight Attendant called up to address a concern about the passenger count. It was a busy time in the flight deck where I was trying to manage the safety of the push. The FO answered the call to the flight deck from the cabin while I was talking to the ground crew and ramp was talking to our flight and the flight next to us pushing off the gate. The ramp personnel had left several pieces of ground equipment in the way of our push from X1 and we were trying to find out about getting it moved. As all of that is going on the narrative that myself and the FO got from the FA seemed to be one of more a compliance with the mask policy than one of weight and balance. She told us there was a large child sitting in a seat for which they were ticketed next to their mother and the child was having a hard time wearing the mask. The FA told us that the mother was now saying the child was less than 2. The FA believed that the mother was saying the child was less than 2 to skirt our mask policy and we needed to change the count for weight and balance because the child was an infant. I tried to clarify with the FA about the child because it was not clear to me because she was telling me the child was not listed as an infant; had their own seat; and by the FAs thought it was more about the mask. My thinking was that for the child to have that seat a birth date would have to be listed when that seat was purchased. Previously the FAs and the gate agent had reconciled the count; and the FA thought the child was older than 2; so I elected to leave the weight and balance as it stood. We continued to our destination without further incident.It was a busy time in the flight deck when this issue was brought to my attention. After things had calmed down with push I should have checked back with the FA to make sure I was hearing everything she was trying to tell me. Factors for me with my decision making were the high workload at the time; alertness because of the late time of day of the departure and having been scheduled with early AM shows for the three days prior to this event.
I walked through to do my cabin count and confirmed that I had a child in row XX just as it showed on the sheet. I had already asked the mom to get a mask on the child before we closed the weight/balance. She said the child did not have a mask so I brought her one. After the safety demo I walked through the cabin again for final compliance and saw the child was not wearing a mask. Mom said he had ripped it so I offered to get a new one. She then said that the other FA told her he didn't need one if he was under the age of 2. I was surprised to hear the child was an infant as he was quite large and had walked on board the aircraft by himself. I asked if he was still only 1 and she said he was not yet 2. I alerted the CA that I had possibly made a mistake in the count.  I mistakenly counted an infant as a child. I didn't ask how old the child was; it only came up because of non-compliance with mask policy.I honestly think she claimed the child was an infant in order to avoid dealing with the face mask.In the future I will make sure to ask passengers with small children if they are in fact under the age of 2.
Air carrier Captain and a Flight Attendant reported a passenger's child was resisting wearing a face mask. After this problem started the parent then stated the child was under 2 and did not need to wear the face mask.