The flyer wasn’t having it.
Whether or not you’re a parent, it’s fair to admit that one of the worst things to deal with on a flight is a misbehaved, unruly tot.
Oftentimes, it’s a situation out of the defeated parents’ control — but sometimes, the unbothered mother or father could be to blame if they aren’t trying to nip the chaotic behavior in the bud.
That seems to be the debate over on Reddit in the r/vent forum.
A fired-up plane passenger took to the site to complain about a flight from hell, all thanks to a toddler, with hundreds of commenters seeing both sides of the equation.
“Just got off a flight in Sweden. We were an hour late arriving because when the crew were preparing for take off a 3-year-old child couldn’t be made to sit in his seat,” they explained.
“Apparently, he was too old to safely sit in his parents’ lap. So after much screaming from the child, the parents were forced to deboard. We then had to go through the whole thing of refuelling, weights and balance, removing their bags etc.”
“It’s a f—ing Friday night, we just want to get home, and this brat and his incompetent parents make us late, make people miss connections, cause delays for the airplane and crew, etc…I would seriously pay extra to go on adult-only flights.”
The OP added that the “FA gave them about ten minutes to get the kid to sit down, or they’d have to deboard. This was happening as we were taxing out to the runway.”
So, the million-dollar question is: who’s in the wrong here? The 3-year-old or their parents?
The almost 600 commenters on the thread were divided.
“That’s not a kid problem, that’s a parent problem,” one wrote.
“I think any passenger of any age that causes a takeoff delay more than 10 minutes should be made to deboard,” another comment read.
“…Even good, experienced parents can’t control a toddler at some point. The toddler meltdown is known far and wide and the phenomenon still baffles scientists to this day,” quipped someone else.
“3 year olds are psychopaths. that’s all i have to add to this thread,” one joked.
“Just had this issue with my own 2 year old. I had to physically hold her down in her seat while she screamed for all of take off. It was the longest 15 minutes of my life. Completely understand where you are coming from but just know that at least in my case I was silently crying from hearing my child so scared. I was so embarrassed and felt like a complete and utter failure of a parent…” explained another.
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