Traveling is exhausting for the best of us. However, those dealing with varying levels of exhaustion from their offspring can find taking holidays a little more tiresome. Basically, being a parent is hard work.
For one US family, the stress of long-haul flying seemed all too much as they allegedly allowed their toddler to run amok during the eight-hour journey.
One netizen was evidently so outraged at the behavior that they took to the r/PublicFreakout subreddit on Reddit - a thread boasting 4.3 million members dedicated to "people freaking out, melting down, losing their cool, or being weird in public."
The user, who goes by the Reddit handle readysetgorilla, posted a video to the subreddit of a toddler jumping up and down on a tray table behind another passenger's seat. The video had no caption and was just tagged with "Airport Freakout" and titled: "Letting children run wild during an eight-hour flight."
Despite only being posted to the subreddit three days ago, it already has 17,800 upvotes, and people in the comments are clearly not happy with the behavior, letting their opinions on the toddler's parents known.
"I would feel like a failed parent if my kids were doing this and I was just straight up allowing it," one person commented.
While another added: "Why is the guy just letting it happen? I would've said something," obviously in reference to the man whose seat was being vigorously shaken by the toddler jumping on the table tray attached to the back of his seat.
"I'm pretty non confrontational, but even I would stand up and say something," someone else wrote.
"The parent/guardian is a moron. Not only is this rude, it's f***ing dangerous," another comment read.
One user - who stated that they frequently fly for work - wrote a timeline of escalations on what happens during a flight if passengers are rude or difficult.
"Ask politely once. Beyond that, don't engage, call over the flight attendant. They will ask them to stop, and if they refuse they'll usually move you to an upgraded seat if available. If no seat is available and the aggressor keeps it up, they'll usually have an air marshall come over if one is available, but this is super rare," they wrote.
"If one isn't available, which is almost always the case, attendant will sometimes threaten speaking to the pilot which will lead to a premature landing depending on the severity of the incident... If it gets to that point the customer will be blacklisted and you'll get a complimentary upgraded flight. Usually the FA coming over is enough to put a stop to it," the comment concluded.
Many people also included their own parent horror stories, with one user even writing about a heavily intoxicated mother who passed out on her flight before take-off, leaving her baby unattended and toddler to run wild in the aisles. The incident allegedly concluded with the children's father appearing from the back of the plane and engaging in a shouting match with his wife.
What would you do in this situation? Let us know in the comments!
