A video of an adult and child travelling on a plane has gone viral after it sparked outrage for being “disrespectful” and “ridiculous”.
The footage posted online to Reddit and the Passenger Shaming Instagram account catches a child, whose face is blurred out, sitting on an adult’s lap and drawing on the tray tables.
A fellow passenger sitting next to the adult and child appears to have shot the footage, which shows scribbles in coloured crayons or pencil on the back of all the tray tables in their row.
At one point, the child takes the colouring utensil down from the tray table, before the adult then redirects the child’s hand back to the tray table to continue drawing.
“Not only are tray tables for changing shitty diapers on, now you can help your kids draw all over them! It’s only a $100M aircraft. NBD. #parentingfail,” the Instagram account dedicated to outing terrible plane passengers captioned the video.
The public’s reaction was overwhelmingly negative, many commenting the behaviour was “disrespectful” and “disgusting”.
“WTF? If I was the airline, I’d be charging them a cleaning fee. That is ridiculous!” one wrote.
“What the hell is wrong with these parents? I HATE PEOPLE,” another added.
Others pointed out what they reckon they would’ve done had they been sitting next to the family.
“I would’ve said something to the adult if I’d seen this… on sheer principle. Disgusting,” a user commented.
Another added, “I hope the kid thinks it’s ok for them to colour on the walls at home now.”
Other parents offered the tips they’ve learnt about travelling with kids, with one writing, “This lady packed crayons for her kid but didn’t think to bring paper or a colouring book?? Rule number one traveling with kids: colouring book and sheets of paper!”
Another said, “Wow. Someone completely fine with teaching children to destroy or deface what isn’t theirs. Nice.”
It’s unclear whether the passenger received a cleaning bill or was asked to clean up their seats, but the viral footage has opened up debate about how bad behaviour from children on flights should be handled.
Although everyone has the need and right to fly, families included, we all also have to pay for our airfares. This comes with certain expectations of service, like receiving water, having working toilets and not having someone kick the back of your seat the entire way.
Is it fair when children travelling with parents behave badly, or should we cut these parents some slack?
You decide.
Top Comments
I’ll bet the parent cleaned it up but it didn’t fit with the posters narrative so they didn’t post it.
*eyeroll*
Yes, because none of us have ever seen parents allowing their kids to make a mess and then not cleaning up afterwards. That never happens.
It’s not great, but it’s hardly the end of the world either. I’d bet it comes off with a baby wipe, hopefully the parent cleaned up afterwards. At least the kid was quiet.
It may not be the end of the world in terms of repair costs, but it is just such an extremely rude and entitled way to treat a public space. Does mum let bub treat her home like this? I somehow doubt it...
It's not about whether it's easy to clean off or not though. The parent has allowed their child to create work for the flight crew that they would not have had otherwise (would be stunned if a parent like this cleaned up after their kid, incidentally) and has also taught them that it's okay to deface things that don't belong to them. Yeah, the kid was quiet...but I bet they would have also been quiet with some paper or a colouring book.
Hardly the point. It is lazy parenting, but, hey, anything for a quiet life, or in this case, a plane ride?
I don’t think the parent should have let the child do it, but going on about “vandalising” a “$100million plane” is a bit OTT too. It’s a bit of crayon on some plastic.