Parents Get Wrecked Online After Complaining Over Passengers Resting While They Struggle With 3 Kids

Some folks think that because they are going through hardship, they have the right, perhaps even the imperative, to make it everyone else's problem, never mind that it’s their own fault anyway. Normally, the vast majority of us can just avoid these cases, but sometimes circumstances, for example, a flight, force us to be around them.

A family went viral online for all the wrong reasons recently, after a dad posted a rather self-righteous video, mocking other airline passengers for trying to relax while his three children (all under three) were causing a ruckus. Netizens banded together to call him out for thinking that having kids entitled him to some sort of special treatment.

The modern airplane cabin is a pressure cooker of human emotion. You are strapped into a metal tube hurtling through the sky at thirty thousand feet while inhaling recycled air and sitting inches away from a stranger. It is already a stressful environment. Now introduce the variable of small children. We all know flying with kids is a Herculean task that requires the patience of a saint and the logistical planning of a military operation. Most people are sympathetic to struggling parents. However that sympathy evaporates the moment the camera comes out. The aforementioned video perfectly encapsulates a growing phenomenon better known as parental entitlement.

This behavior stems from a psychological concept called egocentric bias. It is the tendency to rely too heavily on one's own perspective when considering things. When you are in the trenches of parenting it feels like the most important thing in the world. Your stress is the only reality. You forget that the person in seat 14B has their own life and their own stressors. They might be flying to a funeral or recovering from a night shift. To the entitled parent their refusal to engage with the chaos feels like a personal insult. They view the headphones not as a tool for personal comfort but as a rejection of their children.

Social scientists also point to the shift in how we view parenting today. We have moved toward a child centered culture where the needs of the child often supersede the comfort of the community. In previous generations children were expected to adapt to the adult world. Today the adult world is often expected to bend for the child. When this expectation hits the reality of a commercial flight friction occurs. The passengers wearing sleep masks were adhering to the social contract of air travel. You buy a ticket. You sit in your seat. You try to survive the flight with minimal interaction. They were not being rude. They were just existing.

The vlogger's reaction also highlights the toxic side of influencer culture. Everything is content. Even a stressful family moment is an opportunity for engagement. By framing the passengers as the villains he was trying to create a narrative where he is the heroic martyr. He wanted his followers to validate his struggle and condemn the selfish strangers who dared to sleep. But he miscalculated. He forgot that most people relate more to the exhausted traveler just trying to get some rest than to the parent demanding an audience for their struggle.

There is a distinct difference between asking for help and demanding attention. If a parent asks a neighbor to help pick up a dropped toy most people will gladly assist. That is community. But silently judging strangers for shielding themselves from sensory overload is entitlement. Those noise canceling headphones are not an act of aggression. They are a coping mechanism. Just as the parent uses an iPad to distract their toddler the stranger uses Bose to distract themselves from the toddler. It is a fair trade.

The backlash to this video serves as a necessary course correction. It reminds us that having children is a choice that comes with immense challenges. One of those challenges is managing them in public spaces without expecting the public to co-parent with you. The village it takes to raise a child is a voluntary association. You cannot draft strangers into the village at thirty thousand feet just because you are overwhelmed.

So the next time you see a parent struggling on a plane offer a smile or a helping hand if you can. But if you see a passenger putting on an eye mask and tuning out the world do not judge them either. They are just trying to get to their destination with their sanity intact. And if you are the parent, maybe put the camera away. The internet does not need to see your neighbors sleeping. Focus on the toddler trying to eat the safety pamphlet instead.