Unless you’re flying in business class or above, modern air travel can be a real drag. The food is awful, the seats are cramped, getting through security gets more invasive by the minute, and then there are parents who refuse to control their kids.
One woman traveling on Delta recently took to the web to rant about her in-flight ordeal. Apparently, she found herself seated next to two badly-behaved young kids while their parents relaxed in first class. In her open letter, she tells the community it was nothing but loud, messy chaos.
More info: Reddit
Modern air travel can seriously suck, as this woman found out the hard way
Image credits: AP Studio / Freepik (not the actual photo)
She found herself seated next to two young kids whose parents were traveling in first class
Image credits: EyeEm / Freepik (not the actual photo)
The one kid was listening to a blaring iPad while kicking the seat in front of him non-stop
Image credits: dmytro_sidelnikov / Freepik (not the actual photo)
According to the woman, it was nothing but loud, messy chaos, with the kid yelling for his mom while he picked his nose
Image credits: SuavecitoMojito
Severely annoyed, the woman went online to pen an open letter to the irresponsible parents in real time
OP begins her post by telling her readers that they hadn’t even taken off yet and she was already taking bets as to whether or not the flight attendants would have to ask the parents to come back and sit with their kids.
Apparently, two kids—definitely younger than 8—were left sitting alone in Premium Select while their parents disappeared into Delta One. According to OP, one of the kids was just full-on camping with his finger up his nose while watching an iPad at maximum volume, despite wearing headphones.
To make matters worse, the kid wouldn’t stop kicking the seat in front of him, all the while yelling for his mother. As if that wasn’t bad enough, the kid had gotten up several times while the plane was taxiing. OP claims it was nothing but loud, messy chaos. Talk about a rough start to the last leg of a 13-hour travel day.
OP tells her readers that she cannot imagine what made the parents think abandoning two young and unprepared kids in a cabin packed with strangers (while they sipped bubbly behind a curtain) was a good idea. She ends her letter with some stern advice for the problematic parents.
Image credits: MrDm / Freepik (not the actual photo)
From what OP tells us in her post, she found herself at the mercy of someone else’s bad parenting, made worse by being trapped with the consequences of it for an entire flight. Just why, though, is entitled and inconsiderate behavior on flights getting worse? And is it ever OK to fly separated from your kids? We went looking for answers.
In his article for The Seattle Times, Christopher Elliot writes that, if you read any news report of a flight diversion, chances are high there’s a thoughtless passenger behind it—someone who didn’t want to share the overhead bin space, insisted on jamming their seat all the way back, or didn’t want to wait to use the bathroom.
“There’s a societal trend toward selfishness—it’s ‘me-first’ and ‘me-only,’” says Lori Freemire, a Denver-based flight attendant. “There’s little regard for the gate agents or crew trying to do their jobs.”
In her article for Business Insider, Jill Robbins argues that flying in first class with her husband while leaving their kids in coach doesn’t make her a bad parent. Robbins writes that her 13-year-old boys are well-traveled and that she started booking them in a different class when they were 11.
According to Robbins, other passengers regularly ask her kids where their parents are on flights and give disapproving sniffs when the boys point toward the front of the airplane. They'll also tell her kids things like, "I can't believe your parents made you sit back here."
That being said, there’s a big difference between a teen and a kid who’s just post-toddler. We’d say OP had every right to be annoyed at the oblivious parents. The cabin crew should also shoulder at least part of the blame, in this instance.
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Bored Panda reached out to Dr Charlotte Russell, a clinical psychologist in the UK and the founder of The Travel Psychologist to get her take on the situation.
When we asked her what might have been going through the parents' heads, she had this to say, "The parent's alleged behavior in this situation is both irresponsible and inconsiderate. It's certainly hard to believe that this happened,"
"I don't know what the parents were thinking, but generally when people behave inconsiderately and irresponsibly, they will tend to come up with a series of justifications to themselves,"
Russell went on to add, "In this situation this might have included "It's just a short flight", "the children will be safe and will just watch their tablets". There could also be some justifications along the lines of "We deserve a treat","
"In my experience these kinds of behaviors don't tend to be isolated incidents and may be a sign of wider disharmony." concluded Russell
What would you have done if you’d found yourself in OP’s shoes? And what do you think of the parents’ decision to leave such young kids to fend for themselves? Let us know your opinion in the comments!
In the comments, some readers weighed in with suggestions while others slammed the parents for being so inconsiderate
