Entitled parents who can’t keep a handle on their unruly kids are the worst. The problem only compounds when the kids start raising havoc in a captive space filled with other people like, say, an aircraft on a long international flight.
This was pretty much the scenario facing a traveler on the final leg of a trip when he was unlucky enough to find himself seated next to an entitled mom and her badly behaved kid. The guy has since turned to the r/EntitledPeople community to recount his experience.
Man on international flight gets seated next to entitled mom and her bratty kid
Image credits: Rahul Singh (not the actual photo)
Kid was running up and down the aisle, throwing toys and making a mess
Image credits: Oleksandr P (not the actual photo)
Kid started whining, pointing at man’s Coke and making a scene
Image credits: James Yarema (not the actual photo)
Arrogant mother leaned over and said, “He really wants your drink. Just give it to him”
Image credits: Anonymous
Guy ordered another Coke, but obnoxious kid tried to swipe it from flight attendant’s hand, which got him and the mother instantly scolded
The man, who’d just got back from a long flight, told the community that, when he realized who he’d been seated next to, he cursed his bad luck. He’d had bad experiences with parents and kids on some of his previous travels, so he knew he was in for a long flight.
The guy wrote that the flight started out smoothly enough, but quickly made a turn for the worse after the mother unleashed her kid, who proceeded to run up and down the aisle, throwing his toys and making a mess. The mother was obliviously scrolling through her phone, at best telling other passengers to ignore him because he’s ‘just a kid’.
Things moved up a level when, about halfway through the flight, the guy ordered a Coke. The kid immediately got fixated on it, whining, pointing, and kicking up a fuss. To his surprise, the mom actually leaned over and said, “He really wants your drink. Just give it to him.” The man refused, and suggested the arrogant woman order her own.
To up the ante, the guy then ordered another Coke, but this time the unruly kid tried to grab it right out of the flight attendant’s hand. That was the straw that broke the camel’s back, because the attendant immediately gave the mother a quiet, but stern, talking to.
The guy says that for the rest of the flight the mother just glared at him, while her kid carried on creating chaos. He concluded his post by pondering, “Why have kids when you can’t be arsed to parent them properly?”
Image credits: cottonbro studio (not the actual photo)
In an ideal world, when kids are behaving badly, it really should be the parent’s responsibility to deal with them but, in reality, that’s not always the case. So, how do you handle a situation where a parent isn’t doing their job properly?
In an article for Condé Nast Traveler, former flight attendant Bobby Laurie writes that if you find yourself seated near a child whose actions are disturbing you and your comfort, it would be a good idea to try and handle the situation before getting others involved. Laurie adds that, often, a bit of patience goes a long way.
Susan Marks, a flight attendant, says, “Parents know their kids are being disruptive. It only adds fuel to the fire if another passenger jumps in and reiterates that to the parent as if they weren’t already aware".
Marks suggests offering a friendly nod with a smile that lets the parent know you’re aware of the disruption.
"It also acknowledges that they’re cognizant of it disrupting everyone around them.” adds Marks.
Non-audible problems such as kicking seats, pressing the call button too often, using seats as climbing frames, and disobeying the seatbelt sign are all actions that are safety-related, enabling a flight attendant to get involved if it gets to be too much.
A number of flight attendants have said that their responses to such complaints depend very much on the parents’ actions.
One flight attendant stated that they have to be a skilled negotiator in unruly situations, and that there's a fine line between asking the parent if they need help, and having it appear that they're telling them that they’re not doing their job.
Bored Panda caught up with OP to ask him some questions about his ordeal. When we asked him if he was surprised to see his post get so much attention and how that made him feel, he replied, "I didn't expect for the post to go viral. It was surprising because I felt my experience was pretty similar to other people going through the same thing."
On the question of what urged him to share his experience with Reddit, he added, "It was just an experience I wanted to share to vent my frustration and to get a good laugh."
OP had one piece of advice for people faced with the same issue, " I think it's better to keep a cool head and to remember that acting out in frustration may feel good at that moment but later you may feel bad about it once you calm down."
What would you have done if you’d found yourself in OP’s shoes? Do you think the mother deserved a piece of his mind? Let us know your opinion in the comments!
Some Redditors weighed in with their own horror stories of entitled parents and ‘hell spawn’ kids on flights, and most slammed the mother for being so arrogant
