Plane Passenger Says Parents Abandoned Kids to Sit Alone, Then Snatched Son's iPad Leaving Him Crying Next to Stranger

Yahoo

4 days ago

The unattended children remained calm until the mother returned to take the younger child's iPad, leading to an unsupervised meltdown
A plane passenger says they were 'baffled' after a set of parents left their kids in favor of more space for themselves on a recent flight.
The Reddit user shared their experience in a post titled 'PSA: Do not leave your kids with strangers so you and your husband can sit together farther back in the plane.'The original poster (OP) explained they were on a flight from Denver to Jacksonville, sitting in an aisle seat closer to the front of the cabin. During boarding, a flight attendant explained to the passengers there were empty rows available in the back of the aircraft.
'This mom drops her kids (probably 8 and 13) in the row with me,' the OP claims. 'Her and her husband sit farther back together.'
They add: 'Kind of weird the parents wouldn't each keep a kid or ALL go back further so they could sit together.'
It wasn't an issue for most of the flight, the OP recounts. The older child fell asleep while the other played on his tablet until halfway through when their mom came to check on them.
'[She] takes the iPad and tells the kid to go to sleep,' the OP claims. 'He starts crying and yelling for his mom for 20 minutes.'
'I was absolutely baffled through the whole situation but didn't necessarily want to bug a [flight attendant] about the situation.'
Following their initial post, the OP made an update explaining they have a child of their own around the same age. However, they would 'NEVER' have him sit that far away on a flight.
'This was the parents choosing to not sit with their kids when there was ample room for them to sit together,' the OP writes.'Did I think it was weird, yes. Did it bother me, not really until the younger one had his iPad taken by mom and cried about it,' they explained. 'The older one slept the whole time so it wasn't like the OP was 'taking care of him.''
Some people in the comment section think the OP didn't do enough in this unusual situation.
'Use. The. Call. Button,' one person wrote simply.'Bro, the [complacency] is almost worse [than] the thing itself,' another said. 'This is why people get away with stupid s—. I don't care if a [flight attendant] has to come scold them, this is not acceptable behavior.'
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Others shared similar experiences of sitting with unaccompanied kids.'I sat next to a kid in coach, about 7 or 8, on a decently long flight,' one began. 'I talked to him a bit and he played with toy trucks and kept himself entertained and eventually took a nap on my shoulder. I assumed he was an unaccompanied minor.'
They added: 'A couple hours later who shows up but his folks, visiting from [first] class.'
Another felt the trouble must be exaggerated.'Eight-year-old cried for 20 minutes? Hmmm. Lots of people siding with you, but this story smells of exaggeration and need for attention,' they wrote. 'It doesn't really matter how you feel — there was nothing legally wrong with the situation and unless you're purchasing a whole row, you just have to buck up and deal with it.'
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