Mom Asks If It’s ‘Appropriate’ For Flight Attendant To Shame Her For What She Let Her 2-Year-Old Do On A 13-Hour Flight
FamVeld | Shutterstock One well-known mom recently encountered drama on a 13-hour flight from Australia to Los Angeles with her noisy toddler. “Dancing with the Stars” pro Witney Carson was flying home from vacation with her family, including her 2-year-old son, when she became the subject of a flight attendant’s ire.
A long flight isn’t easy at any age, but there is something especially hard about being trapped on a plane for hours and hours when you’re just a kid. Most parents do whatever they can to keep their kids well-behaved while they’re on a flight, but they obviously can’t control them. Crying is certainly jarring, but what about just normal kid sounds? And at what point is a complaining passenger just being a grump, or someone with a legitimate complaint?
A mom said she and her young son were shamed because he was ‘playing and giggling’ during a 13-hour flight.
Carson won Season 33 of “DWTS” with her celebrity partner and wildlife expert Robert Irwin, per People Magazine. After bonding throughout the season, Carson decided to visit Irwin in his native Australia with her husband, Carson McAllister, and their sons, Kevin and Jet.
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It wasn’t until the trip home that things started to unravel. Carson explained some of what happened and asked for advice in her Instagram Stories on January 25.
“Question for you guys, and be honest — is it appropriate to ask for a child to be quiet for the entire 13-hour flight?” she asked. “Jet was playing and giggling with me and we were asked to be quiet because a man up in front said he was trying to rest.”
Later, the flight attendant informed her that their behavior was still not satisfactory. “Then the flight attendant kept shushing Jet and I got up and asked him if there were certain times on the flight we needed to be quiet and we’d respect that, but if not, I don’t expect my children to sit quietly for 13 hours,” she continued.
The mom received a lot of support from fellow parents.
Of course, since Carson posted her questions about the encounter to her Instagram Story, replies weren’t visible to anyone but her. Apparently, she got some very reassuring responses, though. In a final post, she said, “Seems I’ve reached the right side of Instagram and I feel very validated.”
She did share a reel on the app featuring a travel vlog from what she said was actually a 30-hour trip in total to also take their connecting flight from Los Angeles to their home in Florida. She called her young sons “traveling champs,” adding that they did “so good” during the hectic day.
Carson received some comments on the reel referencing the flight attendant drama she shared on her Stories. Some people were very kind, leaving comments like, “Anyone who says anything rude about kids while traveling truly makes my mama bear come out. People need to be more understanding and caring.”
Others weren’t quite so comforting, though. “It’s up to you to teach your kid about indoor voices and how to behave in public/regulate how they act!” someone else said.
It seems like everyone has a different opinion on whether or not kids should be quiet on flights.
If Carson’s Instagram comments are any indication, there is no general consensus about how kids should be expected to behave on flights. And, of course, there isn’t any sort of industry-wide rule either, so it’s really up to the parents to keep their kids as well-behaved as possible.
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It seems flight attendants can’t even agree on what to do in this kind of situation, which could be why the one Carson interacted with felt less than helpful. Flight attendant Aimee LaMay told Condé Nast Traveler, “We have to be a skilled negotiator in these situations. As a mom myself, there’s a fine line between asking the parent if they need help and having it appear that we’re telling them that they’re not doing their job.”
Maybe this was a case of an overzealous flight attendant, or a truly uncouth passenger who insisted on total silence. Or, maybe the situation was not as minimal as Carson made it sound. Either way, kids are humans who exist in the world just like the rest of us. You can’t expect them to be totally quiet when it’s not in their nature, or to disappear altogether. Maybe, instead of getting angry, the best defense against kid noise on a plane is a good offense, like noise-cancelling headphones.
Mary-Faith Martinez is a writer with a bachelor’s degree in English and Journalism who covers news, psychology, lifestyle, and human interest topics.
