Flying is as much a test for youngsters as it is for those around them. After all, it takes time to adjust to the ear-popping variations in air pressure and sitting silently for hours on end. And you can’t blame the parents either. However you can’t expect a fellow passenger to handle your child. Read the story and let us know how you would handle such a situation. Any advice…
Source: Reddit
I was coming back from Budapest to London, England. So I was on a packed plane as other flights to England had been cancelled (thanks to the pandemic) and thus was placed next to a mother and child. I was sat in the aisle seat, the mother (our entitled mother) in the middle, and her kid in the window seat. Before the actual entitlement begins she asked if myself and her kid could swap places as I originally had the window seat. I said sure, if she could take some photos of the outside for me when we took off – not bad, ey? She took one blurred photo and passed me my phone back. Thanks. Ah well, I was getting ready to watch a movie on my phone – venom – which I had not seen yet.
I put my headphones in and began the movie but after about twenty minutes the mother and child swapped seats (?) so now the seven year old boy was sat next to me…. Whatever, I paid it no mind. If you haven’t seen venom yet I would recommend because I was so engrossed in the film I didn’t even notice our entitled child watching too – remember I had headphones in. It gets to a scene where Venom bit the head off of a bad guy when the mother taps my shoulder, I paused and took my headphone out. I’ve relived this every month since it happened so this is word for word what she said.
“Excuse me, is that appropriate for children?”
“No, sorry this is like a 15 I think?”
“Ahh, do you have anything appropriate for a child?”
“No sorry, I downloaded this off Netflix and can’t use my internet”
“Right,” she said and I assumed that was the end of it. NOPE. I went back to watching with my headphones and she taps me again,
“Aren’t you going to turn this off?” she asked about my movie. Now I’m not gonna lie, I’m very confrontation-confrontation makes me giddy, but I was dead a$% shocked.
“Uh, no. I’m still gonna watch the movie I picked for my flight” I responded. Now the kid pipes up,
“Have you got any games I could play?”
“No, because I’m watching a movie”
“Come on, he’s bored” Entitled mother said
“Not my problem though is it?”
“Excuse me?” – Oh, now I had done it.
“It’s not my problem that your child is bored, you should have planned ahead” I shrugged and put my headphones back on. Pressed play and resumed. Another two minutes passed and once again the mother and child swapped places – yes – the mother was now sat next to me. Yay!
The movie came to an end and there wasn’t much time left on the short flight. I unlocked my phone and went into Spotify so the mother probably thought I couldn’t hear her, so she mumbled
“You could at least let my kid play a game now you spiteful b@#$h”
“How about you be f@#$king grateful I let your kid look out the window the entire flight you ungrateful c$nt” Ooh.
Ooooooooh.
You know that phrase “silence speaks volumes”? Silence. I could hear her breathing. She made it a point to move next to me as much as possible to annoy me but honestly I could not stop laughing at her which angered her further.
Then, finally, we landed. I made sure to wait until everyone got off the plane before I got my luggage. Just to live up to my petty nature. Did I go too far here? Did I over react? Please don’t be afraid to criticize. Thank you for your time in advance.
Here are a few comments on the story where it was originally posted:
