Woman asks if she's wrong to yell at mom who 'can't control her kids' on plane.
Traveling is so tough. When this woman is conflicted about her behavior on a plane, she asks the popular Reddit forum:
'AITA for yelling at a woman on a plane?'
I (39m) was on a flight from coming back to New York from London. I take my seat which is next to the aisle in the middle section of the plane.
A woman and her two very young sons (potentially twins, but close in age) sit in the row behind me. One of the boys is sitting directly behind me. Her husband is sitting in the row behind them. They are Indian (this is important later), and I am Indian-American.
The plane takes off and the boys start yelling about how this is best day ever, and generally making a lot of noise. I put in my headphones, tune them out, and start watching inflight entertainment.
Shortly after the doing that I noticed that something is digging into my back. I try to move around a little bit, and whatever it is is moving.
I turn around and I see that the boy behind me is sitting in a way where he has his feet jammed into the back of my seat. I ask the mother to ask her son to not sit that way, as it is uncomfortable for me. She does, and I turn back around.
Maybe an hour later, there's a something continuously bumping into the back of my seat. I turn around and the kid is hitting the back of my seat with his hands. I again ask the mother to tell her son not to do that. She rolls her eyes at me, but tells her kid to stop.
Once again, something is going on behind me. Since I feel the back of the seat constantly moving back and forth. I look back and the kid is open and closing his tray table again and again for no reason at all. I finally lose it and turn around the woman and yell at her in Hindi 'Are you from a village?!
Have you never flown before?! Please discipline your children and tell them to stop messing with my seat! People like you give Indian travelers a bad name, and that is why people don't like traveling with us!' Her husband notices me and says in English 'What is going on?!'
I tell him that this is the third time I have had to ask his wife to get his children to stop bothering me. He speaks harshly to his kids, his wife looks at me angrily, and I turn around. The kids don't bother me for the rest of flight.
I got home and was talking to my mother on the phone and told her what happened. She told me that wasn't very nice, and I shouldn't have done that. AITA?
Well, let's see what Reddit had to say.
puckgoodfellow writes:
NTA. I recommend talking directly to the kid next time. That's what I do! I turn around and ask them to please keep their hands/feet to themselves. They're usually shocked that a stranger noticed what they were doing and they'll cut it out. Just be polite about it. They're kids, they don't know any better. But they can absolutely learn!
disruptionisbliss writes:
NTA It really does sound like she's a lazy parent. If someone asks her one time to get her kid under control, she should keep an eye on him the entire flight. Obviously she simply didn't care. If asking nicely doesn't work then raising your voice is called for.
adadm3233 writes:
Idk, seems like YTA. Yes it was an annoying situation but that's no excuse for you to yell at them and embarrass them. You could have told the flight attendant or something.