A family travel influencer is pitching a “cheap, no-screen” toddler airplane activity: bringing a roll of painter’s tape and letting the kid stick, peel, and re-stick it to make “roads, shapes, letters and games” on their seat and tray area of an American Airlines Airbus A321.
Here, the toddler is seated and quietly playing with a roll of blue painter’s tape. The tape is run in long strips across the seat. It’s stuck to:
- the seatbacks and tray table in front
- the seat and armrest area around the child
- and the wall and window next to the child
Their pitch: “Flying with toddlers? Don’t buy toys. Bring this.”
Reactions break down into three main camps:
- Control your kid. Kids should sit still. Parents are lazy. The cabin isn’t a playroom. One person suggested: “Tape your child to the chair.”
- Quiet kid beats screaming and running. Maybe this isn’t perfection but it’s an improvement over the alternative. The child is seated, quiet, occupied, and not running the aisle.
- Don’t trash the plane. Tape has residue. Parents probably leave it behind for cleaners. This isn’t your living room. And by the way, the area should stay clear for safety and egress. Plenty of people criticize the waste of tape which is a bit rich when they are literally burning jet fuel, but o.k.
Painter’s tape is marketed for clean removal without residue. That doesn’t mean it’s always true, but should be if handled correctly. You should keep a ziploc bag for used tape, clean up before deplaning, and leave the area better than you found it, and don’t put tape on any surface that’s even arguably someone else’s space.
There’s been a long-standing debate over whether it’s okay to let kids draw on planes with crayons if they’re supposedly erasable, though passengers let their kids draw on the tray table and then don’t clean it.
They’ll even help the kids draw on their seat back trays. And parents have left Delta first class seats trashed after giving their kid a sticker gun, too.
Maybe have them use painters tape on the OUTSIDE to redo the aircraft’s livery while in flight. Big time and cost saver for the airline (American take note)! BTW, just a joke for anyone who might take this seriously.
I guess giving the kid a coloring book was too difficult. The question is did the parents take the tape down or just leave it? Parenting in 2026. Their kids are supposed to be your problem.
If it keeps the child quiet and entertained, then it is fine with one caveat – Parents need to clean up afterwards.
Looks like.a typical AA seat.
Way past time to stop letting parents turn premium cabins into kiddie play pens. If the parents can’t control them. then move to the back or better still, leave them at home with granny or nanny.
Our imminent future of dramatically more expensive airfares will bring an end to this nonsense in short order.
ditto george: coloring books and crayolas
this is just a slightly subtler version of children kicking the seat in front of them, adults or children protruding their feet past the seat in front of them or the worst, dipshit adult females draping 4 feet of hair over their seatbacks in to the space behind them
the stupidity of this timeline is immeasurable with current technology
If parents confine it to a small area, then pick it up, it’s fine. Letting it stick for an extended time would be another story. Also upon removal use the wad to pick up crumbs from the floor. Win-win.
Did anyone notice?? How often do you get an empty middle seat??
Maybe Dad got upgraded?
Hard NO on this behavior. If your child cannot be quiet and polite for the entire flight there is no excuse. Every other paying pax on the flight does not need to be subjected to YOUR inadequate parenting. That painter’s has zero chance of being limited to just their seat. Leave the little snot-goblins at home.
Painter’s tape that’s not left for a long time should have no residue on anything about the seat. Clean it up before leaving, no problem at all.
Very clever idea. No different to a coloring book. And encourages kids to be creative. Quick note. Painters’ tape doesn’t leave any residue and is super easy to remove. Suggest that the parent tell the child, “Now it’s time to remove all our tape art,” when the landing announcement come on. Who knows? The seat may be even cleaner!
Interesting idea. Maybe airlines can provide some speed tape for a more premium playing experience
Rather have a kid playing with painters tape than an adult walking the aisle in his bare feet.
The painting kit will come next.
I would still rather this than some smelly fake-ass service dog taking up the floor space in front of my seat!
(Am I doing this right, dog nutters? Seems every time there’s a negative story about a dog, there’s at least a half dozen fUr pArEnTs saying better than a child, so I’m trying to follow your lead, nutters)
BAN THAT KIDDO FOR LIFE! /s
@1990 many tried that with you ! As long as you have keyboard access we know it won’t work! XoXo leave the kids alone
I wouldda just been smacked into behavior… not that I condone corporal punishment… but a slap is an attention getter.
Actually, not only does painters tape leave effectively no residue, it should also pick up and REMOVE some of the nasty sh*t that’s on airplane surfaces.
8 Dirtiest Parts of a Plane: Armrest, Toilet Handle, and SkyMall Are Among Them – Thrillist https://share.google/V8qBtRr6rl6PGqSqv
Plane is probably cleaner but that tape will be pretty grimy.
Anyone who’s bothered by what the kid is doing and saying they should sit still either doesn’t have a kid, or they have one that doesn’t talk to them. If the parent is responsible about cleaning this up, it’s not a bad idea. If anything- the tape will clean the surfaces better than the cleaning crew will. The amount of people walking around with a stick up their ass is unimaginable.
There’s a simple solution to this challenge: contraception.
As a new parent that recently flew for the first time with a 14 month old, I can say this… People who say “control your kids” either never had kids or don’t remember what it was like to have kids this age.
There’s no real logic, communication, or control going on. I cam try to “parent better,” but when the only choices for for communication from my child are smiles, laughs, or screaming, I’m going to do anything I can to prevent screaming. Unfortunately, being confined and restricted to one spot (especially as he’s just learned to walk) causes screaming.
I’m not saying I’m going to be constantly flying with my child at this age, but I will take any strategy that prevents screaming over one that may appear to cause inconvenience of doesn’t conform to what others think is acceptable. I’ll be willing to bet my fellow passengers will prefer that too.
Careful or the ground crew will think that the tape is structural and holding the plane together.
@ed
what was the reason for a 14-month old on a plane?
95% of the possible answers will fall in to the “optional” category
this includes visiting relatives, especially grandparents, IF the grandparents are able to walk and therefore not require a wheelchair for themselves to fly to you
for us the worst thing is an out of control kid. screaming. running. kicking the seat.
I’ll sit next to a service dog. never had an incident. rather than an out of control kid and
brain dead mom
INTERESTING MUSIC FACT: The longest DRUM SOLO was 10 hours and 26 minutes long and was performed by the child sitting behind me on Delta flight 963 from LA to Tokyo. 😉
Seems pretty harmless to me.