Here’s a video making the rounds, that I’ve seen on several twitter accounts and also on LinkedIn, purporting to show a young child kicking the seat back of the man in front of them. The child is a bundle of energy, bouncing a bit up and down in their seat. And the man in the row ahead speaks to the mom about it.
The man’s wife counsels some grace, “he’ll stop in a sec, he’s a kid.” But the man turns around and asks the mother to “get your kid under control.” And they begin to talk about whether she’s a good parent or not. The man’s wife seems embarrassed. A conflict escalates with the mom, and things begin to get “real” as observed by another passenger:
Do you think this man was wrong? pic.twitter.com/YkZHsu7FXy
— Uncle Sam (@WestCoast_Goodz) August 13, 2023
Now, I don’t buy that this video was taken on an actual flight:
- I don’t recognize the lighting in the cabin
- Or this panel – it looks more like a cabin mockup to me
- The sound quality is ‘too good’ for cell phone video, there’s no ambient aircraft noise and the voices of the ‘passengers’ come through too clearly
- No one seems to have details about the flight where this incident occurred.
That said, it’s also the kind of incident that escalates on planes all the time. Kids on planes gets controversial because their behavior doesn’t follow adult norms. They lack the attention span or context for how their behavior affects others.
- A crying baby signifies that the baby is unhappy (maybe they’re hungry, or tired, or uncomfortable).
- It also imposes a cost on other passengers.
- Business class passengers often think kids don’t belong in their cabin, but why are coach passengers less deserving of peace?
- And toddlers and small children are bundles of energy without the self-control they’ll develop later (or an understanding of why they’d need it)
I’ve found that it is important to keep kids engaged. With my own daughter I’ve gone to lengths to limit connecting flights, and travel at hours that keep her on her normal schedule. That means not waking her up before normal time to fly, or flying past her bedtime, and giving her the usual downtime during the day if possible.
And activities matter. Having toys, games, coloring books and ways to both engage and change up the situation is both better for her and better for everyone around us.
Anybody asking a question like that isn’t a person who can be reasoned with. They should be ignored completely. Society is better off if we all learned to ignore, instead of respond or confront.
This is one of those weird FB video skits. It’s a fake video. Luckily no need to be enraged.
I have had a kid kick my seat multiple times before. While sometimes bad mothering of fathering is the blame, usually it is just the kid acting up and the parent has little leverage in getting the kid to stop. I have found a mean glare usually gets the best results and gives the parent some leverage over the kid. Sometimes the kid will engage and will quit the kicking after realizing there is something interesting about the person in front. Another approach is to use reverse psychology and ask the kid to keep on doing it. Once it is no longer annoying someone, they quit. I agree that the video looks like a skit in which the approach was wrong by all parties. The adult guy should be dumped.
Two things: 1) what’s with all the fake airplane cabin incident videos recently? (Bubble wrap lady, etc). Is social media that lucrative to make fake videos on poor passenger behavior?
2) Can’t believe male actor signed off on this. He could be cancelled in real life for being “privileged” and this interaction with BIPOC regardless if he’s right and it being staged. Nowadays you get DOXXED and life ruined (see crazy plane lady).
@jns. I’ve found that kids will stop acting up when I glare at them too. I guess it’s because they don’t know what a mean-faced stranger is likely to do that gets them to stop, when they’ll just ignore their parents because they know what limits they have with them (if any).
Gary Leff appears to have read a book on motherhood or has enough ideas to author one. That is why his daughter is not a wild animal like the other kid. Of course, his daughter is still a kid and has not reached perfection but can exert some self control. In contrast, the wild kid is at risk to torturing animals, becoming a serial killer or a drug dealer.
I ask the kid to stop directly, no matter their age. (I probably glare too). It usually works.
The vast majority of kids I see on planes are well-behaved. You just notice the ones that aren’t.
I HAVE seen things I would consider low quality parenting on flights, which most of the time is exactly what Gary said: Not giving the kid enough to do or focus on. Being on a plane is boring enough for adults. I am careful to bring enough entertainment for myself. People should do the same for their kids!
Be careful about glaring at or talking to my kids for any reason. Prepare to be socked in the face and to lose your lawsuit against me because my attorney will argue self defense on my behalf. I’ve never lost a suit. If you have a problem you can talk to the flight attendant.
@ Gary — Can I please have the five minutes of my life back.
Beside the lighting and the pillar …. the legroom looks great in the video … can only be fake
“Certified” sounds like a tough cookie. Make your kid behave on the plane and there won’t be any need for me to glare at him. Better yet don’t travel with your rug rat until they have learned basic manners.
This is completely fake. It’s DL seat number markings on the overhead bins, with non-DL lighting. All the shades are drawn shut, as one does when it’s hot out and you’re on the ground, but there’s zero sound from an APU or external A/C unit to cool the plane. If they were flying, there’d be white noise.
There’s no chatter or background noise, suggesting the people in the video are the only folks on the plane. You can hear what everyone is saying way too clearly, and the actors are all a little too perfect in appearance.
Certified is a clown. You wouldn’t win a single lawsuit nor can you afford an attorney. At best you’ll end up on a no fly list, at worst you’d end up beaten up when you went to pick up your car outside of camera view.
Certified – your jaw will be wired shut at a minimum. Good luck testifying, ponce.
Gary, can you please do something about the threats of violence? Not just the one aimed at me, either…let’s be civilized here. I know you don’t like to moderate too heavily, but this is a little bit ridiculous.
Jennifer – run away, you little pansy.
@ Certified
Any lawyer who would do that for you lacks professionalism and shouldn’t be practicing.
This is a complete fake video. If that kids was behind me as I’ve had to have this conversation. I would inform the flight attendant that it’s crucial that the kid doesn’t kick my seat as I have a lower back disability. If this were to persist then I would politely as the senior flight attendant to inform the captain of the disruption. Lucky me I had to go through those steps on a 10 hour flight. Since I was flying by myself the captain make a call and have the flight crew upgrade me since economy was completely full. The parent did start to walk around the aircraft to see where I had went. I just gave her a smile.
This is clearly fake and designed to enable the race grievance politics in this country.
I wouldn’t be surprised if you did some digging and found that this entire skit was made by some left leaning NGO or China like that “say no marriage” video thats been trending on tiktok this week.
Don’t know if this is fake or for real. The passenger whose seat is being attack by some misbehaving kid might try asking the mother to trade seats with the kid. At least the mother would be seated behind the man. It is the parent’s responsibility to maintain control of their kid—-not another passenger or even a flight attendant. Passengers pay good money for a seat
on a plane and should not have to be tortured by any kid. The kid needs a trip to the woodshed or in this case, the lav.
Frankly I would have found it slightly amusing. While traveling with my daughter and grandson, who at that time was barely over a year old, seated by the window in a infant car seat, a lady came on and chose to sit directly in front of him. Since this was Southwest Airlines, it was most definitely her choice. When he kicked the back of her seat, mainly because that is where his feet were, she flew into a rage. She stood up and leaned over the seat and literally screamed at him that she had paid for that seat and he had better not kick her seat again. I just laughed and asked her if she was aware that he was well under 2 years old and incapable of even beginning to understand her words.
Looks like a corporate training video for flight attendants on deescalation.
Cuts off 5 seconds before the host steps in and asks what you would do before the quiz pops up.
We have to watch these kinds of things every year on sexual harassment and the like
Putting aside the falseness of this video, I found my “tolerance” for such behavior changed dramatically once I had a child my own. An errant kick or 2 isn’t going to elicite such behavior from a fellow parent. If it was blatant, any mother would have done something. I agree is totally false and used to stir up controversy as @AndyS states above. Just like FB “interfered” with elections.
Like most crap on social media, It’s all fake. I spotted this as a fake as soon as I saw it.
I bring something to keep my younger son occupied. The older one likes to watch and listen to the screen on the plane.
Certified? More like “Certifiable”.