A women brought her baby into the wide open extra row space of a widebody jet to calm down the child. She needed the space to bounce up and down, which isn’t something she could do at her own seat in coach. And she posted video online, poking fun, “How to get a toned butt and legs? Take a four-month-old, that only sleeps in the carrier, to five+ countries in a month…”
She didn’t expect the backlash because she didn’t pay for the exit row seats, someone else did, and wasn’t she taking their space?
Taking up the space to bounce up and down with her four month old is what led to this video being seen millions of times. She was on a 14 hour flight and, she says, she did so much bouncing she had to take “Panadol for my butt and leg muscles that were aching.” (Panadol is Tylenol in Europe and Australia.)
Here’s a typical comment complaining that the woman was taking up the space that ‘belongs to’ the passenger at the exit row seat.
Others, though, point out that the woman isn’t intruding into the passenger’s actual leg room.
The mom in the video became enraged in the comments, “going off on” a woman who criticized her, complaining that she just doesn’t understand “how hard it is to fly an infant.” Except that’s not really the issue here.
- If that is public space, the woman was within her rights.
- If it was another passenger’s space, she wasn’t, even if it was “hard.”
Though I’d point out that many passengers in the exit row would be glad that the mother was doing this, because it isn’t actually very intrusive and is keeping the baby from crying. More parents should be committed to an ‘anything takes approach’ to soothing their child, for the benefit of everyone in the cabin.
The only problem I have with this is the attention seeking from having someone record it to show on her social. Not everything needs to be recorded.
She’s probably insufferable to be with “quick grab the camera”
My disdain is for complete lack of empathy & conjured inconvenience of the complainant & videographer…..Suggest a private jet is probably a more suitable mode of air trans for a hopeless narcissist like yourself.
The issue is not near as much whether she blocks anyone’s let room. That looks like a 777 and the doors are enormous. The issue is that she is bouncing up and down directly in someone’s face. If she really needs to do that, do it at the back of the plane where there are no seats behind her.
And did she really think that she would NOT be sitting for hours on hours? If the flight was turbulent and during meal service, that is exactly what she would have had to do because the FAs wouldn’t have let her stand.
and of course the narcissism of filming it all.
Someone needed to stand up and start bouncing around in “her” space until she went back to her seat.
My only comment is that don’t passengers occupying the exit row have to be 15 (or around that age) to sit there based on the responsibility of assisting with the exit door should an emergency occur?
Relatedly, American charging passengers a Main Cabin Extra supplement for the windowless “window” seat in the exit row of their 787s has to be one of the biggest rip-offs in all of aviation. The way the fuselage juts out without a window, together with the narrowness of the seat, induces claustrophobia. I would rather be in a middle seat in a the back, but American sells it as if it’s a premium seat.
The modern woman is the most entitled and coddled person in human history second only to kings and emperor’s of the past. Modern society has been molded to make them as comfortable as possible with little to no sacrifice from them.
D*mned if you do. D*mned if you don’t. Please everyone. No one is pleased. Please yourself. At least you are pleased. A guy I knew said a family member couldn’t go to the bathroom without putting it on Facebook!
I am surprised not to see more of a safety aspect to the comments about this. There is a reason they tell you to buckle your seatbelt while seated. I realize everyone needs to get up to stretch and to help lull the baby, and they should do that but doing this for extended periods IMO is just not safe if there is turbulence.
A “women” (sic),,,
The dumbest supposed English speaker anywhere!
What a flap over nothing. If the people sitting there were upset, and I doubt it, they could just ask her to move. Then nobody would be happy because then the baby would cry. Would you advise the mother to put the kid in the bassinet and let it scream until it fell asleep from exhaustion? However, I am astonished that the crew would permit this obvious safety violation … one big lurch and both mother and baby would be toast. But nobody wants a baby pitching a fit anywhere, anytime.
So, she drags this baby to 5 countries in a month,knows it only sleeps in a carrier and then takes a 14 hour flight.
Who wants to bet she didn’t pay extra for a seat so the baby could be in a carrier?
Don’t know about anyone else but i wouldn’t be happy with someone bouncing up and down in front of me for hours.
It is perfectly fine for her to be there. I have once in a while sat in those seats and as long as someone doesn’t kick me or be overly loud, it is fine.
It’s not hard flying with infants. I flew both of mine to China almost every year. In business and first. They don’t cry or make much noise maybe I just got lucky.
It’s all fake. She makes up most of the information and makes some big deal out of it all while having someone film it for her social media use all to get views and outrage to make it go viral.
There’s a TON of space there. Anyone bothered by someone standing in front of them on a plane is already bothered by the whole international coach “experience”.
I’ll take a mom and infant bouncing up and down in the space in front of me over a broad-shouldered seatmate anytime!
Andy S. needs to trade places and try being a new mom with a little baby.
Knowing the flight would be long and that there might be turbulence, a smart mother would have consulted her pediatrician and probably been given a prescription for a med to quiet the infant. She and her infant could have had a far pleasanter flight and she wouldn’t have been in the danger she was in had the plane suddenly lost altitude. She needs to learn that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.
I’ve noticed this same method of attempting to calm a baby on flights to/from Australia (it didn’t work.) Must be an OZ thing to bounce them like that . . . if the baby wasn’t crying before she started the “bouncing” it certainly will be. I question the mother’s wisdom on the method and of taking a newborn to five countries including a 14 hour flight.
She’s infringing upon no one’s paid space. Look at the video. Folks in the exit row couldn’t possibly reach out and touch her with their feet if they tried.
The scream of an infant is among the least pleasant sounds out there. This mum is doing her level best for everyone including the baby by doing this. Often FA’s allow use of the galleys for this but if there’s meal prep going on, this is the next best thing.
No one should be flying with an infant. There’s just no reason to put an infant through such a terrible experience. It’s child abuse really.
And of course, it’s annoying to everyone else within range of the infant. There’s no wining ever in these situations. The best thing to do is for parents to exercise some restraint and realize that when they have kids, their lives need to change and frolicking all over the world is one of those things that need to change.