Toddler Takes A Job As Delta Flight Attendant — Works The Aisle Asking “Trash, Please”

A toddler took over flight attendant duties on Delta, and the whole cabin played along. As a result, the airline has a new junior crewmember, and her resume is… trash.

A TikTok shows two year old Lydia strolling down the aisle of a Delta aircraft holding a giant garbage bag while passengers drop in their wrappers and cups. Her mom, traveling along with her father to visit family for Thanksgiving, captioned the clip:

Our Delta flight attendant noticed our toddler needed a job, now all she talks about is ‘I picked [up] all the garbage.’

Lydia got recruited for one of the least glamorous parts of cabin service: trash pickup. And the flight attendants turned it into a game.

• The family boarded and sat toward the back, and Becca says Lydia “connected immediately” with a flight attendant named Terry.

• The 39-year Delta veteran kept checking on them and chatting with Lydia during the flight. He handed Lydia Delta wings and then gave her a “job”: help collect trash.

• She walked row to row with the bag while the flight attendant coached her: “Turn to the other side… Say ‘trash, please.’”

• Passengers leaned in, tearing trash into smaller pieces so Lydia would have “more to collect.”

@beccabakker Thank you @delta, and Terry our flight attendant, for giving our toddler the coolest job on our flight! The whole plane played along… and mom & dad got a break IYKYK #delta #deltaflight #FL ♬ original sound – Becca Bakker

Delta’s flight attendants aren’t unionized, meaning there’s no scope clause violation in having a non-member performing crewmember duties. But she still wasn’t “working as a flight attendant” of course. Federal rules require airlines to have a minimum number of trained flight attendants on board for passenger-carrying flights, based on seating capacity. And those flight attendants have to complete specific training. Since the toddler does’t satisfy that, she can’t displace a working crewmember.

The closest analog is, ironically, Hooters Air. They famously had “Hooters Girls” on flights. But they weren’t flight attendants. The airline still had to have certified flight attendants onboard, while the Hooters Girls were extra hospitality and entertainment, helping the official crew. Similarly, Lydia isn’t a flight attendant, she’s a toddler participating in a supervised task.