Parents under fire after child filmed ‘running wild’ on flight

A Reddit post claimed the incident occurred during an eight-hour flight

Graig Graziosi
Thursday 24 November 2022 16:44 EST
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A little girl repeatedly jumps up and down on a tray table during a flight
A little girl repeatedly jumps up and down on a tray table during a flight (screengrab/Reddit/u/readysetgorilla)

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The parents of a little girl who was filmed jumping on the tray table of an airline seat — and repeatedly bouncing the passenger on the other side — have taken heat on social media for allowing the incident to take place.

In the footage, which was shared to social media sites including Reddit and Twitter, a little girl, likely three or four years old, can be seen jumping on an unlatched tray table during a flight.

She jumps repeatedly on the table while a male passenger on the other side of the seat bounces along, apparently trying to ignore the annoyance and let the girl have her fun.

At no point during the footage do the girl’s parents attempt to stop her.

A Reddit post on r/PublicFreakout claims the incident, during which the child was allowed to “run wild,” occurred on an eight-hour flight, but the Independent has not verified that claim.

Commenters who viewed the video largely criticised the parents for allowing the child to misbehave and disrupt the flight, with one calling the girl the “toddler from Hell.”

"How are parents not embarrassed by this?" a user going by "Goodie" wrote in response to a Barstool Sports story about the misbehaving child. "My kids laugh too loud we’ll shush them."

Another user, going by the name "some guy," recommended — hopefully sarcastically — to just "throw the kid off the plane."

On Reddit, a user reminded other redditors to "always wipe down your stations," referring to the tray table the girl’s feet were contaminating.

The replies weren’t all negative. Some users chastised the passenger for using the seat recline function and said the child’s jumping was a justifiable response.

Despite the fact that all seats can recline and that reclining is both allowed and literally built into the seats, there are some people who believe using the function is rude.

The footage of the child does not provide much context into what was actually happening on the plane. It’s unclear who shot the video, when, where the child’s parents were, or what — if any — relation the girl has to the male passenger she was annoying.

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