Flying with kids is exhausting, but who's responsible for what they leave behind?
It was a controversy that started, as all good controversies these days do, on social media. Anthony Bass, who pitches for Major League baseball team the Toronto Blue Jays, tweeted his indignation about the treatment his wife, Sydney Rae, received on a flight. She was 22 weeks pregnant and travelling with their two kids, aged five and two, when a United Airlines flight attendant asked her to clean up the popcorn they'd dropped on the floor.
The tweet has received more than 48,000 replies so far, many of them empathising with the flight attendant. "Genuinely curious who should clean up the mess your 2 year old made? As a parent of three kids I am the one responsible for them," user @pwentink22 replied. It seemed to be the consensus, although, this being social media, not everyone was as polite.
But with one flight attendant anonymously tweeting a crew's main job is to ensure passenger safety, not to "wait" on them, it got us wondering who was right in this scenario. Flight attendant Caroline, who spoke to Explore on the condition we did not use her last name, was horrified.
"If I was a mum, I'd definitely clean up after my child, but as a flight attendant I would never ask a mum to pick up popcorn off the floor," she says. "Absolutely no way. I'd just get a dustpan and brush and do it myself."
As a flight attendant I would never ask a mum to pick up popcorn off the floor.
Former flight attendant Lou agrees, although he says there's always more going on than a tweet and a photo can reveal.
"Generally, the crew don't mind cleaning up after kids," he says. "It's when parents don't seem to take any responsibility for their kids and let them do whatever they want that it becomes a problem.
"The crew always has a duty of care when it comes to parents and their kids. It's a tough gig, travelling with kids, and they understand that."
None of the Australian airlines contacted were keen to weigh in on the debate, although if you go to the Careers section of the Qantas website, this point - "understand the importance of inflight hygiene and make sure all areas of the cabin are clean, fresh and ready for our customers" - does suggest cleaning up after passengers (including kids!) is part of the gig.
Needless to say, if you're a parent, teaching your kids to respect the spaces they inhabit is never a bad idea. You can't control if they decide they're going to cry the whole way, chuck a tantrum or throw up, but you can put their detritus into the trash bag when it's brought down the aisle.
In this scenario, though, we can agree on one thing: the real villain here is the highly paid athlete who books his wife and kids in economy then complains on social media when they don't receive first-class service.
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