December 13, 2024 at 8:21 am

Her Sister Thinks People Should Control Their Facial Expressions Around Her Crying Baby On An 8-Hour Flight, But She Disagrees And A Heated Family Discussion Ensues

by Mila Cardozo

Source: Reddit/AITA/Pexels/SarahChai

People feeling bothered by babies crying on a long flight is very common.

Yet, this woman’s sister felt personally offended when people looked disturbed by her baby crying on a long flight.

Who is in the wrong?

Let’s analyze the situation.

AITA for telling my sister that people are allowed to look annoyed by her toddler and baby on a plane

My sister “Chelsea” has two children, 22 months and 6 months, and last month she and her husband decided to go on a holiday to Europe before they bought a seat for the kids.

She said that the kids were “terrible flyers” and basically cried the whole way on both trips (we are from Australia) and wouldn’t settle.

She has made a lot of passive-aggressive posts on social media about how entitled nonparents are about kids on planes and how people need to have more sympathy for mums because they are suffering more than they are because their babies won’t settle and being a parent is hard.

She is a passionate advocate.

She’s been kinda… “whiney” in general since she became a mum, always complaining about how hard it is.

She also makes a lot of snide comments to me about how it “must be nice” that I sleep in, etc because I’ve chosen not to have kids.

That’s not very nice. But things soon came to a boiling point.

The plane situation came up when I saw her last night.

She started talking about it again and I asked her if something specific happened or if someone was rude to her about the kids and she admitted that they weren’t really, people just looked visibly annoyed as the kids refused to settle.

On one of the flights, the person next to her asked the flight attendant if there was anywhere else she could sit after a couple of hours and looked really disappointed when told there wasn’t as the flight was full.

This is to be expected, but she felt personally offended by it…

She also said they were rude because none of them offered to help her or give her reassuring smiles and comments.

I said that people have the right to be annoyed at a baby crying the whole way from Melbourne to Singapore on a flight that leaves at 1 am in the morning and lands at like, 9 am, and she went off saying that they don’t and her kids have a right to fly.

It’s not healthy behavior to want to control how people feel.

I told her that I never said they didn’t have the right to fly, just that people have the right to not be thrilled to be seated next to her infant who cries the whole way.

I also told her that they don’t have to feel more sorry for her than themselves because she is responsible for bringing the kids onto the plane and created the situation.

That was a good point, but her sister did not budge.

I also said that no one but her and her husband are obligated to look after their children on a flight and it isn’t fair to expect the people around her to help with them.

She stormed out and complained to my parents who backed me up, but our other sister started dogpiling me too so I just went home.

AITA?

People have the right to have different opinions and reactions to situations.

Let’s see what Redditors have to say.

A reader shares their thoughts.

Source: Reddit/AITA

This commenter shares their point of view.

Source: Reddit/AITA

Someone sounds baffled.

Source: Reddit/AITA

Another reader chimes in.

Source: Reddit/AITA

This person keeps it simple.

Source: Reddit/AITA

Another commenter shares their opinion.

Source: Reddit/AITA

An experienced mom makes a suggestion.

Source: Reddit/AITA

She needs to upgrade her ‘flying with a baby’ approach ASAP.

If you liked that post, check out this post about a woman who tracked down a contractor who tried to vanish without a trace.