Traveling with kids can be a hassle. The smaller they are, the more chaotic it can be. Air travel is particularly challenging for little kids, who are expected to sit in the same boring place for an extended period. Parents often try their best to keep their kids busy on a flight with activities they enjoy to help keep them calm and quiet. For a lot of people, that means screen time. We're moms, too, and we won't judge.
But some people do judge and like to tell people how to parent. A mom took her 3-year-old on a flight recently and let her play on an iPad. Another mom asked her to take it away because it bothered her toddler. She chose not to do that, and now she's wondering if she was a jerk for refusing the request.
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The little girl was minding her own business.
Her mom posted about the encounter in Reddit's AITA forum. Apparently, another kid on the flight noticed the original poster's daughter playing with the iPad and wanted to play with it. OP didn't pay him much attention and went on about her business.
"The little boy noticed my daughters iPad and was trying to get at it and started crying when the mom told him no. My daughter and I both put on headphones and were just blocking it out," she wrote.
Then, the other mom made an odd request.
She told OP that she and her husband weren't allowing their son to use his iPad on vacation, and they wanted her daughter to put her device away so as not to bother him.
"I said I was sorry but no. The kid cried most of the flight which was about 2 hours. The parents kept shooting me dirty looks which I just ignored. AITA?" she asked.
Redditors couldn't believe this woman's nerve.
She wanted her kid to be screen-free, but that's not OP's problem.
"If they don't want their kid to use a tablet on their vacation, they need to be prepared for meltdowns like this while he develops the ability to understand that other people will have different rules and experiences than he will," someone wrote. "I feel for them, I know how hard it is."
Plenty of people agreed.
Like this person who wrote, "NTA. The only time I DON'T hate seeing a child wearing headphones and staring at a glowing rectangle is on an airplane. You were prepared, you had a quiet, happy child who didn't disturb the other passengers. You did everything right."
"It's a FLIGHT," someone else commented. "What are they supposed to do at that age? Kick the seats? Scream? Throw things? NTA. Give the kid the digital sedative and be happy."
It reeked of entitlement to many commenters.
The mom's request shocked so many Redditors.
"It's incredibly entitled that the family even asked you to do this," someone pointed out. They made a decision to go screen free on their holiday so they need to stand by their decision without making it anyone else's problem."
"Absolutely NTA. You kept your little one quiet and entertained for the entire flight?? I could hug you both," another person agreed. "They can shoot you dirty looks all they want, but their poor guy was made to suffer because they decided on a no-screen-time flight? Smdh. You get a parenting gold star. Hopefully (but doubtful) they learned a lesson."
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OP is anything but a jerk.
No one thought she was out of line. Instead, everyone unanimously agreed that the other mom was guilty of poor planning.
"Consults gentle parenting script: Looks like someone has to deal with the natural consequences of holding their boundary around screen time on a vacation," another commenter summed up nicely.
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