United Airlines popcorn controversy: What sayeth the Dis?

[TheIncredibles!]

Looking at that picture my first thought was...why did you give the baby the whole bag instead of one piece at a time?

I’m guessing cave women preformed tasks up until they delivered. No reason this lady can’t.

Cave women never had to get on their hand and knees while 22 weeks pregnant and pick up popcorn on an airplane. That apparently is an unfathomable feat that no cave woman would have ever been equipped to accomplish since modern women can barely manage

 

[White Cat]

Was on a first class Delta flight yesterday. Seating was 2/2 in first class. An 321 I think. LGA to MCO. It’s interesting that there was a husband and wife with probably twin boys around 6 in the first row. A nanny behind them. New York accents. One boy named Levi, they kept saying it over and over. They hardly sat, the mother had no control over them, the father was just as bad as the spoiled boys. They left the place an absolute mess, the floor was covered with junk. The stewardess never said a word to them, I was surprised by that. They were absolute pigs. On they was to WDW I’m sure.

 

[White Cat]

Looking at that picture my first thought was...why did you give the baby the whole bag instead of one piece at a time?


Cave women never had to get on their hand and knees while 22 weeks pregnant and pick up popcorn on an airplane. That apparently is an unfathomable feat that no cave woman would have ever been equipped to accomplish since modern women can barely manage

But they did have to clean the cave.

 

[tzolkin]

Of course it could have happened that way, but does it really matter? If it got to the point where it was spilling out into the aisle, as you can see it has, and the mom has not done anything, don't you think that the flight attendant has the right to ask her to pick it up? We are just getting the mom's version of the story, not the flight attendants. Do you not feel that people should clean up their big messes? We are not talking one or two pieces here.

Really, none of this entire thread matters. It's a discussion about a frivolous topic.

I already stated earlier that I would have immediately cleaned up the mess. That's not really relevant to my comment that you quoted.

My point was that a bunch of posters are making up additional details in order to form an opinion about the mom and situation without actually knowing what happened. If someone is using the "fact" that this mother sat there for an extended period of time ignoring the children as they dropped popcorn pieces all over the floor, they are going to have a different opinion of her than if the kid accidentally dropped the whole bag. To me, one is bad parenting and the other is an accident that could happen to anyone. (I would judge her for her response to the accident-- refusing to pick it up-- but not the spill itself.)

Well in the case of an accidental drop, I would surely spring to my feet and start picking up. Then I would take the popcorn off the children until they were able to eat it under supervision.

This is just regular parenting stuff. This is how even mediocre parents behave to spills and food mishaps.

I agree. But, obviously, this mom does not.

I suppose all I was trying to say is that we can judge her parenting based on the actual facts (kids made a mess and she thought it was someone else's responsibility to pick it up) without having to invent additional "bad parenting" things based off nothing other than assumptions. None of us actually observed this incident, yet we now somehow have the additional "facts" of mom purposely letting the kids make a mess, mom reading a romance novel and not paying attention, mom kicked the popcorn toward the seat behind, mom made her seat choice because she doesn't care if her kids die when the oxygen masks drop, etc.

 

[ajlsjl]

Celebrity wife or not, it's just good manners to clean up after yourself/your family. I agree with other posters, I wouldn't expect the mom to pick up every single little kernel, but picking up as many as possible is just good manners. Have the kids help.

 

[Sugardimples]

She should have stopped the children from throwing the popcorn from the beginning. Only given the two year old a few pieces at a time. This would've all been avoided.

 

[sam_gordon]

She should have stopped the children from throwing the popcorn from the beginning. Only given the two year old a few pieces at a time. This would've all been avoided.

Where did it say the kids were throwing popcorn?

 

[PollyannaMom]

It seems like all are envisioning a messy eater dropping bits of popcorn over an extended period of time. How do we not know if the kid accidentally dropped the bag and that was the entire mess.

I thought of this too. My feelings are kind of different depending on whether the mess happened quickly as an unexpected accident or as a slow process of "gee, that was a bad idea". (For instance, if her kids were actually throwing popcorn at each other, she should have intervened long before there was that much involved.) Either way, though, popcorn is probably the wrong snack choice for an airplane!

I voted "neither" in the poll because I don't think the flight attendant should have "ordered" the mom to pick up the mess (and I do think there's room for a tiny whisk broom on board) but I also think she shouldn't have had to, because mom should have been assisting/coaching the kids to help clean it up in the first place, without being told.

 

[Cannot_Wait_4Disney]

Mine is bigger than yours.

View attachment 754594

OOOOO!!!! I'll bring the chains. You clean up the popcorn.

 

[fly girl]

If Mom was sitting across the aisle, is the cord on the O2 mask long enough for her to assist her kids, especially the one in the window seat? @fly girl

No. They have reach, but not as far as window.

 

[Lilsia]

People should clean up their messes. Customer Service 101 ....never demand it from your customers.

I don't agree with this. This is an airplane, not a restaurant.

 

[Lynne G]

She wasn’t alone with the kids, her sister was with her. I would certainly tell my kid to help clean up. I do think the request by stewardess was not the right thing to do.

 

[Marrila]

The sister is a famous country singer. The husband has played many years in the major leagues. Both are very wealthy folks who are well aware of how to utilize social media.
I feel badly for the flight attendants who make peanuts compared to these two, and who have to remain silent.

 

[fly girl]

She wasn’t alone with the kids, her sister was with her. I would certainly tell my kid to help clean up. I do think the request by stewardess was not the right thing to do.

No, she was not onboard with her sister. She just took to social media like the husband did.

 

[mrodgers]

But they did have to clean the cave.

Yeah, but they were treated very well by their husbands. Any husband was always willing to grab them by the hair and drag them anywhere they wanted to go

 

[nycdisneygal]

I would be mortified if I ever left a mess like that.

 

[BayouQueen]

I'm a nut about leaving things tidy as a courtesy to others and would be very embarrassed if my kids left such a disaster zone. In fact, I wouldn't let them have popcorn on an airplane in the first place. But if the flight attendant told me to clean up the floor, my jaw would drop and I wouldn't do it.

 

[Lilsia]

I'm a nut about leaving things tidy as a courtesy to others and would be very embarrassed if my kids left such a disaster zone. In fact, I wouldn't let them have popcorn on an airplane in the first place. But if the flight attendant told me to clean up the floor, my jaw would drop and I wouldn't do it.

That makes no sense. So you would only do the right thing if nobody told you to do the right thing, otherwise you would become the jerk? What if you hadn't noticed, would you still refuse after it was pointed out to you?

 

[KayMichigan]

If I had kids that did that, I'd be cleaning it up. My kids, my responsibility.

 

[The Mayor]

United’s crew should have cleaned it up. With all the BS airlines are putting customers through these days with delays, cancelations, etc. they can clean up a few popcorn pieces. Whether the woman was pregnant or not should’ve had no bearing on this.