A man took to social media to bitterly complain about a crying baby on his Delta Air Lines flight to New York City. But who was actually the little brat in this situation?
Who’s The Little Brat? Man Upset At Crying Child On Delta Air Lines Flight
Pat McAuliffe had a rough Delta flight, sharing on X (formerly Twitter) about a screaming baby seated nearby:
He lamented, “If your child is screaming on a flight (that’s late with no AC and hasn’t taken off yet @delta) show it a f***ing phone. Brain rot the baby on TikTok until it’s quiet. Is that too much to ask?”
No, I don’t think that is too much to ask.
The delay continues and so did the crying:
I do feel bad for the parents but at some point you gotta try something new. Walk his a** up and down the aisle, distract him, do something. It’s still going on. Simply praying it’ll stop is not acceptable.
Again, reasonable at face value, as was his contention that the family should have walked him around:
“At what point does this become a medical emergency? It’s been two hours. Also why are these people not at least talking to the kid to soothe him? STAND UP AND WALK HIM AROUND”
But, if the delayed flight is sitting on the tarmac or waiting for a gate, no one can get up and walk around…the seat belt light is on and you must remain seated.
Speaking of that delay, a final video places the blame on Delta rather than the parents. McAuliffe eviscerates Delta for its own part in making the baby…and everyone onboard…miserable:
- departure delay
- no A/C onboard
- no gate agent at New York JFK
My Thoughts
I don’t care for his strong language, but I do understand his annoyance and even outrage…there’s just no denying that a child crying in a cloistered space like an airplane is annoying.
My children have been pretty good travelers overall, but I’ll never forget that horrid flight from Zurich to San Francisco on United with little Augustine (pictured above)…
No matter what we did, he would not quiet down. It was a long and miserable flight, but was thankful that both flight attendants and other passengers seated around us were exceedingly kind:
Maybe it wasn’t as bad as I imagined. When he finally fell asleep, I went back to the galley to get a grilled cheese sandwich and some tomato soup. The passenger seated in front of me was also in the galley. I apologized to him that my son had been loud and he looked at me surprised and said, “Hey man, your son is doing just fine. Don’t worry about.”
That little affirmation helped me greatly, even though I am positive the man was just being nice.
My daughter never had a “flight from hell” and I’m thankful that at age five, she’s already a “mature” traveler.
> Read More: United Airlines Shines…Unlike My Son
> Review: United Airlines 787-8 Business Class Zurich To San Francisco
In that sense, all we can do is speculate here. Did the parents do enough? Did they not do enough? Hard to say based on the videos above. But as a parent of two, I can certainly testify that sometimes kids will be kids despite our best efforts.
View From The Wing offers some excellent tips for traveling with infants and toddlers but sometimes food, screen time, walking, soothing, and every other measure just does not help.
Like One Mile At A Time, being a parent has made me much more empathetic to crying babies onboard. To those saying McAuliffe should have just used noise-canceling headphones… no, sorry. He’s right…they do not cancel out a baby’s screaming. I understand his frustration and he’s right that Delta made it worse with its delays and apparent ground staffing issues at New York JFK.
CONCLUSION
A Delta passenger railed on X about a crying baby and his videos have racked up tens of millions of views. While this is clearly a contentious issue, I’m of the opinion that (unlike dogs), babies have a right to fly and when flying in shared space, babies are ogin to be babies. Parents should come prepared and make every reasonable effort to quiet their child, but sometimes it just doesn’t work.
Sometimes there’s nothing you can do until they fall asleep, especially if you can’t get up and walk around with them. The childless just don’t understand.
Where are his headphones? If crying babies bother you, it is negligent to not have them in this day and age
Poor Pat. Clearly an adult that was never breast fed ! I also suspect the delay without air made everyone uncomfortable and cranky. However babies cry from earaches to teething that are compounded by air pressure changes. But poor Pat at least should have had better control.
Creepy homosexual Ben Schlappig is hardly a parent. He is the genetic origin of a baby that he paid to have inseminated in a woman with a fluid that he and his boytoy usually consume themselves.
The only person thinking about Ben Schlappig drinking semen is you. I wonder why
I never mentioned semen billy bob, you did (though I fed some of mine to someone just a short time ago) – So where is your mind?
I know you’ve never been with a woman, but semen is the fluid that comes from a man that makes a baby. Maybe its about time your mom comes down to the basement and talks to you about the birds and the bees
I’ve been with both men and women Billy Bob – In my lifetime hundreds of them BELIEVE THAT.
Lmao I love Chi Hsuan’s posts
We dealt with this on a completely full Southwest flight where our little one screamed his heart out for the last 20 minutes of the flight. Believe me we tried but nothing worked to quiet him. We got off that plane as fast as we could, but a very nice fellow passenger & flight attendant reassured us afterwards that we weren’t awful parents.
I blame Delta.
Ear pain! People that never had a kid don’t understand how that affects them on airplanes. This is from a quick Google search: “The Eustachian tube, responsible for equalizing pressure between the middle ear and the outside environment, is underdeveloped in infants, making it harder for them to manage pressure changes during activities like flying or swimming.” As someone that grew up with lots and lots of ear problems and had several surgeries, I understand how a baby that usually can’t express himself other than crying would react when facing ear issues on planes. Not saying some kids just cry for the sake of crying but if a baby has ear pain, there is nothing a parent can do to stop them from crying.
Please remove Mr. Chi Hsuan’s horrible comments. No one needs to read trash. With regard to the baby crying I really don’t think that there should be a question asked about who who’s at fault —babies cry —planes get delayed and hopefully the parents will next time remember to bring a whole bunch of distractions on their next flight if they ever take one. Both my husband and I made sure we had little baby toys wrapped up in Christmas paper that would take time just open the gift and then play with a little toy car or whatever —it wasn’t perfect but it sure helped Additionally it sounds perhaps crazy and I have no idea of the age of the child but at some point maybe baby made earphones and read along baby books also will help in the future perhaps !
Dogs don’t cry.
I’d fly with a dog any day verses flying with some crying brat! Dog is man’s best friend!
passenger was right. i have kids and i wait until each turns 5 to get on flights and that’s only when i know 2000% they can behave.
having kids doesn’t entitle you to ruin the (dream) flight of 500 others
Perfectly justified rant.