Fed up with a noisy child kicking his seat on an Alaska Airlines flight, a man turned around and addressed the child directly. But did he go too far?
Alaska Airlines Passenger Had Enough Of The Kid Kicking His Seat And Took Action
In a video titled “I made them quiet the rest of the flight,” a man videos himself rebuking two young children seated behind him, as their mother and other passengers look on in shock.
The video starts with a child loudly wailing.
Man: Hey stop kicking the seat!
Mother: You’re telling him to be quiet?
Other Passenger: You’re on a public flight bro.
Man: Ah! Ah! Ah!
Other Passenger: Just relax.
Man: Ah! Ah! Ah!
Other Passenger: Really, like?
Man: Ah! Ah! Ah!
Other Passenger: You’re really doing this to a kid?
Man: Oh come on man, stop kicking it and quiet down! Ah! Ah! Ah!
You can watch the video here (on X), but I’m not embedding it because the two young boys are featured in the video and I don’t like posting videos featuring young kids like that unless absolutely necessary. Here it is not.
I’m a bit conflicted, here, not that I would have ever done something like that (doxxing the kids is unacceptable and acting so combative versus involving a flight attendant is not constructive). Even so, a crying kid is one thing…but kicking his seat? If he was being constantly kicked, it’s just not okay and I have to question what the heck the mom was doing.
As a parent of two young children who did a lot of flying when they were infants and toddlers, I know that kids will sometimes make noise…it is inevitable. But kicking does cross a line…it is never acceptable and if a parent cannot control their kid from kicking, maybe they should have their children taken away…
Now the better solution would have been to press that blue flight attendant call button in teh passengers service above and ask the flight attendant, “I know it’s hard for kids to travel, but can you please let them know that kicking my seat is unacceptable?”
Mr. Machismo here thought he could turn around and handle itself…and it worked in the sense the kicking stopped…but it might have gone sideways if a shouting match ensued or even turned physical.
Unlike a child failing to use headphones, a flight attendant won’t necessarily know a kid is kicking your seat. But knowing how nasty some parents are, I’m just not willing to confront the kid myself and not even willing to confront a parent who has shown no desire to control her children…
How would you have handled this?
We just went through this with a flight from JFK to PBI. My wife and I were sitting in an exit row and the children behind us were not behaving properly the whole ways from boarding to arrival (3 hours). The child behind my wife kicked her seat the whole trip and the parent basically did nothing to control the brat.
There was another child in a row near us that screamed the whole flight long.
We did not say anything but it made the trip miserable.
Parents need to control their kids and yes I realize that on ascent and descent the pressure builds in ears and young babies and children will cry and that is perfectly understandable and I feel sorry for the young ones discomfort.
Agree with you Matt. Just let the steward or stewardess handle it. Their admonishment has more authority because of position. They have the authority given to them by the airlines they work for of the passenger area and are trained on how to handle various situations, Not saying all are good at it, but most are. It is after all what they get paid to do.
In cases like these, remain calm and seek assistance from a flight attendant to handle the situation.
This is the way.
I concur.
I hold a full cup of ice water in my hand and when the kick comes…. OMG, it startled me and the cup got launched over the seatback behind me. Gosh, I’m so sorry but your kids kick startled me just as I was about to drink. Just a reflex action!!!
Turn around and ask parents, while giving a stern face to the child. Yes I have needed to do just this.
Many years ago I did something similar. Long taxiing at LGA with young boy kicking my seat. I turned around and asked the mom to stop her son from kicking my seat. She said it wan’t his fault, he’s just a kid. I said “you’re right, it’s your fault”. No more kicking. Then my seatmate, who had not said a word, struck up a conversation. I had the impression I did something she had always wanted to do.
It’s difficult for some to keep a level tone and a stern face. If you have that control mastered, life will be easier. I fear some are simply oblivious to the discomfort of their fellow travelers
Strangle it. End of.
When I read your headline I wondered how badly the kid was injured. I’m glad I was wrong. Ultimately you are correct about how he should have approached this.
I’m not watching the video, but my typical go-to in this type of situation is to first ask the parent politely to stop their child from kicking the seat. If that results in continued kicking, I will, with a stern face and my best authoritative school marm manner accompanied by a finger shake, order the child to stop kicking. I’m not mean; just very stern. Telling the child works a lot better than asking the parents, in part because children of parents who allow them to kick seats probably have never been told to behave so it shocks them into stillness.
Were the cbildren seated at the back of economy class and if not why not? Paying passengers should not have to tolerate this sort of child and their ill mannered parents.
I have to admit a sympathy to the pax being kicked bias. But, after viewing the video (unless some more reasonable behavior was shown by the filmer before filming started). This woman appears to be traveling with two quite young ones, and I’m guessing in just two seats. The lap kid has gotten loose and is in the footwell of his siblings set. Both kids seem quite upset, and the poor mom looks frustrated in her attempts to calm them down. OP didn’t seem to help. This does not appear to be the case where ‘kid is a pain, parents don’t even notice or don’t do much if they do.” Those parents should be escorted to the patio seats. This poor woman seemed to be trying to deal with kids reacting in a way kids that age might.
“If you can’t control your kids, you should’ve had them aborted.” Try that next time.