"The Mom Was No Help" — Flight Attendant's Horror Story About Unruly Kid Gets Worse and Worse

We all know how stressful flying can be already. There's the process of getting to the airport several hours early just to make it through security. Then there's the waiting at your gate while you hope that the airline doesn't change it three times on you before the plane even arrives. Even when it does come time for take-off, the one final hurdle that we'll probably have to overcome during the flight is ... someone else's children.

More often than not, a child on an airplane can be a major headache. A tantrum can strike them out of nowhere and they may just end up squealing or crying their heads off for the entire duration of the flight. It's usually no picnic for the parents or guardians accompanying them either to have to care for children mid-flight.

However, one former flight attendant took to TikTok to share her personal horror story about dealing with a mother's unruly kid throughout a three-hour flight.

In mid-July 2023, @ilkdontfwiththatbstormi on TikTok spoke about her experience with tending to an unruly child on what was supposed to be a short flight from Seattle to California. Looking back, she believes that the child in question may have been autistic, but wasn't aware of it at the time.

According to OP's story, the child had gone through pre-boarding with his mother and was on the plane before most other passengers. The troubles began even before the flight took off. As a kind gesture, she allowed the boy to visit the cockpit with the pilots' permission. However, he immediately started to press buttons and mess with the consoles. Politely but firmly, the pilots and flight attendant ushered him out, but he had already gained an affinity for being in the cockpit.

Things only get worse from there. Sometime later, the plane was fully boarded and about to take off. Like, "speeding on the runway and gaining altitude" about to take off. And as the plane was set to take flight, the little boy sprinted down the length of the plane to try and enter the cockpit again.

"That's a complete violation of FAA regulations," the ex-flight attendant explained.

The team had no choice but to keep their eyes on the boy for the entire flight.

Oh, and if you're wondering where the mom was in this whole situation, she was apparently "barely any help." As the TikToker remembers it, she spent most of the flight on her phone playing games instead of looking after her son who was looking to accidentally incite chaos on the flight.

And incite chaos, he did. At one point mid-flight, the boy had apparently wet himself in his seat, which is reportedly a biohazard and a flight risk on flights.

The mother apparently had a change of clothes ready for him, but she expected the flight attendants to go into her carry-ons and do it themselves. The mom was eventually urged to, you know ... clean up after her own child who doesn't know any better. But that's about all the help she was reportedly willing to provide. Needless to say, the child wasn't done yet. With no in-flight entertainment on the craft and nothing to keep him occupied, his mischief continued.

The flight attendant continued to look after him as he consistently got up from his seat. He even approached the airplane side door and expressed interest in opening it. The ex-flight attendant explained that it wouldn't have opened under his power, but even touching it could present a safety hazard.

Deterred from one door, he proceeded to knock on the cockpit door again, presumably to try and enter.

"My whole crew is pissed at this point," she admitted. "Not in the sense that we're mad at the little boy, because he couldn't really help it, and the mom was no help either. But we're mostly angry."

And of course, landing was no walk in the park either.

With the fasten seatbelt sign on and the other passengers (who have been fully aware of the child's antics up until this point) strapped in, the plane was getting ready to touch down.

Unfortunately, history repeats itself. OP claimed that the plane was "50 seconds away from landing" when the boy got up from his seat again and sprinted toward the front, likely to get back into the cockpit.

One of the older flight attendants had no choice but to grab him and strap him down to his chair until the landing was officially complete. As is to be expected of flight attendants, they were determined to keep each passenger safe, especially when one of them dives headfirst into dangerous situations.

Luckily, the plane was able to land safely. However, as if to cap off the mischief he had wrought on the flight, the little boy showed the pilots who had exited the cockpit that he wet himself again.

Understandably, the ex-flight attendant holds no ill will for the boy.

"He was a sweet boy," she concluded. "He just needed diapers and maybe Cocomelon on an iPad."