A dad’s behavior on an airplane landed him a one-way ticket to internet infamy.
“I was seated next to a mom who had a baby in her lap and a toddler beside her. It was a lot,” Kristine Sostar McLellan wrote on a now-viral TikTok video. “I offered to switch seats with the dad, who was a few rows up, so he could be with his family. He says ‘Great, thanks” AND SENDS OVER ANOTHER SMALL KID TO SIT WITH THE MOM. He enjoyed a kid-free flight."
"Same thing happened to me before. Angriest flight of my life," one person wrote in the comments.
Added another, “I’m a flight attendant and I’ve seen soooo many mothers looking after the kids the whole flight while the father sits away or doesn’t help. it’s crazy.”
Sostar McLellan, 36, was heading home to Vancouver, Canada, from Las Vegas, when she encountered the family of five.
“Not only did she have the kids, but she was also struggling with carry-on luggage,” Soster McLellan tells TODAY.com. “She didn’t have enough arms to deal with everything.”
Initially, Sostar McLellan thought the woman was traveling without a partner. Why else would she be juggling everything? Then Soster McLellan noticed a man “calling back” towards their row. When Soster McLellan realized he was part of their group, she offered to swap seats. At this point, she didn’t know the little boy next to the man was also his child.
“I thought he’d want to help his wife,” she explains, “but no.”
Once the man sent the other child to sit with the mom, Sostar McLellan spent the remainder of the flight seated next to the man, who she says didn’t get up once to check on his family.
Former flight attendant Shawn Kathleen, who created the popular Passenger Shaming Instagram account, tells TODAY.com that she's seen that exact scene play out.
“This kind of thing happens all the time where the mom is left to deal with the kids while the dad is like, ‘Enjoy your flight, I’ll see you in three hours.' Or a family will walk on a plane, and the dad goes to first class, while the rest of them are in coach," she says.
Kathleen notes that sometimes parents have an arrangement where one handles the kids on the first leg of the trip, and the other parent has the second leg.
"I'm not sure if that was the case here," she says.
Comments continue to pour in on Soster McLellan's post, with many sharing stories of amazing dads.
"Thankful my husband took over our 2 small kids on our flights. I am terrified of flying so he made sure I was able to relax with our oldest child," one person wrote.
Added another, "I have anxiety flying, my hubby always takes both kids while I sleep. So thankful for him."