The nurse and mom of five say that the parents of a bad child couldn’t stop her from doing the rude thing a second and third time.
Someone on a plane who talked about an unexpectedly wet trip got support on TikTok.
In a video shared on the platform on June 17, Shayla Monnier talks about an incident that happened on the flight from Atlanta to Denver. She says that a child in the row in front of her turned around and spit at her, which got “all over” her face and her husband’s arm.
She thinks the girl was “old enough to understand that you don’t do that,” which means she was between 3 and 5 years old.
“I was shocked,” says Monnier, who is a nurse and mother of five.
People who knew the child told her not to do it again, but Monnier says she “fought against them.” Not long after, she turned around in her seat and did it again.
The child was in the middle seat, between her mother and father. “This time, I put my hand up just to block the spit from me, and her parents kind of grabbed her and had her sit down, but she fought,” Monnier says.
Then, the bad kid turned around a third time, and Monnier says, “spit was going everywhere.”
In a second film about the messy event, Monnier asks, “Is everyone these days really gentle parenting?” I’m not interested in it. I won’t let you spit in my face.
“My husband lost his cool,” she says about what happened.
“We were both so shocked the first time she did it,” she says. “And the parents seemed like they cared, but I’m not sure they did because it wouldn’t have happened a second and third time.”
“After the third time, my husband told the parents in a very stern voice, ‘If you don’t tame your child, I will,'” she says.
Monnier says her husband suggested that the child wear a mask since both of them were wearing one.
The mom then yelled back at him and said, “Maybe you’d understand if you had kids.” My husband replied, “We have five kids and six grandchildren, and I promise you that none of them would do something like that,” Monnier remembers.
What Monnier says The flight attendant then heard the noise and told the child’s parents to give her a mask.
She says that they couldn’t switch seats because the plane was full and because the spitting made such a show, no one within five rows would have agreed to do so.
Monnier says that the flight attendant would have held up a magazine to stop the spit if she hadn’t stepped in.
She says the child had been sleeping the whole flight before what happened, so it’s not like she was just bored from the long flight.
Many TikTok users praised Monnier and her husband for how they handled the stressed situation. The crew member even gave them free flight credits for their patience.
“I agree with everything you and your husband said!” Someone wrote.
Another comment said, “People need to understand that gentle parenting is NOT permissive parenting.” “Being a gentle parent doesn’t mean you let your child get away with bad behavior!!!”
“Parents are awful now; being gentle is a fail,” said someone else. “Your choices are great.” You’re right!”
Nicole Campoy Jackson, a travel writer and expert for Fora Travel, told PEOPLE that Monnier and her husband’s reaction was “perfectly reasonable.”
“They spoke to the parents and asked for their help, but the kid kept at it,” Jackson says. “They got mad and told their parents about it.” At this point, if not earlier, I think one of the parents could have gotten up and walked down the aisle with the child. When they got back to their place, they should have talked about how they shouldn’t do that anymore.
She says it’s hard to judge how the parents reacted without knowing what was going on with them.
“These passengers explained everything to the flight attendant, who responded in kind by helping in their trained, professional way —asking the parents to put a mask on their child (especially since they themselves had masks on) and accommodating these passengers for their trouble,” she says.
Jackson says that moving with kids can be a chance to learn.
“Traveling with kids is stressful, without a doubt,” she adds. “But as much as we parents can handle it at any given moment, part of traveling with kids is teaching them how to travel which means being respectful of the people around them.”
