Woman Tells Couple Sitting In Front Of Her On Plane To Not Change Their Baby's Diaper On The Tray Table
Sophia Edwards "I was on a flight for several hours today, seated behind a couple with a baby," a 28-year-old woman began in her confessional, posted to the subreddit "r/AmItheA--hole" (AITA). The subreddit is an online forum where users try to figure out if they were wrong or not in an argument that has been bothering them.
She explained that while on her flight, she encountered a couple with an infant who refused to change their baby's diaper in the bathroom, which only led her to have to confront the family. Unfortunately, that confrontation did not go as planned.
She was forced to tell the couple in front of her not to change their baby's diaper on their tray table.
In her Reddit post, the 28-year-old woman shared that she is an extremely nauseous flyer and made sure to take anti-nausea medication before her hours-long flight. However, her plans to take the medication and go to sleep were severely disrupted by the family sitting in front of her.
"This didn’t happen because of the baby’s crying, but oh well, I know flights are scary and stressful for infants and there was nothing anyone could do about that," she remarked. It wasn't the baby's incessant crying that was the problem, she pointed out, but rather the parents themselves.
RELATED: Passengers Vote To Get Woman Booted From A Flight For Yelling At Couple With Baby
Photo: Undrey / Shutterstock
She explained that instead of changing their baby's diaper in the airplane's bathroom, they opted to change it on the tray table while sitting directly in front of her. "We were at the back of the plane right by the bathrooms, which I confirmed had baby changing tables when I had to go back there to throw up after the smell hit me."
At first, she refused to confront the couple, thinking it was only a one-off incident. However, when she noticed one of the baby's parents reaching back into the diaper bag for another one a few hours later, she decided to say something then.
Politely, she asked if they would stop changing their baby's poop diaper on their tray tables and instead go into the bathroom to do it as it was exposing everyone on their flight to the awful smell. Despite not asking rudely at all, the baby's mother was still angered at her request.
Photo: Ekaterina Pokrovsky / Shutterstock
"The mom went off on me and said I had no idea how stressful it is to travel with an infant, which is true — I don’t have kids," she recalled. At one point, the flight attendant that had been standing at the back of the plane agreed with the woman about the couple going into the bathroom to change their baby's diaper.
"A few minutes later the pilot made an announcement that all diaper [changes] needed to be done in the bathrooms, after which both parents looked extremely annoyed." Now, she wonders if she may have been in the wrong for confronting the baby's parents, and inadvertently bringing it to the attention of the flight crew.
Reddit users agreed that she did the right thing by telling the parents to stop changing their baby's diaper around other people.
"A changing table [in the plane’s restroom] has a buckle. Imagine if there was unexpected turbulence," one Reddit user wrote, pointing out the danger of it.
Another user acknowledged that while plane bathrooms are small, it doesn't give parents the greenlight to change their baby's diaper outside of it. "I mean, on most planes, the bathrooms are so tiny that changing a baby in them is an acrobatic feat. But, you still [have to] do it for the sake of everyone else on the plane!”
Related Stories From YourTango:"Basic rules of baby changing, don't do it where people eat or where people are in close proximity. If you have a choice always use the changing tables," a third user bluntly remarked.
If there's one thing this entire debacle should teach people... it's making sure you're cleaning off your tray tables before using them!
Nia Tipton is a Brooklyn-based entertainment, news, and lifestyle writer whose work delves into modern-day issues and experiences.
