There is a very good reason why glitter is referred to as the herpes of the craft world. It doesn’t matter what you do, you can never get rid of it! In fact, most parents would rather gouge out their own eyeballs out with a rusty spoon than allow the abominable craft supply into their home. Some teachers have even been known to ban it from their classroom – that’s the level to which glitter is despised by most who have ever had to try to clean it up. With this in mind, one person’s recent experience on a flight is mind-blowing. Wanting to keep her young child entertained on the flight, one mum thought that a little backpack of art and craft supplies would be a good idea, you know things like paper, glue sticks and GLITTER!!!

WTF indeed!

But we’ll let the unfortunate soul who was forced to sit next to the child tell the story!

I had a situation that happened to me on a long-haul flight yesterday and I need your verdict.

I’d paid for an aisle seat in main cabin extra because of my long legs. It was a packed flight and my row-mates were a mother (late 30s?) with a young child (maybe 5 or 6). They brought a bunch of arts and crafts to keep the kid busy – things like a glue stick, markers, paper, craft sticks. Sounds cute, right? Well, not when the glitter came out.

The child, let’s call her Glitter Godzilla (GG), was making a mess, and since she was in the middle seat, the glitter would spill over onto my side. If you remember glitter from elementary school, it’s messy AF if you try attaching it to paper. There’s a lot of shake off and most of it doesn’t stick.

So yeah the glitter and marks from the glue stick rolling off the gray table was everywhere – on my shoes, my backpack, and my jeans.

I’m patient and get kids can be messy, but this felt crazy. I tried catching the mom’s eye, hoping she’d step in. But she just gave me a blank look like “this is how it is.”

Sorry, who in their right mind would think that it’s perfectly acceptable behaviour to allow your child to bedazzle the clothing of a fellow passenger?

I’m not confrontational so when I got up to use the bathroom, I quietly shared the situation with a flight attendant. She promised to discretely address it.

When I got back to my seat, the mother was pissed. Idk what the flight attendant said but the mom claimed I was being discriminatory against mothers, and since the flight was delayed she was just trying to keep her child entertained. Then she started raising her voice, accusing me of being “a selfish man with no understanding of children”. All this despite the fact that my lower half now looks bedazzled.

There were no other seats available, so I was stuck the rest of the flight with this lady’s verbal attacks. The flight attendants gave me looks of sympathy but didn’t want to step in. Of course the mother gave me a final fuck you as we deplaned.

I travel a lot and this was the flight from hell. Not to mention it was pretty embarrassing in the airport. Not that I can blame people taking notice.

AITA here? Was I wrong to get some help in dealing with what felt like a glitter assault? Should I have just sucked it up and became a human art project?

People were understandably shocked on the mans behalf that anyone would think taking glitter for their small child to play with would ever be a good idea.

Which freaking moron brings glitter on a flight. Whenever I’m packing activities for my kids, I have a list of no no’s. Does it make noise? It’s a no. Can it be used as a projectile? Also a no. Does it make a mess? Nope, nope, nope. Is it generally annoying? It’s a no.

It’s not rocket science. 🙄 (Celtic_Tigress)

SERIOUSLY WHO DOES THAT. I have been a flight attendant for 33 years and I have seen a lot of dumb shit – but never glitter. By all means entertain your kids, but not if it disturbs others (PSA: bring headphones for your kids movies or games. No one wants to hear it and that shit travels 4 rows up and back) or defaces a multimillion dollar piece of equipment. I would have zero issue telling mom that glitter is prohibited by the FAA. (Flight attendant administration 🙃) (bimbels)

NTA

I’m a mom. Who the fuck brings glitter on a plane? Even if you’re adamantly against screens there’s a TON of other things that don’t involve thousands of tiny sparkly things that inevitably get everywhere. Not only was she inconsiderate of you but she was inconsiderate of whomever had to clean that ungodly mess. (jaynesbluewish)

Others thought that if the mum was hell bent on the carft project mid-flight she should have at least acted as a barrier between her child and the stranger.

I get that the mother was trying to keep her kid occupied, but she made a horrible choice of activity. At the very least, the mother should’ve seated the child by the window to keep the mess away from OP. OP was much nicer than I would have been.(These-Coat-3164)

Not only was the mother inconsiderate of the man sitting next to her child, but also of anyone who would come into contact with the glitter after they exited the plane.

And what about the next people on the plane?? The unholy rage I would feel if I got on a plane and my seat was covered in glitter – because you just KNOW that whatever between flight cleaning they’re doing isn’t getting all of it. (kfarrel3)

It will never all go away. There will be glitter on that plane until it’s decommissioned 30 years from now. (unknown)

Have you ever heard of anyone taking something so utterly inappropriate on a flight before? We agree with Reddit’s verdict that the man was not the arsehole in this situation, but the mum absolutely was.  Every mother knows that if a friend or relative gifts your child anything with glitter in it it’s a sure sign that they secretly hate you! This woman didn’t give a flying fart about anyone else other than herself getting some peace and quiet on a flight. Giant arsehole move!

What do you usually take on flights to keep your children entertained?