Mum Refuses to Allow Toddler to Watch CocoMelon on a Flight, and We Bet You Can Guess How That Went Down!

Travelling any significant distance with a toddler is not for the faint-hearted. It unequivocally involves being confined to a small space for a set amount of time, during which they are secured (usually against their will) to a seat rendering most toddler-approved activities an impossibility. It’s akin to a waking nightmare, and the stress it places on parents is magnified tenfold when such travel involves the use of public transport, particularly planes!

Any seasoned parent with a toddler will tell you that the secret to successfully surviving a flight with a toddler (without succumbing to rocking in the feotal position in the aisle) is meticulously planning. You need to pack an assortment of snacks, toys, games and viewing material that will entertain your little cherub for the duration of the flight, or at least the times when they are awake, and woe betide the parent who ignores this practical advice! Keeping your child pacified and in good spirits on a flight is, after all, as much as for your own sanity as it is for those around you, and is not the time to pit your will against your child’s.

However, that is exactly what one mum decided to do when she refused to let her child watch their favourite show on his tablet as they waited for their flight to take off. A passenger on the flight, sitting in front of the mother and her child recounted the ordeal in a recent Reddit post.

I’ve been sitting on a flight for about 30 minutes now waiting to take off, and the toddler behind me is screaming on the top of his lungs COOOOOOCOOOOOOOOMEEELLLOOOOOOON for at least 20 out of the 30 minutes. And I hear his mom say “no coco melon, you need to learn to live without it.”

That’s right! For those of you following along at home, Mum thought that when her small child was in one of the most boring and mind-numbing situations of his little life (aka on a flight), she’d force him to ‘learn to live without it.’ What could possibly go wrong?

The fellow passenger continued:

I understand not wanting to give into your son’s demands and teach him that he will get what he wants if he screams loud enough, but this is an 8 hour flight, the wifi is literally 5 bucks and it will shut him up. I’d offer to pay if she doesn’t want to.

Do I say something or keep my mouth shut?

Edit: I have noise cancelling AirPods but it’s still not shutting him out. I have to play music at the max volume to begin to not hear him. I swear this kid has a microphone in his voicebox

15 minutes later, and he’s still screaming. The visibly annoyed FA just offered them free Wi-Fi and she’s STILL not taking it. She is certain “he will get tired and the crying will stop”

But in the meantime, everyone else is subjected to the almighty meltdown! What is this woman thinking? And in fairness to the child, everyone else on the flight would have either been staring at a book or (trying) to watch a movie or show on their phone or tablet. It’s not unreasonable that he’d quite like to do the same, and not be expected to sit still, bored out of his tiny little mind!

But, as it happened in this case, the toddler had far more tantrum-enduring stamina than mum had given him credit for.

It’s been an hour. Kid’s screaming has only gotten worse. He screamed “I HATEEEE YOUUUUU I WISH I HAD A BETTER MOMMY!” Me too kid. Me too.

FINAL UPDATE (hopefully): Over 1.5 hours in, kid finally stopped crying. She FINALLY gave in, accepted the free Wi-Fi and he’s quietly watching cocomelon on her phone. And I didn’t have to say anything. Let’s just hope she doesn’t change her mind.

Commenters were incredulous at the way the mum had handled the situation.

NTA this is literally the opposite of how you handle a toddler on a flight, when you’re stuck in a metal tube w/a bunch of strangers is NOT the time to “wean” your kid off the tablet and kick start your brand new “no more excess screen time” parenting resolutions lol (Fabulous-Mastodon546)

NTA. A long flight is not the time to teach your toddler a lesson, it is the time to keep them entertained and quiet out of respect and courtesy for others stuck on the flight with you. If you want to reduce your child’s dependence on screen time do it at home. Thaliagorgon)

No doubt! I would do a LOT of things to keep my child from bothering others on a plane of all places. I have a lot of sympathy for parents but irresponsible parents are like irresponsible dog owners, a public nuisance. (whenilookinthemirror)

Parenting on a flight is the time to give into the demands of (tiny) terrorists. Keep the kid happy then in turn you and everyone around you will be happy as well. For the love of all things sacred just keep the kid happy!

Signed, the parent of a toddler. (PineForestFern)

Plane trips are where you get to reap some of the rewards of restricting screen time and junk food and tablet games. Whatever it is that the toddler always wants and you never give them, they get it on the plane. Cocomelon for hours. Unlimited snacks. Soda from the drinks cart? You want your complimentary pretzels and mine, too? Your wish is my command, as long as we’re trapped on this sky bus.

If you’re lucky, they’ll actually look forward to the flight home. (Sillily)

Many commenters empathised with the screaming child.

From the toddler’s perspective, mom and dad are stressed; I am in a place that’s noisy, full of strangers, and not allowed to move around; I probably missed a nap and/or am up past my bedtime; routine is everything and this isn’t routine; my ears hurt

Yeah, I think comforting them with something they like whether a tv show or a few crackers makes sense (Dog1andDog2andMe)

Others expressed the view that by ultimately giving in all she had taught her son was not to give up when throwing a tantrum, as they’d ultimately be given what they want if they scream long enough and loud enough.

As a teacher I find the real sin to be that she ultimately gave in. If the kid is ND, austistic especially, it can only take a couple times of doing this to ingrain a behavior of ceaseless and desperate pursuit. She should have known she wasn’t in a situation to outwait him and stopped fighting the battle within minutes if even starting it at all. (Dogglesboggles)

Some parents even joked that the best course of action would be to never let their child become addicted to Cocomelon in the first case, comparing it to a class A drug for little people.

Honestly coco melon is literal crack for toddlers and the most mind numbing show I have ever seen. You don’t go cold turkey on a 8 hour flight! My advice is never ever let them see it. Then you won’t have to ensure the utter crap that is that creepy toddler and his lobotomised family. It also clearly has no educational value as observed when my nephew smacked his cousin for “looking at the screen” during the song about sharing… (lunchbox3)

What would you have done if you’d been in this passenger’s shoes? Would you have told her to just give her kid the goddamn phone, offered to help her, or simply empathised with her difficult situation?