A man asked the internet if he was in the wrong for reporting a child to a flight attendant after he was made into a canvas for a glitter craft project
Parents already know the problem with glitter. As much as kids love a craft project that sparkles, that stuff gets EVERYWHERE. It sticks to every fabric and surface. It sheds. It’s impossible to clean up. Glitter will get tracked into every room of your house, and it’ll live there until the end of time. Your kids will grow up and move out and you’ll still find errant glitter from their early years.
With all that in mind, we all know there are some places glitter just can’t go. Chief among them? A plane. That’s why there’s only one correct answer to this poor guy who took to Reddit’s “Am I the A**hole” forum to ask if he was wrong for getting a flight attendant to intervene when his child seatmate used his body as a canvas for a sparkly, in-flight craft project while her mom looked on and did nothing. Ooooooof.
AITA for reporting a mother and her glitter monster to a flight attendant?
by inAmItheAsshole
“I had a situation that happened to me on a long-haul flight yesterday and I need your verdict,” he wrote. “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.”
We honestly don’t need to know more than this. Like, we get that entertaining a young child on a plane can be a nightmare on its own. But crafts that are appropriate for a flight include paper, crayons, and colored pencils. Anything that can stain or otherwise make a mess—paint sticks, glue, freaking glitter—is a clear and obvious no-go.
The original poster (OP) continued, “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.'”
Nope. Nope nope nope. Mom, this is your job. You can’t control everything your kid does, but you can sure as heck control whether she dumps glitter all over an unsuspecting stranger unfortunate enough to be trapped next to her on a flight. Come on.
OP finished his post, “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.”
Apparently, the mom continued to harass OP for the entire flight, despite his very reasonable request to avoid being covered in shiny particles that were going to stick to his clothes forever, then shed in his car, every room of his house, on his furniture and pets, etc. etc. etc.
Luckily, the entire internet was on OP’s side.
“I….just….why? WHO brings GLITTER on an airplane??!! Like makes as much sense as bringing a pottery wheel or oil paints. There are SOOOO many cleaner art activities!!!!!!” one person wrote.
Another, who branded OP “NTA” (Not The A**hole), added, “A plane is not a child’s classroom. Of course, it’s not always easy to entertain children on planes. But if you bring arts and crafts, it shouldn’t be anyone else responsibility but the parents’ to clean it up, and they shouldn’t be surprised if people are put off it.”
In other words, don’t bring glitter on planes, people. Just stick to crayons.
