A young mum with two kids under three has sparked a heated debate over airplane etiquette after she called out a passenger for ignoring ‘common courtesy’.
Matilda Norton was travelling on a three-hour flight from Cairns to Adelaide with her 11-month-old baby boy sitting on her lap in the middle seat while her two-and-a-half-year-old son was next to the window.
As the 27-year-old mum tried to breastfeed her baby, the passenger sitting directly in front of her reclined his seat – despite having an empty chair right next to him.
‘Hear me out… he had an empty seat next to him. He could have moved over and put the other seat back where there was no baby behind him,’ Matilda said in a video that’s now been viewed more than 4.3 million times.
‘Or when he laid down across both seats he could have at least put his seat upright since he wasn’t even using it. I know everyone has the right to put their seat back… but where is the common courtesy? We had no space.’
After sharing her airplane gripe on September 7, she never imagined her 12-second clip would go viral around the world – but for all the wrong reasons.
One of the commonly asked questions was, ‘Why don’t you switch seats with your kid?’ The mum said she would rather her toddler enjoy the window seat than feel ‘grumpy’ sitting in the middle, which could have made the flight even more stressful.
‘People clearly don’t have toddlers because you just do what you can to keep your kids happy on a plane,’ Matilda told Daily Mail.
Matilda Norton was trying to breastfeed her baby boy when the passenger sitting directly in front of her reclined his seat – despite having an empty chair right next to him
‘My toddler loves the window seat, he loves airplanes so he was not going to swap with me. It would’ve been a big fight.
‘He wouldn’t have stayed in the aisle seat, he would’ve climbed over me… climbed on my lap. It honestly would’ve been a lot more stressful if I swapped with him.’
The mum said she was stunned when the unsuspecting passenger sitting in front decided to pull his seat back on the short-haul domestic flight.
‘Honestly, I thought, “Is he for real?”, a bit of an eye roll moment for me. Mainly because he did have a spare window seat so he had plenty of space,’ she said.
‘I was trying to feed my baby on my lap, I had my hands very full. So it really was just the tip of the iceberg and my boys were not very good on that flight.’
Her video has grabbed headlines around the world after she was labelled an ‘entitled mum’ for expecting the passenger to ‘give up their comfort’ for her family.
‘As a mum of two toddlers: Don’t make others responsible for your choice to fly with small children,’ one said.
‘Just switch seats with your camera,’ another suggested.
‘So let me get this right. You won’t switch places with your kid because you want him to have a window, but expect a stranger to give up their comfort for you? That’s a new level of entitlement (and yes, I fly with two kids internationally at least once a year),’ one shared.
‘Mum of two grown children, here. Your brave choice to travel alone with two small children is not this man’s fault nor is it the responsibility of the people around you to cater to you. If they decide to help you out, great. But those kids are nobody’s responsibility but yours,’ another added.
The 27-year-old was travelling from Cairns to Adelaide with her 11-month-old baby boy and two-and-a-half-year-old son
Matilda said the passenger was entitled to recline his seat, but he should have been more considerate as he had an empty chair next to him.
‘I just thought that potentially he could have sat one seat over in the empty seat next to him and reclined that one instead. It’s just common courtesy,’ she said.
‘But I agree, he is allowed to recline it.’
As it was only a three-hour flight, Matilda said she didn’t think it was necessary to recline her own seat because she ‘felt bad for the person behind’ her.
After her footage went viral, the mum said it was never her intention to offend anyone.
‘I’m honestly a little bit embarrassed because I would hate to come across as an “entitled mother”, it’s just not who I am at all,’ Matilda told Daily Mail.
The mum has been sharing her daily life on social media, where she has more than 50,000 followers, so she didn’t think twice before uploading the video about the ‘common courtesy’ of flying.
‘I did not expect the video to blow up the way that it has,’ she said.
‘I just decided to share the video because why not? I thought it’s just another little bit of my day and I didn’t expect this reaction at all.’
However, she hasn’t let the negative remarks drag her down or ruin her day.
‘Honestly, those comments do not faze me,’ she said.
‘No one has genuinely upset or hurt me. I don’t let things like that get to me. They did not faze me at all honestly. I found a lot of humour in it to be completely transparent.’
By sharing her experience, she hopes fellow travellers are more sympathetic, especially towards mums with young kids
By sharing her experience, she hopes fellow travellers are more sympathetic and lenient, especially towards mums with young kids.
‘There’s just a little bit of hope that if someone gets on an airplane and sees a mum with two little kids who is probably struggling and not having a very good time, they might offer her a little bit of grace,’ Matilda said.
‘Maybe they could just choose not to put their seat back or just let the mum know she’s doing a good job, or say something like, “You know, I’ve got kids at home crying too, it doesn’t bother me” – just little things like that.’
The experience hasn’t deterred the family from travelling – but she knows it’s not an easy flight with two young kids.
‘Overall I love travelling with the boys. I love taking them to new places and seeing the world,’ Matilda explained.
‘We’ve got another trip to America in a couple of months so that’ll be the longest flight yet. But no, it’s not fun travelling on a plane with kids.
‘I don’t know anyone who will say, “I love flying with toddlers”. It’s hard and it feels long and you feel like everyone is staring at you if your kids are crying. It’s stressful.’
