Dad Let Kid Scream for 90 Minutes to Vex an 'Entitled' Passenger and Gets Roasted | “Is a Dad Karen a Darren?”

Dad Let Kid Scream for 90 Minutes to Vex an 'Entitled' Passenger and Gets Roasted | “Is a Dad Karen a Darren?”
Cover Image Source: Pexels.com | Oleksandr Pidvalnyi

Reddit is calling out a man who 'weaponized' his son to take "malicious compliance" from an 'entitled' fellow passenger on the airplane. However, his antic didn't go well with the Reddit users and they have been slamming him for letting his son scream for 90 minutes straight. Ouch!

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The pain of traveling with an infant is undeniable. They are (literally, in this case) the pain in the rear. The screaming, crying and consistent tantrums can drive anyone crazy. It requires immense patience to handle kids but some people lack empathy to understand parents' struggles. A man posted his story of "malicious compliance" against an 'entitled' passenger who loudly complained about his parenting on Reddit's r/AmITheDevil and he is being called out. He explained that he and his wife boarded a six-hour flight when their one-and-a-half-year-old son began acting up in the air. 

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As youngsters often do, this little boy was repeatedly kicking the chair of a passenger sitting in front of them. The man of 'zero' patience confronted the parents about the inconvenience and apparently said some harsh words. The OP shared, "Our 1.5 years old lap infant was having a really challenging time. He wouldn't sleep, sit still or be calmed by all the tricks we had up our sleeves. In addition to this, he was teething." Poor parents.

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OP added, "The guy in the seat in front of us kept getting his seat bumped by the kiddo and kept giving me the half turn and side eye." Five hours passed, and the man couldn't resist the inconvenience. He turned to the parents and asked them to control the child. The OP replied, "We are doing our best." And we believe they must be because sometimes kids sometimes behave so wretched that every tool parents have in their toolkit fails. But the 'entitled' passenger insisted they weren't doing enough and repeatedly told them, "You need to control your kid." And they kept assuring him that they were trying. 

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"I was feeling snarky and exhausted. I will relay the message to our son," the OP said. The parents tried to reason with the co-passenger but the man was stuck to his complaints instead of a solution. OP added, "The guy started going off on me, probably picking up on my jest." He continued, "I told him again that we are doing our best and that if he had a problem, we should call the flight attendant to sort his issue out. He refused to do this and argued with me for a bit." The OP's wife felt antagonized.

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"My non-combative wife was mortified and I was angry," OP exclaimed. "So to maliciously comply with the gentleman, I held our kid still on my lap facing this gentleman's seat and my son then screamed for the remaining 90 minutes of the flight." OMG! That would have been so pestering. 

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OP concluded, "I hoped that the gentleman preferred his fate of loud screams over a few bumps on his chair." Reddit users didn't take OP's story kindly. A comment by @Jiang_Rui read, "Not only is this couple making their fellow passengers miserable but they're also giving their own infant hell by not trying harder to calm him down—of freaking course a six-hour-flight or even probably a one-hour-flight is going to be hell for a young child unaccustomed to flying." "How did they have nothing prepared in case the kid is fuzzy? How was their only thought process 'either he likes cuddles or he's going to suffer stress for six hours?'" asked u/bored_german. u/SonorousBlack commented, "Did you pinch the kid or something to make him cry? Have you met a child or taken a plane ride?" "Is a dad Karen a Darren?" read a hilarious comment by u/IShouldBeSoLucky81.

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 Dad let kid scream for 90 minutes to vex co-passenger