Woman’s disgusting encounter with unruly child on flight divides the internet after they warned her parents: ‘If you don’t get your kid under control, I’ll do it for you’
An operating room nurse turned influencer has sparked a fierce debate over whether she and her husband did the right thing by threatening to discipline a stranger’s child who spat at them during a flight.
Shayla Monnier and husband Andrew boarded the crowded Atlanta-to-Denver service and sat behind a couple and their young daughter, who they believed to be between three and five years old.
The child turned repeatedly to blow raspberries at the couple, dousing them with saliva and resisting her parents’ attempts to restrain her.
Monnier said her husband “lost his cool” and told the parents he would control their child if they didn’t, but she was shocked by the backlash after posting her experience online.
“Is Everyone Seriously Gentle Parenting These Days? Because I’m not talking about it. Not if you spit in my face,” she said.
Shayler Monnier told her followers on TikTok how her husband threatened to discipline a stranger’s child who repeatedly spat at them on a crowded flight
Thousands responded as the couple’s response to their dilemma split the internet
Monnier, from Windsor, California, said the child slept in the seat between his parents for most of the flight before waking up and taking an interest in the passengers in the back.
The girl decided to blow a raspberry, causing “spit to fly all over my face and my husband’s arm,” she said in her viral TikTok.
“I was kind of shocked and the parents told her not to do that, and then it just became a thing,” she added.
“And she fought them, turned around on the chair and spat on us again.
“This time I raised my hand, just to keep the spit off me, and her parents grabbed her and made her sit down, well, she fought, tried to turn over and spit on us some more, and she did.
“She turned around for the third time, and now when I say spit, I mean (blowing raspberries), but the spit went everywhere.
“After the third time, my husband said very sternly to the parents, ‘If you don’t get your child under control, I will do it for you,’ and ‘why don’t you put a mask on her?’ You’re both wearing masks, why doesn’t she have a mask?’.
‘Then the mother shouted back and said, ‘If you had children you might understand,’ to which my husband replied, ‘We have five children and six grandchildren and I promise you not one of them would do something like that. ‘.’
The 44-year-old’s TikTok page lit up with thousands of comments praising, criticizing and suggesting what she could have done differently.
“My first thought when you said your hand was spit on… stand up and wipe your hand on the parent’s arm,” Karen Lewis wrote.
Monnier, pictured with husband Andrew, insisted their five children would never have behaved like this, blaming ‘gentle parenting’ for their ordeal
Some strongly agreed, but others suggested that Monnier may not have had all the facts
“I’m 63 and I can feel the palm of my dad’s hand on my ass,” wrote another. “I can tell you I would have done this just once in my life.”
“I have no idea why there can’t be adults only flights,” sighed a third.
“Well aren’t you high and mighty lol,” a fourth commented. “Your kind just does everything perfectly, right?
‘Blowing raspberries is not spitting, you are defragmenting for nothing. I bet you’re someone who always gets bullied.’
“I don’t think you understand how out of control she was,” Monnier said in a follow-up video.
‘I have children and my children would never have done that.
‘Yes, I took into account that the child may have special needs, okay, sometimes that is clear, sometimes not, that was not clear to me.
“If that’s the case and you’re the parent, then you should have a plan, right?
“So I don’t know what that is, whether you sit in the last row of the plane so your child can’t go to the people behind him, whether you bring a car seat and strap him in, whether you talk to your doctor to help them get medication so they can sleep on the plane.
“Whatever that is, the answer is never to just spit in someone else’s face.”
Monnier said there was nowhere else to sit on the crowded flight and that no one had wanted to change seats after seeing the child’s behavior.
But she said the situation was resolved when a flight attendant saw the disruption, came over and ordered the parents to put a mask on their daughter.
Monnier returned with a follow-up video to respond to the flood of comments
She and her husband were offered flight credits and the child immediately fell back asleep for the remainder of the flight.
“It’s such a tricky situation,” Learnthoughts wrote. “Even if someone’s child misbehaves when you correct him or her, sometimes the parents overreact!” and get mad at you! Some parents just let them misbehave and then pick fights.
“You were showered with the spittle of gentle parenting,” SRA added.
“I have no idea why there can’t be adults only flights,” sighed a third.