‘Can you keep an eye on my kids’: A flight attendant says first-class parents seat their kids or nanny in economy and expect babysitting

TikTok is a great place to find people sharing their various experiences, and for people who currently or previously worked in a public setting, there’s always a story to tell. The cabin crew for airlines tends to have a lot to say, and their experiences being on planes mean that the people they deal with during their shifts are with them for hours with nowhere to go.

Callum (@cbro126) shared stories from working as part of the cabin crew and dealing with parents. It’s rather common for people to hope that there aren’t kids on their flight, since they might be disruptive and you know that you’re going to be in the same place as them until you land.

Apparently, it’s also common for parents to view the cabin crew as babysitters. At least, Callum makes it seem like childcare is assumed to be part of his job description.

Some parents don’t know how to entertain their children

Callum shared two scenarios that he saw while working as part of the cabin crew. One was when parents were in a higher fare class than where their kids were seated, and the other was when the family was in a higher fare class, and their nanny was in a lower fare.

As Callum said, “Adults would fly in business and first class, and they would make their kids sit in economy. It would happen all the time, and they would be like, ‘Can you keep an eye on my kids, please, because they’re sat down the back.'”

When this happened, Callum said that he would tell the parents that they could go back and check on their kids. After all, he wasn’t a babysitter, and they made the decision to buy seats that would have them separated from their kids.

In the other case, where the nanny was in economy, Callum recalled being asked, “How do you keep a child entertained?” and that the woman asking was serious. Such passengers would also tend to ask if their nanny could come up to first class or wherever they were to look after their children, but they hadn’t paid for the nanny to have a ticket in the fare class, so the answer would be no.

Commenters shared their surprise

In Callum’s telling, both situations came down to poor planning. The parents apparently didn’t consider what it would mean to split their family between seating areas, or to split their nanny from the family during a flight.

In the comments, people were surprised that they were able to book kids in a separate area. One person said, “It’s wild that it is even allowed to book your kids by themselves in economy.”

However, it does seem like this is normal enough, although not recommended. If you check the policies of an airline, like on the American Airlines website, it says that “It’s better to skip seats than to choose just a few seats or seats scattered throughout the cabin.”

In other words, families can skip choosing seats and let the airline assign them together rather than picking a few scattered ones. If they do end up separated from their kids or nanny, Callum’s videos suggest the cabin crew won’t be stepping in as babysitters.

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