Kids made mess on airplane. Mom asked to clean up.

"made" - the poster lost me there. The flight attendant might have been a royal asshole to his wife, but no one "made" her do anything - with the exception of a handful of things punishable by federal law, a flight attendant has exactly zero power. She/he's not going to open the emergency exit and chuck her off the plane for a popcorn mess.

If you're not prepared to clean up popcorn after small children - give them a less messy snack. And 22wks is hardly heavily pregnant to the point of that being a hardship...imo

I was ready to side 100% with the airline until I read this part of the story:

" Bass shared some additional context in further tweets, where he noted that "United provided the popcorn, not my wife."

Others got on board with him, and agreed that it should be the airline's responsibility to clean the mess up.

"If they’re going to supply popcorn on the airplane, be ready for messes to clean up," one person wrote."

Why on earth would they offer popcorn on a plane? Have they never seen a movie theatre at the end of the movie?

I always tried my best to leave things decent when out with my kids and I notice my kids do the same with theirs, pregnant or not, but I would never have given them something like popcorn at that age since I knew full well what the result would be.

I am going to have to say in this case, I actually am siding with the mom a little.

Made his wife clean it up? While he sat there and video'd it? Why didn't he clean it up? He's the dad! He's the husband! Couldn't do that for your wife? He made her do it as much as the flight attendant did! They're his kids, too! Lazy Bum.

ETA: ok, maybe he wasn't there.  But I agree, she needed to at least try to pick some of it up!  The big pieces at least!  Or better yet, have the kids do it, they're right there, are big enough to pick the big pieces up off the floor and put them in a trash bag!  Still think she needs to be somewhat responsible!

Wait, he was on the plane?  If he's so concerned about his pregnant wife, I have a solution!

In this situation, the airline handed out popcorn, the flight attendant should have cleaned it up. Typically I'd say the parent should and even if she is 22 weeks pregnant with 2 toddlers, that's her choice. I'm sure they "made" her clean it up, many are drunk with power now. If you don't agree with them you can get banned.

She's the parent though. I simple "no thank you" would suffice. Maybe I'm just biased after years of waiting on tables of parents of small children who left loads of saltines on the floor that I had to clean up. I didn't know "making" the parents clean up was an option! LOL

I’d like to know what would the flight attendant would have said/done if an adult had made a mess with a snack and didn’t pick it up. also, I’ve seen cleaning crews board to do a quick clean up after each flight - why wasn’t that going to be sufficient?

I guess it really depends on a lot of factors for me. The space on the floor there is not that easily accessible- could be quite hard to clean up little bits and much easier for the crew to just use a little vacuum. I am someone that always cleaned up after my kids (or had them clean) if possible but I’m siding with mom here unless there’s part of the story missing like mom just let the kids have a popcorn throwing fight or something.

Makes me wonder if he is calling this out publicly because he is a privileged sports figure? When my kids/grandkids made a mess in public they helped me clean it up. No questions asked.

Because it's not very allergenic - they don't hand out nuts on flights anymore. And it's cheap, light, and most people like it. I think it's a totally reasonable airplane snack.

That said, I've NEVER seen a flight attendant give kids a snack without the parent's consent, so they idea that it's the airline's fault because they handed it out is ludicrous to me. The mom could have declined.

As far as the OP, generally speaking, I think people should clean up after their children in public places. Doesn't have to be immaculate but shouldn't be a disaster left for someone else to clean up. But I've also never seen a flight attendant tell anyone to clean up after themselves and I've seen people leave some messy messes. So... something about all of this doesn't sit quite right with me.

Did they provide the mom with a hand vaccuum? The airline provided the popcorn. Popcorn is going to get messy. No, the mom should not be required to clean it up.

Before I passed judgment, I'd want to hear the flight attendant's version of the story. I'd also want to hear what the passenger's who witnessed the incident had to say about it.

There’s no way to completely clean up popcorn mess without a broom or vacuum cleaner. All kinds of little bits go flying around. So while it would be conscientious of the mom to at least make an effort to clean up after her kids, it’s still the airlines’ responsibility to make sure the area looks habitable for the next flight. 

If the circumstances are correct as described, I don’t believe airline personnel should be giving passengers orders to clean up after themselves.