There's nothing worse than being on a flight with inconsiderate people nearby. Whether it's people listening to their music out loud, speaking too loudly, or generally causing a scene, it can be uncomfortable and make you pray that your flight goes as quickly as possible.
But what would you do if you could hear a mum and her daughter through your earplugs? Would you try to relax regardless, or ask them to use "inside voices" to make your flight more comfortable?
A fed-up plane passenger shared that they were trying to communicate that the woman and six-year-old daughter were being a bit too loud, politely requesting that they be quieter - but the mum did not take kindly to it.
They took to Reddit to rant, explaining that a mum and young daughter were sat directly behind them, and "after the cabin lights were dimmed" they put earplugs in - and so did their partner. But annoyingly, they could "hear the entire conversation between the mum and daughter."
They wrote: "Tried to layer the headphones that the airline gave us, which did block a lot of ambient noise, but I could still hear their conversation clear as day.
"This is how I know that mum is American, daughter has never been on a plane before, and this will be her first time in the US. Not intentionally eavesdropping but it's impossible not to overhear someone's conversation when they are the only people talking directly behind your head.
"I waited around 10 minutes after the lights turned off and most people had clearly settled in, turning off overhead lights and putting tablets away, and they were still chatting loudly. I turned around and asked the mum if they could use their 'inside voices' since we could still hear them through earplugs.
"Mum said she would do her best, I said that's fine, I just wanted to ask them to use 'inside voices', not stop talking. The volume goes down, we fall asleep, and I thought we were good!"
But the problems sadly did not stop there, as "about an hour later" the daughter was being rowdy again, so after five minutes of loudness, and no intervening from the mum, the annoyed passenger turned around to "make eye contact" as a reminder, and the mum got "MAD."
"She held her pillow up in front of the seats to block me from view and kept repeating to talk to the flight attendant instead of her", they wrote. "I tried to say that I just wanted her to be mindful of volume, not stop talking entirely, but she talked over me to say to talk to the flight attendant. They were pretty quiet the rest of the flight so nothing else happened.
"I'm a reasonable person, I know kids will be kids on planes. I don't even mind crying because I know they can't help it, and I don't expect everyone to be silent and not speak the whole flight. I never asked her to stop talking or tell her daughter to be silent. I asked her to use an 'inside voice', which is pretty commonly used to communicate volume expectations to kids"
They then went on to highlight the fact that they didn't think they'd been "unreasonable", but wanted to know what others thought.
"Not the a**hole", someone reassured. "Because it seems like you asked her politely. There's an expectation on public transport that you should be mindful of others, so your request was pretty reasonable."
Another wrote: "It was a reasonable request and an unreasonable reaction."
Others defended the mum, however, commenting: "Where do you get off, as an adult, telling another adult to use their 'inside voice'? How condescending.
"I am not shocked she responding like this, the entitlement of it all, I would be calling the flight attendant too. They were trying to enjoy their first trip together, she was a mother on her own, and she was likely doing her best given she tried to make sure YOU were comfortable.
"I've done a lot of travel and I've had to learn to accept that unless I'm paying private, I'm gonna have to put up with other people and that's tough s***."
Have you got a plane story to share? Email: danielle.wroe@reachplc.com
