Dad Prioritizing Business Meeting Over Flying 5-Year-Old Son Home Dragged

Online commenters have backed a mother who made her husband take an international flight home with their young son, almost ruining his last-minute business trip because a work emergency came up and he wanted to put the child on the flight alone.

In a post shared Monday on Reddit under the username u/atlantis902, the mom said that her husband recently took their 5-year-old son on a skiing trip with his friends to Aspen, Colorado. A few days before they were to return to Paris, where the mother was, he called her and said he had to go to Singapore for business.

He said he could take the boy to the airport and have him fly alone to Paris. But the mother, concerned about her son's age, refused, saying the idea was too dangerous.

Over 7 million young children between 5 and 12 travel unaccompanied on planes each year in the United States, according to Encyclopedia.com. Some airlines, including American, Alaskan, United, Delta and Southwest, offer unaccompanied-child services for minors on flights.

Even if your kids have flown alone before, they should go prepared, according to United Airlines. Its tips include writing down any phone numbers the child may need, including yours and the adult meeting them at the other end of their flight; making sure they know to always wait for a crew member to leave the plane; and making sure their phones are charged.

Megan Vogels, a licensed professional counselor, told Newsweek she didn't think the mother in the post went too far. "It sounds like she was being protective and thoughtful about the needs and safety of her young child. Five years old is very young for a child to fly from Aspen to Paris alone," she said.

"However, it does sound like her husband has some residual feelings about the decision and the couple would be smart to address them early before things fester," Vogels said. "I'd advise having a conversation about it, at a time when they won't be interrupted, and how they might make child-rearing decisions in the future. They'll certainly have many more opportunities."

Shared on the r/AmItheA**hole subreddit, where users discuss their actions with impartial strangers, the post has received 9,800 upvotes and 2,100 comments.

One user, Gallopmonkey, whose comment got over 20,800 upvotes, said: "[Not the a**hole]. I was on a flight from Paris to Canada a few years ago and my seatmate was an unaccompanied six-year-old girl. She was lovely and better behaved than some adults but I still ended up being thrust into the parenting role for her because there was a lot that she needed help with.

"Five is way too young to be flying alone. I can't imagine how she would have managed had I not been willing to help her out with stuff."

Another user, Homicidal__GoldFish, said: "Call me paranoid, but no no no no no you do NOT make a child that young fly alone! There are way too many pervs and child sex traffickers etc etc. how could ANYONE be OKAY with letting a small child go on a plane alone??"

And TheEndisFancy said: "I started flying cross-country unaccompanied 2-3 times a year at 5. I was always assigned a specific attendant and they checked on me frequently. That said, I wouldn't let my daughter do it now. I don't feel like the same care and attention is given."

Nathan_Poe wrote: "The crew would look after him during the flight. uh, no. the flight crew are not babysitters, they will not be looking after him during the flight. He'd basically be in the care of total unwilling strangers who had the misfortune of sitting next to him. [Not the a**hole], your husband planned his trips badly."

Newsweek has reached out to u/atlantis902 for comment and could not verify the details of the case.