By Charlie Herbert

The airline are ‘looking into’ the incident

People have been left divided after a pregnant mum was forced to clean up her toddler’s mess on a United Airlines flight. Dad-of-two Anthony Bass sparked debate online after he criticised airline staff for making his pregnant wife Sydney Rae James clean up their toddler’s mess “on her hands and knees.” Bass, who is a professional baseball for the Toronto Blue Jays, was on the flight with his wife and their two young children on Sunday (April 16). He said the airline handed out on popcorn on the flight and, with toddlers being the messy eaters they are, it ended up all over the floor. The dad shared a photo of the mess, with pieces of popcorn ending up in the aisle and under the seat in front of the toddler. But he was left furious when airline staff decided it was Sydney’s job to clean up the mess, despite the fact that she was 22 weeks pregnant. In a tweet, he fumed:  “The flight attendant @united just made my 22 week pregnant wife traveling with a 5 year old and 2 year old get on her hands and knees to pick up the popcorn mess by my youngest daughter. Are you kidding me?!?!”

The post prompted huge debate, and has racked up more than 32,000 comments, including from United Airlines themselves. They tweeted that they “understand” his concern and would “like to look into” the incident.

But two opposing sides developed in the comments. Whilst some thought Bass’ anger was justified, it seems that most others thought the airline staff were well within their rights to make the mum clean up her toddler’s mess. Replying to the airline’s tweet, one person said: “Won’t lie, the fact that the flight attendant had the guts to make the passenger clean up their own MESS kinda makes me wanna fly United more.” Another tweeted: “Just because you’re rich doesn’t mean everyone is your servant. I hope this helps.” But someone else said: “I think it’s disgusting that the stewardess made a pregnant woman clean up a mess if they’re going to supply popcorn on the airplane be ready for messes to clean up if you don’t like it, don’t serve popcorn.” When one person asked Bass who he thought should clean up the mess, he responded: “The cleaning crew they hire!”

Others suggested the parents should have made the child clean up the mess to teach him a ‘life lesson’ whilst some wondered why Bass himself hadn’t cleaned up the popcorn instead of his pregnant wife. Despite the backlash, Bass later tweeted his thanks for the “support” he had received, and said United Airlines was “taking care of matters with the flight attendant internally.”