‘Singing also cannot ah?’ Mother apologises after questioning passenger who complained over ‘noisy’ child on flight to S’pore
A woman has apologised after posting about a fellow passenger who told her off while her child was singing and playing during a plane ride.
In a Facebook post on Oct 3, user Sheron Tan shared a carousel detailing an incident that happened on a flight back to Singapore involving a passenger seated in front of her family.
She recounted receiving a complaint from the passenger that her three-year-old daughter had been singing and kicking his seat.
“Never thought this could happen to me,” she wrote.
After sharing the encounter online and questioning the passenger, asking, “Singing also cannot ah?”, Tan received divided comments and later posted a follow-up video apologising and explaining herself.
Steward approached parents to ‘control’ child
In her carousel post, Tan said she, her husband and their daughter were on a four-hour flight from Taiwan back to Singapore, which departed at 4.20pm on Sept 28.
The first hour of the flight went without incident as her daughter played with her toys.
Tan said her daughter also occasionally played with the tray table, putting it up and down, but she and her husband stopped her each time.
An hour later, however, she said a steward approached them and quietly informed her that the passenger in front of them had complained about her daughter singing and kicking his seat, and asked if she could “control” her.
“I was like... WHAT? Singing also cannot ah?” said the on-screen caption.
She noted that she was surprised as neither she nor her husband noticed their daughter repeatedly kicking the passenger’s seat.
Tan said she then moved her daughter from the middle seat to the aisle seat, where she kept a close eye on her.
She added that she chose not to give her daughter a tablet as she wanted to avoid a meltdown if she had to take it away abruptly upon landing.
Passenger raised his voice at them
During the third hour of the flight, Tan said her daughter sat on her lap to play. At one point, she turned around and accidentally kicked the back of the passenger’s seat.
This time, she said the passenger immediately unbuckled his seatbelt, turned around and raised his voice at them.
According to Tan, he shouted: “Can you please control your child?”
Frustrated, Tan said her husband told the passenger that they had been doing their best to control their daughter.
Her husband and the passenger then exchanged a few more words before the altercation ended.
She added that, even before the incident, she had noticed the passenger seemed “quite easily bothered by the people around him”.
Citing a few examples, Tan claimed that the passenger did not get up to let another passenger take her seat until she asked him to move.
She also said that when another passenger accidentally touched his luggage with an umbrella, he questioned the passenger about what he was doing.
While she said she did not blame the passenger for feeling disturbed, Tan pointed out that her daughter was only three years old. She said she and her husband had been keeping an eye on her, correcting her behaviour, moving her seat and were doing their best throughout the flight.
Tan added that she did not force her daughter to sleep as the flight departed at 4.20pm, which was not her usual bedtime. She said putting her to sleep at that time could also have made it difficult for her to sleep later on that night.
“Maybe on my part, I should have brought more activities to keep her occupied. But stop her from singing completely? How sia?” she asked.
Mixed reactions
The carousel post amassed over 2,000 likes and more than 2,800 comments.
The post drew mixed reactions, with some netizens criticising her for “justifying” her daughter’s behaviour, while others expressed support for her.
“You may find your kid singing cute, but not everyone else think the same,” one wrote.
Another pointed out that Tan should not have made a big deal about it to “justify” her child. “There’s no need to post something asking others to understand.”
Meanwhile, others expressed support for her.
One user said that Tan’s daughter was “just being herself” and that there is nothing wrong with singing.
“Honestly, if that guy wanted a perfectly peaceful rest, he should have booked business class. How do you even expect someone to control a 3-year-old anyway?”
“What’s wrong with singing? This is an airplane! It’s a public space,” another wrote.
‘We are sorry’: Mother apologises
In a follow-up video uploaded on Oct 4, Tan spoke in Mandarin to further clarify the incident and apologise for her earlier post.
The post has since drawn over 1,000 likes and more than 900 comments.
She acknowledged that her previous post had caused a stir online, explaining that she did not intend to attack the passenger or suggest that her child was without fault.
“I am sorry that our child’s behaviour on the plane affected you,” she said, directing her apology to the passenger.
“Just because our child is young, we should not expect others to accept the disturbance. And just because we are parents, we should not expect others to accommodate us.”
Speaking to Stomp, Tan said she has learned a lot from the constructive suggestions left by commenters.
Among those she found useful were preparing new toys and small surprises to keep her daughter occupied, letting her expend some energy before boarding, downloading videos in advance for her to watch with headphones, and preparing different activities for different parts of the flight.
“Most importantly, I understand now that as parents, we need to be better prepared and more mindful of how our child’s behaviour may affect the passengers around us,” said Tan.
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