Flying with young children, especially babies and toddlers, can be difficult for any parent or guardian — and professional athletes are no exception.
Sydney Rae Bass, wife of Toronto Blue Jays pitcher Anthony Bass was recently traveling on a United Airlines flight with the couple’s 5-year-old and 2-year-old when their youngest spilled popcorn all over the floor of the plane. Bass claims that a United flight attendant forced his wife to clean it up herself, as he angrily told his Twitter followers, and now he’s going viral for it.
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?!?! pic.twitter.com/vLYyLyJC54
— Anthony Bass (@AnthonyBass52) April 16, 2023
The Tweet, which has now been viewed over 56.3 million times, did not garner the reactions of support that Bass may have been expecting.
“He let his pregnant wife get on her hands on knees and clean up after his kids,” one user asked, pointing to the fact that Bass took the photo but didn’t instead say he would clean up for his wife.
“Commercial airlines are not your children’s playground,” another said bluntly. “Pick it up and take responsibility for your kids.”
Others took an even harsher stance.
“This is the most pretentious, arrogant, self-absorbed tweet of all time. How dare parents have to clean up after their children’s mess,” one person said. “Good God, the more athletes tweet, the more I really don’t want to watch professional sports anymore.”
As the post began to garner more attention, United Airlines publicly replied to Bass on Twitter, assuring that the company would “look into this.”
Hi there, Anthony. We certainly understand your concern and we’d like to look into this. When you have a moment, please DM your wife’s confirmation number along with any additional details regarding her interaction with this crew member. ^AN https://t.co/Y6hG6u3i8R
— United Airlines (@united) April 16, 2023
Bass’ wife Sydney is the sister of country singer Jesse James Decker, who also sounded off about the incident on her Instagram story, saying that her sister was “completely humiliated and exhausted” as the other passengers watched her clean up the mess “on her hands and knees.”
It’s unclear whether or not Bass was on the plane with his wife, though Decker claims that her sister was flying alone, per her Instagram stories.
United Airlines has not formally issued a statement regarding the incident.
Things have not been calm in the skies in recent weeks.
Last month, a passenger was arrested on a flight between Los Angeles and Boston after he attempted to stab a flight attendant and open an emergency exit door in an unhinged attack.
United Airlines was down just shy of 3% in a one-year period as of Tuesday morning.