Social media influencers Matt and Abby Howard are facing backlash online after revealing that they left their two infant children unattended while dining on a Royal Caribbean Cruise.
The high school sweethearts have been married since 2019 and are known for documenting their lives as parents while starting The Unplanned Podcast back in 2023. The show is available to listen and watch on multiple platforms including Spotify, TikTok, YouTube, and Apple. The podcast has quickly amassed a sizable following, currently sitting at 715,000 subscribers on YouTube and 920,000 followers on TikTok. Their content revolves around Matt and Abby’s relationship and family.
The baby monitor controversy, explained
The couple found themselves in some hot water on their cruise over the weekend after Abby posted to her Instagram story. While the story no longer exists, screenshots were shared across numerous platforms. In it, Abby explains that they took their kids for a five night cruise, but “it became apparent that they weren’t enjoying it and therefore we weren’t either.” She then revealed the solution the couple had found to the problem.
“So THEN we switched our dinner time to AFTER their bedtime and FaceTimed the monitors while we ate and that worked out much better for everyone.”
Apparently, the monitors only worked within ten feet of each other, meaning they could not bring them to dinner as they would be out of range.
The internet had a pretty strong response
Matt and Abby may have thought this was an innocent enough solution to the problem they were facing, but their followers were pretty much unanimously in disagreement. Upon reading this, many became concerned with the couple’s apparent irresponsible parenting. Many believed Matt and Abby’s two children, Griffin, who is two years old, and August, who is only 12 months old, were definitely too young to be left alone for so long.
Sure, they were watching them through FaceTime while eating, but literally anything can happen, and what if something actually did happen? Would they be able to get back to their room in time? It seems like a pretty big risk considering they were in a somewhat unfamiliar environment. Over on Reddit, users expressed their concerns and criticisms regarding the couple’s decision, with one individual pointing out they had a bunch of people with them and “not ONE of these adults had any common sense that this wasn’t okay.” Another said it was “pretty stupid.”
Us reported that the families “rooms were right next door to each other and they were taking turns being there.” According to the source, the children “were never alone and the use of the baby monitors was an extra precaution.”
Matt and Abby have now undoubtedly realized their blunder, however, they have yet to address the situation. On their latest post to Instagram, one user commented: “Imagine leaving ur baby alone in a room. Yall rich asf, what’s the excuse?” It would certainly be better for them to admit they made a mistake here rather than trying to sweep it under the rug, especially since the internet isn’t very forgiving when it comes to putting innocent kids at risk.
Published: Sep 17, 2024 09:18 am