Travelling is very rarely a relaxing experience, especially if you have two young kids.
Unless you're lucky enough to travel first class all the time, you'll know that flying by plane usually entails you squeezing into your seats and wrestling your luggage into the overhead carriers, alongside countless other gruelling tasks.
Then, if you have kids, there's the problem of keeping them entertained for however many hours your flight is - which is arguably a two-person task.
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But, content creator and speech pathologist Maria Roberts does it by herself when flying anywhere with her two young children while he husband sits elsewhere.
Maria shared a short tongue-in-cheek video to her Instagram page as she quipped that her husband's excuse for not sitting with their children is that 'they refuse to sit next to [him]', and people have had a lot to say.
"I cannot believe that in 2023 women still accept this behavior," fumed one of her followers.
"You have two kids. Divide and conquer," urged another.
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Someone else went on to rant: "I hate that this is still a standard we are promoting.
"Even young children can learn that Dad is a good option and don’t need to always be with mom.
"Please for the love of god stop reinforcing that dads are incapable."
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But others came to Maria and her husband's defence as they insisted that the video was just a bit of fun, while others empathized with the mom-of-two's situation.
"Omg the internet is exhausting. Let the lady post her video in peace, it’s funny," wrote one person.
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Someone else joked about their own experience with their kids and husband on a flight, writing: "You forgot the part where he asks you where his headphones are!"
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Another parent empathized: "100%! Must be realll nice watching your movie over there!!"
Maria has since addressed the now-viral clip in a conversation with Good Morning America.
"It's meant to have moms feel like, 'Oh, my gosh, I'm not the only one going through this type of situation' in a humorous way, so we can laugh about it and de-stress a little bit," she told the news outlet.
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Defending their travelling technique, Maria went on: "We're just trying to get from point A to point B on the plane as smoothly and as stress-free as possible.
"Both of my kids prefer to sit with me. So that's just how we do it. They sit with me, my husband takes the seat directly across from us on the aisle so he can be right there too."
Maria added that they may change up their travelling routine in the future but, as it stands, she likes to be the one to sit with their children.
Niamh Shackleton