A couple is receiving backlash after a now deleted social media post detailed how they left their young children in a cruise cabin by themselves. Now the couple is speaking out.
*Update 9/16/24: Matt and Abby have broken their silence on this story that went viral over the last few days. Admitting that she could see why people would make certain assumptions about what happened, Abby said she should have worded the deleted post differently.
“I do want to clarify that we have not, would not, will not ever leave our children unattended,” Abby said. “That’s why even when we would tag-team and take turns at family dinner, we would turn on FaceTime so we could have eyes on them.”
Matt said that the information going around about them is untrue and that they are both very protective of their children.
“We had someone with our children at all times on this boat, period,” Matt Stated.
Original Story Below
The two social media influencers, Matt and Abby Howard, post videos about life and relationships. After a recent family cruise the couple mentioned how they got some alone time on the ship.
Joining them on the cruise were their two young children who were 2 and 12-months old.
“So we ended up taking them for 5 nights and it became apparent that they weren’t enjoying it and therefore we weren’t either,” Abby said in the story.
“So, THEN we switched our dinner time to AFTER their bedtime and FaceTIMED the monitors while we ate. And that worked out muchhhh better for everyone!”
The couple apparently came prepared, bringing Motorola baby monitors onboard. But Abby noted in the Instagram story that they didn’t work on the ship unless they were “only like 10 feet away” from the device.
Finding a way to use their mobile devices to show a “live feed” of their toddlers in the cabin was the solution the couple ended up using.
TikTok account, Anna Reports News, reported on the story, pointing out how dangerous this situation was, and how the post was likely deleted as soon as comments began flooding in.
“They left these two babies in the stateroom while they went out to eat and they FaceTimed the baby monitors,” Anna said.
“Just the every day unsafe things that kids could get into when they are by themselves, especially under the age of 2 and 1…”
@annareportsnews Matt and Abby left their babies alone on a cruise ship. #annareportsnews #theorywithanna #MattandAbby #cruise #CruiseShip #Cruises #Matt #Abby #Babies #Baby #Kids #Child #Unsafe #Alone #TrueCrime #Scary #Horror #Influencer #Influencers #Celeb #Celebs #Celebrities #Famous #Fame #Drama #Tea##expose##Expose##Exposing##Explain##Explained##Explaining ♬ original sound – Anna Reports News
Anna mentioned that this family cruise had other family members on board that could have helped to watch the children if they wanted some alone time at dinner.
Baby monitors were on the “ban list” for many cruise lines for a while, but the reasons for it were always in question. Many point out that it was to discourage this kind of practice. Toddlers should not be left unattended in staterooms for a multitude of obvious reasons.
On top of this, cruise ships are huge. Even if the couple noticed an issues on the screen, they could not likely get back to the child very quickly.
Comments on the social media post showed anger and disapproval of what the couple had done, and neither of the two has yet to address the social media post that caused the firestorm.