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Matt and Abby Howard, a couple on TikTok known for posting content about their two young children, have responded to backlash after they were accused of leaving their children unattended on a cruise ship.
This week, Abby posted on a no-longer-available Instagram Story that she and her husband were leaving their kids (two-year-old Griffin and one-year-old August) in their room while the couple went to dinner elsewhere on the cruise.
“We ended up taking them with us for five nights and it became apparent that they weren’t enjoying it and therefore neither were we,” her story reads. “So we moved dinner time to AFTER their bedtime and FaceTimed the monitors while we ate.”
The mother explained in another Instagram story that regular baby monitors don't work on the cruise “unless you're just 10 feet away,” so they resorted to FaceTime. “And that worked out so much better for everyone,” she added.
This led many people on TikTok to question his parental decision, stating that young children should never be left alone under any circumstances.
“The most shocking thing about Matt and Abby’s cruise situation is that they posted in REAL TIME that their kids were alone,” one person wrote in a video. “What if there was a follower on that boat? A stalker? Anyone? They are so lucky nothing horrible happened.”
“I am outraged, even though I am not a mother,” another video about the couple begins. “I love my nephews so much that I would do anything for them. I won’t even let them buy ice cream at the store without holding my hand, let alone leave them alone.”
On Monday, September 16, the couple responded to criticism on TikTok by clarifying that they were traveling with Abby’s family members on the cruise. “We take our role as parents very seriously, we love our children more than anything in the world and we are very protective of our children,” Matt began in the video.
She mentioned that they were on the cruise with their extended family and said, “And people started speculating and believing that we had left our children alone in their cabins. And that is completely false. There was someone with our children at all times on this ship. Period.”
Abby then chimed in: “I can see that my story created some misunderstandings, which is why I ended up deleting it several hours after posting it.”
She said that while she is grateful that many people care about her children, she echoed Matt's statements that “we have never left, would never leave, and will never leave our children unattended.”
At another point in the video, the TikToker mentioned that her kids always sleep in blackout tents (which they even bring with them when they travel) and that they also feature a slot for a baby monitor. “Even if we sleep in the same room as the kids, we always turn on their monitor,” the mother of two said. “Even when we were teaming up and taking turns at family dinner, we would turn on FaceTime so we could also see them as their parents if we weren’t the ones looking after them at the time.”
The video ends with Matt explaining how grateful he and Abby were to have family on the cruise, which allowed them to take some time off from constantly checking the baby monitors.
“And we are very grateful to [Abby’s family members]“We spend a lot of time on this ship in our cabins manning the baby monitors,” she said. “And if it wasn’t for Abby’s extended family, we wouldn’t really have had a chance to leave the room.”
The Independent has reached out to Matt and Abby for comment.
