Matt and Abby Howard share their lives on social media, appearing as the picture-perfect parents as they raise their young sons: 2-year-old Griffin and 1-year-old August.
The famous couple has 5.3 million followers on TikTok, 7.34 million followers on their family YouTube channel, and an additional 715,000 followers on YouTube for the “Unplanned Podcast,” which the couple has hosted for the past year.
But despite their wholesome online presence, the couple has come under fire for their parenting decisions during their recent cruise onboard Royal Caribbean’s Navigator of the Seas.
The Voyager-class vessel is currently operating a series of 7-night sailings to Ensenada, Mexico, out of the Port of Los Angeles in California – although it’s unclear which specific sailing the influencers were on.
Near the end of the sailing, it seems the couple became frustrated with taking their kids with them to the main dining room for dinner each night. Their solution was to leave their allegedly sleeping toddlers behind in their stateroom and head to dinner without them.
“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 shared in a now deleted Instagram story.
“So then we switched our dinner time to after their bedroom and FaceTimed the monitors while we ate,” the influencer wrote.
Abby had previously shared how her baby monitors wouldn’t work onboard unless she was within 10 feet of the devices, which created a serious hole in that plan that other social media users were quick to pick up on.
In another now deleted story, Abby shared that the couple wasn’t able to reserve slots for their children in the onboard nursery, which necessitated this plan.
“You need to book ahead if your child is under 3 and pretty much all of the dinner slots were already booked before I could get to the nursery (an hour after boarding),” Abby posted.
This story was likely meant to head off the large amount of the criticism that came from surprise that the influencers would choose the markedly less safe option of leaving a baby and toddler unsupervised for potentially hours at a time rather than taking advantage of the award-winning childcare services offered by the family friendly cruise line.
Abby even went so far as to complain about the activities for toddlers onboard in a third story, in which she said there wasn’t anything for her boys except a “small section of the splash pad.”
The Howards Face Backlash for Cruise Parenting Decisions
Indeed, the response to the Howards’ decision to leave their sleeping children in their stateroom has not been kind across social media platforms. The general consensus is that the famous parents are selfish and planned poorly.
“It’s obvious at this point that they’d rather risk the safety of their kids so they can continue with their lives,” one person wrote on Reddit.
Other commenters thought that the Matt and Abby planned to leave their kids behind in the stateroom all along, which is why they brought the baby monitors in the first place.
“The fact that they even PACKED the baby monitors and brought them onto the cruise ship shows this was a premeditated backup plan in case they could not handle the kids during dinner time. They literally “thought” this plan through. So crazy!,” another person wrote on Youtube.
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The resounding sentiment was that the kids were much too young to be left alone safely, and the parents should have adjusted their own plans in order to put the wellbeing of their children first – or left their children at home with a trusted babysitter if they wanted a break from parenthood.
For example, maybe Matt and Abby didn’t need to eat a formal dinner at the main dining room each night. If their toddlers were fussy, the couple could have dined at a more quick and casual venue onboard, such as the Windjammer buffet, or ordered room service.
Additionally, past Royal Caribbean guests advised that the parents should have re-checked with the nursery if all the slots were pre-booked on embarkation day, as more spots often open up in the Royal Babies & Tots Program later in the voyage.
