Famous TikTok couple, Matt and Abby Howard, are responding to being called “negligent” and “irresponsible” parents online after choosing to leave their children presumably unattended in a cruise cabin.
The influencers, known for their family-friendly content on social media, are hosts of a popular podcast called The Unplanned Podcast. The couple has two young children, 1-year-old August and 2-year-old Griffin. Abby and Matt share their lives online with millions of followers each day, including 715k subscribers on YouTube and 5.3 million followers on TikTok.
The couple recently sailed on a Royal Caribbean cruise with Abby’s extended family. In a later-deleted Instagram story, Abby shared to her 1.3 million followers about leaving her young kids in a cruise cabin, presumably unattended, to have dinner each evening.
Abby shared on Instagram, “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.”
“So, THEN we switched our dinner time to AFTER their bedtime and FaceTimed the [baby] monitors while we ate,” she continued. In the same Instagram story, Abby explained how their baby monitors wouldn’t work on the cruise ship unless they were “only like 10 feet away.”
Abby concluded, “And that worked out muchhhh better for everyone!”
Screenshots of Abby’s Instagram story immediately started circulating on social media for scrutiny. Many critics were outraged about the pair’s parenting choices to presumably leave their children alone in a cruise cabin, relying on FaceTime and baby monitors.
Now, the couple has responded to the intense backlash they’ve received following the controversy in a new TikTok video, which has received over 7.5 million views.
In the response video, Matt asserts, “There is information circulating about us that is completely untrue. We wanted to set the record straight...clear the air because we take our role as parents extremely seriously. And we love our children more than anything in the entire world.”
“People started speculating, and believe, that we had left our children alone in their staterooms. And that is completely untrue,” explains Matt. He continues to share how there was someone with their children “at all times” during the cruise.
Offering further clarification, Abby states how she understands how her Instagram story might have been misleading. For this reason, she explains that she deleted the story several hours after posting it because it was “causing concern and misunderstanding.”
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“I do want to clarify that we have not, would not, and will not ever leave our children unattended. We would never ever want to put them in harm’s way,” exclaims Abby. She also states that the couple uses baby monitors each evening to see their children sleeping under blackout tents.
At the end of the response video, the couple shared their gratitude to Abby’s extended family for watching their children so the couple could enjoy the ship. Otherwise, Matt says the two really wouldn’t have left their stateroom much at all during the cruise.
During the Royal Caribbean cruise, Abby shared online that the parents originally tried to leave the young children in the onboard daycare, but the kids did not respond well. Because the onboard nursery only has limited slots, the parents were unable to secure nursery times during their dinner.
The couple originally planned to play with the kids all day and then bring the two young boys to the onboard childcare facility. During this time, the two could enjoy a formal dinner together with Abby’s extended family.
Abby shared, “Well, 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),” she continued. Because of this, Abby and Matt decided to put their kids to bed before dinner and utilize the baby monitors to watch the children sleep.
Critics questioned the parent’s choice to leave their children alone in the stateroom, comparing the scenario to the famous missing child case of Madeleine McCann. During a family vacation, Madeleine disappeared from her resort-style apartment while her parents dined at a nearby restaurant. Although the parents returned to check on the sleeping children every 30 minutes, 3-year-old Madeleine went missing and has never been found.
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One comment from r/tiktokgossip on Reddit states, “The crazy part is they had a whole bunch of people with them on this cruise and not ONE of these adults had any common sense that this wasn’t okay. Insanity.”
“Literally repeat of Madeline McCann,” responded another. Similarly, one person writes, ”This is how Madeline McCann was kidnapped how many years ago the world is so much more scary now.”
One person commented, “Cool, FaceTime a baby monitor so you can watch something bad happen and still be unable to do anything about it. And let’s advertise it to the whole world too. Wow.”
Even after Matt and Abby’s response, many aren’t convinced by the parents’ story.
One of the top comments on the TikTok video reads, “It’s evident you both love your kids and take presenting seriously. Honest Q: why FaceTime the monitors if someone was there?”
“If someone was in the room, why have monitors on and make that announcement? Just say, we took turns sitting with them?” asks another commenter.
Another critic states, “Nah, if someone was watching the kids, they would have said ‘my dad was in the room with the kids' or whatever. They are trying to get around actually saying that someone was in the room.”
“If someone was with them they wouldn’t need to FaceTime, period," comments one person.
Allie Hubers
Allie Hubers has been cruising since she was a tiny toddler. What started as a yearly vacation with family quickly turned into a passion for travel, cruising and adventure. Allie's been on over 45 cruises all over the world. She even studied abroad on Semester at Sea, sailing the world on a ship while taking courses for college and visiting 4 continents.
