TikTok's Matt and Abby Howard Slammed After Appearing to Leave Sons Alone In Cruise Cabin

Influencers Matt and Abbey Howard are feeling the wrath of Reddit after their new controversy. The married TikTokers recently shared that they went on a cruise with their sons -- Griffin, 2, and August, 13 months -- and appeared to leave the boys alone to sleep in their stateroom while they had dinner, while monitoring them on FaceTime. "So we ended up taking them [to dinner] for 5 nights," Abby wrote in a since expired Instagram Story, "and it became apparent that they weren't enjoying it and therefore we weren't either." The pair went on to explain that they switched their dinner schedule to after their children's bedtime and "FaceTimed the monitors" while they ate because "Baby monitors don't work on board unless you're only like 10 feet away." "That worked out muchhhh better for everyone! :)," Abbey added. The Unplanned Podcast co-hosts were met with their fair share of flack online for their decision. TikToks about their post and a Reddit thread quickly spread across the internet, with many concerned parents sharing their unfiltered thoughts. "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," one Reddit user said. While another called it a "repeat of Madeline McCann" -- a 3-year-old girl who was abducted from her bed in a holiday apartment in Portugal. "This is how Madeleine McCann was kidnapped how many years ago the world is so much more scary now dumb f--king a--es," another added. "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," another said with sarcasm. While another user said they should have just ordered "room service". However, the pair have since released a video saying everyone misunderstood their initial post. "We love our children more than anything in the entire world and we're very protective of the kids," Matt began, insisting that all isn't what it seems. "People started to speculate and believe that we had left our children alone in our state rooms and that is just completely untrue because we had someone with our children at all times on this boat, period," he continued, citing Abbey's extended family as their helpers. "I can see where my story did lead to misunderstanding which is why I ended up deleting it several hours after posting it because I could see that it was causing concern and misunderstanding," Abbey added, thanking people for their concern about the couple's children. "We have not, would not, will not ever leave our child unattended," she said.