This dad's flying hack is the most clever thing ever

Dad's clever idea for getting kids to fly. Photo / Imgur

Small kids on flights can be a problem for everyone.

No passenger wants to sit next to an annoying child, and no parent wants to suffer their own tantrum-throwing offspring, either.

Over the years parents have tried many solutions to the delicate issue of their children on flights, from handing out lolly bags as a pre-emptive apology, to doping kids up with cough medicine, to designing contraptions designed to keep small children asleep for the whole flight.

Some airlines have banned children altogether from some areas of the cabin.

But none of them are as simple, or more ingenious, than this one.

A clever dad has been caught on camera using the airport's escalator to tire out his young child ahead of a flight.

Presumably to get the kid so exhausted he'll fall asleep as soon as he boards the plane, and stay that way until landing, the man can be seen holding his toddler's hands as he walks him the wrong way up the moving stairs, hamster-wheel style.

"This dad tiring his kid out before the flight is my new hero," the clip was captioned before it was uploaded to Imgur by a user named itsLiiGHTz this week.

A true hero!

Clever dad, from all of us in the cabin: We don't know who you are, but we salute you.