There are crews to clean up on most airlines. Some airlines for cost saving or turn around time have asked the flight attendants to clean up between turns. The FAs don't like this and possibly was trying to get out of doing the cleanup.
One: The wife was pregnant, that is the key point. A pregnant women should not be, nor asked to get in a position you would need to to clean up the floor in the economy row of an airline.
Two: A flight attendant should not be asking anyone to leave their seat to do something like that in-flight. If there was turbulence etc and they person asked to do this got hurt, the FA and airline would def be liable. Not the same as going to the bathroom.
Three: If you go to a movie theatre and spill popcorn do the ushers come tell you to clean it up? No, I know because when I was 15 that was my job to go clean it all up between showings. Didn't matter how it got on the floor/seats, that was my responsibility. Why would you be responsible for cleaning on an airline..
Now, the caveat to this type of situation is diapers. No one should be changing diapers in a seat or on a tray table (YES it happens a lot). The diaper should not be left in the seat area or thrown on the ground etc..
Other than that type of situation and when you look at the situation in totality, young kids, prego mom, it was out of line to ask Bass's wife to clean up.
Case closed!!