Mum pens open letter to passenger 'annoyed' by two-year-old daughter on flight: 'The problem wasn't with us, it was with you'
When parenting blogger Stephanie Hollifield was struggling on a cross-country flight with her daughter, another passenger kept letting out “over dramatic huffs and puffs,” as she put it in a Sunday night Facebook post.
“She was exhausted and fussy,” the 33-year-old mum wrote about her two-year-old daughter. “You did not let up with your mutters of annoyance and looks over your shoulder. I apologised to everyone around me. I almost started crying myself.”
Just as Hollifield was reaching the end of her rope, an “angel” flight attendant came to the rescue and gave the toddler a cup and straw to play with. She said the flight attendant told them, “It’s ok! Flying is tough on everyone, and you are both doing great!”
Hollifield was convinced that the flight attendant’s kindness helped calm her daughter down, on top of making her feel better herself about the entire situation. She said she realised the problem wasn’t with her and her daughter, it was with the man sighing loudly about their presence.
“What you need to know, is that while children can be terribly inconvenient now, they will run the world when you are old and grey,” she wrote to the man.
She went on to offer some advice to the man — or anyone who is equally annoyed by children on planes.
“I get it, kids can be a nuisance, but next time you are forced to be near one, I hope that you will be more like the flight attendant. I hope that instead of frustration and annoyance, you feel hope and goodness,” she wrote.
“This world certainly has enough negativity without us adding to it, and just maybe the kindness you give out today, will be returned to you in the future.”
Other parents commiserated with the mum of five about how hard it is to travel with kids and reassured her that the other passenger was the one who needed an attitude adjustment.
“Girl! 6 cross pacific flights later I give zero attention to anyone with kid attitude. They can buy $5 [£3.84] headphones,” another parent commented on Facebook.
“One of them was being a brat and it wasn’t your child,” another said.
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