A Mom Traveling Alone With A Crying Baby Gets The 'Stink Eye' From Other Passengers Until A Flight Attendant Jumped In To Help
She was not only the hero of the day for the exhausted mother, but for the entire flight.
KHON2 News / YouTube One mother who was traveling alone with her three children was saved from judgmental fellow passengers after a flight attendant stepped in to help out.
A mother was flying alone with her three children on an evening Hawaiian Airlines flight from Hawaii to Los Angeles when one of them began crying and didn’t stop.
Fellow passenger Rachel Yuen Nihi and her husband noticed the mother struggling to soothe her little one. "I watched her turn into an acrobat, trying to soothe her crying toddler, tossing and turning. Trying to find a position to make him comfortable," Rachel wrote in a Facebook post. The mother paced the aisles for over half an hour trying to calm her child, who was starting to irritate other passengers.
“A couple in front of her kept turning around; giving her a stink eye. As if she was purposely trying to inconvenience them,” Rachel shared. “I watched the woman in front turn around and snicker something at her children and all I could think of was 'You wait until this seat belt sign comes off.’”
Rachel, who is a mother herself, admits that she too began to grow annoyed, not at the crying toddler, but at the passengers who watched the mother tirelessly attempt to soothe him and still lacked empathy.
A flight attendant jumped in to help the struggling mother.
Just as Rachel was preparing to get up and give the mother a hand, a flight attendant approached her and asked to hold the little boy. With both she and her child exhausted, the mother handed her fussy toddler over to the flight attendant, who held him in her arms as she walked up and down the aisles, quieting and soothing him. The child eventually fell asleep on her shoulder.
The flight attendant’s name was Gina Reyes, whose friends nicknamed her “Momma Gina” because of her maternal instincts. The mother of four and surrogate mother was happy to assist. "I saw a place where I could help," she told KHON2. "I was rocking and singing to him. I was singing lullabies to him."
Rachel was moved by the kindness demonstrated by Reyes. "This is true Aloha spirit," she continued in her Facebook post. "Hawaiian Airlines, you should be proud of the people you hire who go beyond the call of duty and remind the world that kindness isn't all that uncommon . . .”
“To that flight attendant, thank you for your kindness. It was noticed all around that flight. You gave a mother a moment to breathe and you have no idea how priceless this was for everyone around to see."
Traveling with children is already undoubtedly difficult, and people like Reyes help create a more compassionate and supportive flying experience for all passengers involved.
Megan Quinn is a writer at YourTango who covers entertainment and news, self, love, and relationships.