The Help This Struggling Mom Got At An Airport Proves Women Are Amazing
Leave it to a group of women to save the day for a struggling mom
The struggle of traveling with small children — especially in an airport — is very real. The security lines, the endless waiting game at the gate, the crowds, and just the lack of comforts from home are all a recipe for disaster. One mom, pregnant and traveling alone with an uncooperative toddler, was having a rough time at a gate at LAX.
Beth Bornstein Dunnington, a woman sitting at the same terminal area as the young mom, described the scene — and it’s one moms everywhere recognize: inconsolable child, overwhelmed mom, onlookers everywhere.
But what unfolded next is one of the most beautiful stories moms everywhere will appreciate.
“Something extraordinary at LAX today,” Dunnington begins. “A toddler who looked to be eighteen or so months old was having a total meltdown, running between the seats, kicking and screaming, then lying on the ground, refusing to board the plane.”
Yep, been there. And it sucks.
“The mother finally sat down on the floor and put her head in her hands, with her kid next to her still having a meltdown, and started crying.”
Your child is screaming and you’re exhausted and overwhelmed and ready to just give completely up, regardless of being in public. Regardless of the fact that you’re the sole person responsible for this tiny kid who is losing it.
Luckily, a few strangers who just totally get it came through to save the day.
“The women in the terminal, there must have been six or seven of us, not women who knew each other, approached and surrounded her and the little boy and we knelt down and formed a circle around them,” Dunnington says.
They sang songs, they scrounged around in their purses for snacks and toys for the little boy, they gave the mom some water — and a much needed break.
“It was so gorgeous, there was no discussion and no one knew anyone else, but we were able to calm them both down, and she got her child on the plane,” she writes. “Only women approached.”
Never underestimate the power of women. We know better than anyone how to step in and save one of our own if she’s flailing. Because we have all been that flailing mom at some point. Dunnington says after the mom and her son were safely on the plane, the group of beautiful humans went back to their separate seats. While it may have just been second nature to these women to come together to help out, it’s such a remarkable thing to do. I know I’d feel eternally grateful anytime I recalled that moment, if I were that mom.
“We were strangers, gathering to solve something. It occurred to me that a circle of women, with a mission, can save the world. I will never forget that moment.”
