Social Media Melts After Toddler’s Tantrum Is Met with Kindness from Fellow Passengers

According to a now-viral social media post, when passengers at the gate noticed a mom struggling to control her child, rather than filming the tantrum, they opted instead to lend a helping hand.

Air travel isn’t always easy. Even grownups can get a little grumpy and act out in inappropriate ways when faced with the stress of the airport. If public officials are guilty of behaving like children on flights, we should hardly be surprised when an actual child throws a bit of a temper tantrum on a plane. Still, when a toddler acts up on a plane or at an airport, most of us are quick to commiserate with fellow passengers and complain on social media or to anyone else who will listen. In extreme cases, a viral video of an out-of-control child on an 8-hour “flight from hell” can quickly garner headlines around the globe.

When passengers at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX), however, came across a mom trying desperately to control her misbehaving toddler, something completely unexpected occurred – instead of complaining, fellow flyers reached out to help the overwhelmed mother. Passenger Beth Bornstein Dunnington couldn’t wait to reach her destination before sharing this feel-good story with her Facebook followers:

“Something extraordinary at LAX today… (writing this on the plane). I was at the gate, waiting to get on my plane to Portland. Flights to two different cities were boarding on either side of the Portland flight. 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 (which was not going to Portland). His young mom, who was clearly pregnant and traveling alone with her son, became completely overwhelmed… she couldn’t pick him up because he was so upset, he kept running away from her, then lying down on the ground, kicking and screaming again. 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. Then, this gorgeous thing (I’m crying just writing this)… 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. I sang “The Itsy Bitsy Spider” to the little boy… one woman had an orange that she peeled, one woman had a little toy in her bag that she let the toddler play with, another woman gave the mom a bottle of water. Someone else helped the mom get the kid’s sippy cup out of her bag and give it to him.”

Dunnington, a writer based in Hawaii, reports that she and the other women who came to the rescue of a mother at the end of her rope, quietly departed without discussing their ad hoc heroics. She says that the simple experience was a moment she will never forget.

Dunnington told Good Morning America that she hopes the attention surrounding her now famous post will encourage others to “act with kindness, to help when someone is struggling, if you can” and “to trust your instincts.”

[Photo: Shutterstock]