Kindness at 30,000 Feet

Sometimes, all it takes is for you to lend a hand. 

A viral Facebook post is highlighting how the fastest way to resolve a problem can be a random act of kindness. 

Kesha Bernard was leaving on a vacation away from her children when another woman traveling alone with three children boarded. Everything was going well until weight issues onboard the aircraft caused a delayed takeoff. That’s when all hell broke loose, according to Bernard’s post. 

Two of the small children started crying and, of course, no one on the aircraft was happy. 

“Everyone around me starts huffing and puffing and mumbling. Then......I hear 2 kids crying, this lady has her toddler having a full blown melt down over her seatbelt being on (toddlers are dramatic that's nothing new) No problem.....I have mom powers and totally ignore it…”

What bothered Bernard is what happened next—nothing. 

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Bernard, who was seated farther away from the woman, waited anxiously as she thought someone would step in and help out. Instead, people just got more upset and the flight attendants watched the chaos unfold. 

“I hear a woman complaining to this mother (that's alone with 2 crying kids) that her child needs to stop kicking her seat. THEN I hear the mother say 'she's 3 I can't believe you just did that' apparently the lady reached behind her and grabbed the child's leg (aka "oh hell no”),” Bernard wrote in her post. 

A few other people began complaining as well. But still, no one offered any help or words of support.

READ MORE: Little Boy Fist-Bumps ALL the Passengers on His Flights

It’s all too common these days to let the distressed suffer and then revel in our own suffering at their hands. Everyone’s guilty of it at one time or another.

However, it turns out this problem was easily resolved.

Noticing that no one sitting close to the woman was going to step in and lend a hand, Bernard rose from her seat and asked the woman if she could be of assistance. 

“I get up out of my seat, go a few rows back and go ask her if she needs help; she immediately handed me her baby,” wrote Bernard. 

It was as simple as that. The baby went back to Bernard’s seat with her and promptly fell asleep. The two other children were quiet and the plane returned to regular order. 

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“How can we ignore a human in distress? Please be kind. Please be considerate. Help one another. It makes everything easier. I promise you won’t die,” posted Bernard. 

Clearly, some people didn’t get the point of the message. 

One of the first comments on the post is a woman saying: “I’m sorry but if the mother can't control her kids, she should not take them on a plane. A 3-year-old can understand loads of things, I would have been well punished if I had dared kicking someone's seat at that age. People have to realize that if they make kids, they have to educate them because other people do not have to cope with strangers' uneducated children.”

Can we all just collectively chill out?