Her Autistic Daughter Melted Down On A Flight But What The Passengers Did Next Brought Her To Tears
Flying with kids is never easy, but flying with a child who has severe sensory needs can feel impossible. Every parent dreads that moment when their little one melts down in public, especially in a cramped airplane where there’s no escape.
This mom thought she was living every parent’s nightmare when her daughter had a full-blown sensory overload mid-flight.
Instead of sympathy, she braced herself for judgment. But what happened next completely shifted her perspective: strangers around her stepped in with unexpected kindness.
She recently took her six-year-old daughter on a plane for the first time back in April. Her daughter has a severe sensory processing disorder, in addition to level 3 autism.
She flew with her daughter from St. Louis, Missouri, to Newark, New Jersey, and the flight was close to three hours long.
“I prepared in every possible way, scared to death she was gonna have a meltdown mid-air. I brought the iPad, speech-generating device, earplugs, compression vest, weighted blanket, and sensory toys,” she explained.
“None of it mattered about 2/3 of the way through the flight when my daughter decided she wanted to go home. For nearly an hour, she screamed her little lungs out. She has a scream that is hard even for me, her mother, to endure.”
“She kicked and flailed. I had to pull her onto my lap, wrap my arms around her, and my legs around hers. Occasionally, she’d wrench free and hit me. I closed my eyes and tried to shut my mind to the fact that my lowest parenting moment was happening in front of a hundred strangers who were all trapped having to witness it.”
After the plane landed and she walked down the aisle to get off, she couldn’t help but start sobbing after how taxing the trip had been.
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It was grueling for her, but she was shocked by what the strangers who had been on board with her did. One man who had a seat close to her and her daughter kindly carried their bags off the plane.
Another woman who was there with a little kid was so kind and warm to her; she was simply shocked. This woman stated she was a wonderful mom who did everything in her power to try to stop her daughter from melting down.
This woman also pointed out that so many people are more understanding of autism today, so pretty much everyone on the plane was aware that her daughter could not help her behavior.
“Another passenger started telling my daughter in ASL that she was beautiful. She said she worked with kids who were nonverbal and that everything was going to be okay,” she continued.
“Yet another passenger, a doctor, asked if we needed any help. A literal crowd of the same people we tortured for an hour, who probably couldn’t wait to get out of that airport, took the time to make sure we were okay.”
“Sorry, this turned out so long. I wish I could tell those people that they made me less fearful of the future, less afraid of my daughter being rejected by a world that doesn’t understand her.”
What do you think of that?
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