Every parent grows restless of their children, particularly when they are small and unable to sit still. That is why some of them employ babysitters so that they may enjoy a day or evening off. It is not always possible for everyone, thus they must accept it. Or they could simply leave them with a stranger for a few hours and rest. Actually, it is a terrible idea, and parents should teach their children about stranger danger. Read this story of how a father left his kids to a stranger and let us know how you would handle the situation.
Source: Reddit
So this happened last weekend. I was flying out of JFK airport in New York, aka one of the worst airports in the US, trying to not catch the plague (double mask fuck yah). When I was in the TSA line, I was surrounded by two families. A mom and her son behind me and two parents with two boys in front of me. The mom in front of me was TIRED. Like she was sitting on a big carry-on bag while her husband wheeled her about tired. Dad was so focused on mom not falling off the suitcase that the boys were just darting about and trying to play with the boy behind me as well.
It’s 6:30 AM, I am on 2 hours of sleep so the world is just too much for me, but I also worked at a special needs preschool for 2 years prior to becoming a therapist so I know how to wrangle kids on minimal sleep. I go into crowd control mode, asking the boys about their interests but reminding them we have to be quiet to talk about them. I find out the brother’s are Eric (9) and Daniel (6) and they are really excited about going on a plane. The boys start having a quiet convo about Minecraft. The mom behind me thanked me and we actually had a nice chat about me previously working in the special needs school and how fun it was.
An hour and a half later I am boarding my plane and I see the tired mom like 5 rows back from where I was seated. She’s at a window seat and she’s already passed out. I sit and about 5 minutes later I see the dad and two boys coming on the plane. The first kid Daniel sits down next to me and dad pauses for a moment just staring at me.
After a minute I’m just like
Me: Is something wrong?
I sh%t you not, this man proceeds to take the boarding pass out of his second son’s hand, swap it with his, and tell his son to sit in the aisle seat. He then bolts to the row his wife is in. Once the disbelief wears off, the boys start asking me questions about the plane and snacks and the tv mounted in front of them. I am so exhausted I don’t even fight it. I show the older one how to turn on the tv screen on seat in front of him and tell them “Miss Mindful is really sleepy, like your mom, so I am going to take a nap.” Both of them tell me to have a nice nap and I pass out. I wake up two hours later to my tray down with a mini water bottle and a bag of cookies on it. Apparently my new friends thought I would want a snack when I woke up (great kids). 30 Minutes before we land, there’s commotion behind us and what sounds like running. All of a sudden, formerly asleep mom is very much awake and looking over both kids to make sure they are alright.
Both of them mention how they have been watching Moana so they are perfectly fine. Mom then shoots her husband the “Neutral Face of Displeasure” (if you don’t know what that is, google the Fresh off the Boat clip of it).
When we get off the plane, mom follows me to the bathroom to apologize. Apparently she took some medication to help ease her anxiety with flying but just knocked her (can’t be anxious if you unconscious I suppose). Her husband was supposed to sit with the younger boy, while the older one sat with her. She freaked out when she woke up and saw her husband and in her drowsy state she thought her husband forgot the children back at JFK hence her panic. Apparently her husband thought it was a good idea to leave them with me because he heard me talking about working at a school and figured they would be fine with me.
She apologized, and when we got out of the bathroom, she made her husband apologize for “abandoning our children with a stranger.” The whole walk out to the pickup area, she was reminding her children about stranger danger and how they need to be careful in big places like this.
Daniel gave me a paper heart he folded out of a New York City brochure so I have a new best friend now lol.
