Finding compassion for those who can’t travel light

Finding compassion for those who can’t travel light

We’ve all been that person: the tutter, the sigher, the eyebrow raiser; the person who slides our seat back regardless of the fact that the person behind is trying to slurp a wobbly coffee; the person whose personal space is offended by their neighbour raising the arm rest to make a little more room. No one likes travelling with excess baggage, be it the extra few pounds that make the average economy seat feel a little on the snug side, or carting a couple of screaming appendages who’ve been saving up a fuel dump for when there’s no hope of baby changing facilities. But whatever we may be toting, it’s a whole lot worse when we’re judged for it by the people we have the misfortune of sitting next to when we fly. We’re all tired and uncomfortable when we’re travelling, but you know who’s more tired than you? It’s the woman who has a dead leg because her offspring has been bouncing on her knee for the past two hours.

Short of putting a height restriction on flying, kids on flights are a fact of life, and contrary to popular belief, parents are not always responsible for the general mayhem that sometimes their offspring can generate in confined spaces. There are no two ways about it: travelling is hard on kids, hard on parents and hard on the person who gets the seat next door.

But a little bit of compassion goes a long way, as this letter from a mother of an autistic child to the friendly and patient passenger who not only ignored but engaged the child sat in his aisle demonstrates. Would we all have as much humanity next time we become air cargo!