I was on a seven-hour flight when the child behind me started kicking my seat. I waited for an hour before politely turning around and asking his mother if she could stop him. Without looking up from her phone, she replied, \u201cKids kick. It\u2019s a flight, not a library.\u201d The kicking continued, and when I asked again, she snapped, \u201cDo you have children?\u201d When I said no, she told me I couldn\u2019t understand.<\/p>\n
After the kicking continued for another long stretch, I finally called a flight attendant. The mother immediately became tense, and I could feel her frustration toward me for the next two hours. I was convinced she was simply being inconsiderate and rude, while she seemed convinced that I was judging her without understanding what she was dealing with.<\/p>\n
When we finally landed, everyone stood up and began gathering their belongings. I expected the woman to say something angry, but instead she touched my shoulder. When I turned around, she looked completely exhausted. Her expression was nothing like the irritated mother I had imagined. She quietly told me, \u201cHis dad passed three weeks ago. He doesn\u2019t sleep anymore. I haven\u2019t either.\u201d<\/p>\n
Suddenly, I saw the situation differently. She hadn\u2019t been trying to be rude; she had been running on exhaustion and grief while trying to care for a child who was struggling too. I still don\u2019t know what the perfect response would have been\u2014I was entitled to a peaceful flight, after all. But I\u2019ve thought about that encounter for a long time, and it taught me one thing: sometimes we judge people by their behavior without knowing the pain they are carrying.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I was on a seven-hour flight when the child behind me started kicking my seat. I waited for an hour before politely turning around and asking his… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":18521,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18520","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-story"],"yoast_head":"\n