Picture yourself in the following situation. You’ve just boarded your flight from San Fran to Washington DC, you’ve taken your seat, got yourself sorted and are looking forward to a few hours sleep as your cross the states.

Then you notice the couple whom are trying to take their seats directly in behind you… A nervous looking and slightly frazzled couple who are nursing their 14 week-old week twins. Your shoulders sink, any hopes of sleep you had quickly fade away and you prepare yourself for a double barrelled onslaught of crying babies for 6 hours. Not a whole lot to look forward to and not just for the surrounding passengers… it must equally be a nightmarish and nerve-racking situation for the parents as well. Not only are they trying to do their best to look after the safety and comfort of their new born children they have to deal with the unwelcoming stares and side remarks from other passengers. Surely nobody wins from this situation.

But before the nightmare takes hold, you notice one of the couple begin to hand around a small package to all the passengers around them, including yourself. It is a goody bag with sweets and upon closer inspection you read the following note.

This changes everything. Any negative thoughts you were having about evil crying machines leave you and immediately you’re sympathetic to these poor new borns and the ‘unfortunate milk machine and diaper changer’ who after all, turns out after you speak with them, are on their way to meet their grandparents for the 1st time. Poor things… what can you do to help?

This recently happened and the event was captured and since become a hit on <ahref=”http://www.reddit.com/r/pics/comments/z8sw0/brilliant_and_thoughtful_parents_handed_these_out/?sort=old”>Reddit. The response from the passengers was brilliant:
“The parents were fantastic and the kids were better than would be expected. Mom was super nervous and obviously very tired, but still extremely nice to everyone around her. Not a mean or frustrated word from dad either. Saw them meeting his parents at baggage, who were seeing babies for first time, and got a bit teary,”…”It was the babies’ first flight, so they cried a little bit, but the parents seemed to get them to calm down pretty quickly.”

Great story . A great example of pre-emptivly owning your own story. The actions of these clever parents meant that they were able to shock people into experiencing a radically different emotion to the negative one they were all expecting. They caught everyone off guard and gained their support in the process, showing us that there is no story or experience too negative that one doesn’t have at least have a fighting chance in turning around.

Brett