Tired Mom Does Her Best to Calm Baby during Flight, Faces Harsh Criticism Instead of Help: ‘Disgusting'

After doing everything she could to get her baby to sleep on a plane, one mother was heavily shamed for how she eventually got her four-month-old to go to sleep. Social media users were shocked.

An Australian mother took to her Instagram page to share what she thought was a harmless and informative video. However, social media users had very different opinions on the situation.

Aliza Carr, an Australian midwife and podcast host, shared a video of herself and her baby on a 14-hour flight to her well-followed Instagram page called BumpnBub. She never expected what came next.

Carr shared a video of herself holding her then-four-month-old daughter and rocking her side to side near a plane's emergency exit. Accompanying the video, Carr shared a caption explaining the reason.

Why Was Carr Rocking Her Baby on a Plane?

As a midwife, Carr admitted she thought the most physically exhausting thing about becoming a parent would be the labor and delivery of her daughter. However, she quickly found this was not true.

Although Carr knew that for some people, labor and delivery was the most strenuous part of becoming a parent, for her, it was rocking her daughter back and forth on a 14-hour plane ride so that she would go to sleep.

Carr explained that her daughter would not sleep in the plane bassinet, nor would she go to sleep lying on one of her parents, so Carr's only option was to stand up and rock her daughter from side to side. She shared:

"I remember taking Pandadol for my butt and leg muscles that were aching."

She then asked other parents how they handled traveling with a baby and if their babies had slept while in transit because her daughter had been incredibly restless throughout their journeys.

Soon after she made the post and asked her audience how they had kept their babies happy while traveling, comments began flying in, and many were not complimentary or helpful to Carr.

What Did People Say?

Although Carr did what was best for her and her child, many people told Carr off for doing what she did. One told her she should have gone to the back of the plane to rock her daughter.

Another said if they were one of the people who had paid for the emergency exit seats near where Carr was standing, they would be agitated that she was rocking her baby in front of them.

Some commenters even thought that Carr was wrong for taking her child with her on her travels and said she was "selfish" for not having stayed at home while her baby was still so young, and another added:

"I feel bad for the other passengers who wanted to sit on the plane in peace."

Many people had strong opinions about how Carr had handled the situation, and her post gained widespread attention. Eventually, after seeing the negative feedback her video received, Carr responded.

She took to Instagram again to share her thoughts on how people had reacted to her being there for her child, saying she was horrified to see that many of the negative comments about her rocking her baby came from women, and most of them were mothers.

Carr wondered when these women had forgotten they had birthed their babies and then spiraled into motherhood, just trying to do their best. She then shared how she thought the negative comments might affect others by saying:

"It amplifies the revolting notion that children should be seen and not heard. That their well-being doesn't matter, as [long] as the comfort of strangers isn't jeopardized. It pushes the opinion that a mother responding to her new baby is being manipulated and is spoiling that baby."

She also said she had received messages from parents who had told her that the awful comments she received on her video were the reason they were too scared to travel with their children.

Carr found it upsetting that strangers on the internet could influence people's decision-making so heavily. This follow-up post also received much attention, with many people sending messages of love and support to Carr, saying the people criticizing her were "disgusting."

Unfortunately, Carr is not the only parent criticized for traveling with their baby. One man became furious when a baby was crying on his flight, so angry that the flight attendant had to step in. Read the full story here.