Woman Calms Child Having an Emotional Meltdown on Airplane, Gets Liquor Gift Bag From Flight Staff

A woman shared the kind gesture airplane attendants made towards her after she assisted with a child going through an autistic episode while aboard a flight.

Mare (@cancercardholder) said that her college educational background in dealing with children inspired her to lend a helping hand.

She shared her story in a viral TikTok clip that's accrued over 237,000 views on the application.

Mare begins her video by speaking directly into the camera. She writes in a text overlay, "story time: child life skills on an airplane," which sets the tone for what her social media post is about.

At the onset of the video, she says that her behavior on the plane culminated in flight attendants giving her a "thank you" bag, which included several single-serving bottles of Jack Daniels whiskey and a can of Coca-Cola.

She relays her story as she applies a beauty product to her face and begins wiping it around. Mare then states that she accidentally went into a TSA pre-check line while at the airport despite not being signed up for the service.

However, the attendant let her through anyway, which she counted as a win. While waiting to board, she soon learned that the woman she was sitting next to actually attended the same college that she did, a coincidence she called "serendipitous."

Because she was one of the last groups to board the plane, she stated that she ended up sitting near the back of the aircraft. At this point in the video, all of the good vibes that she was experiencing at the airport seemed to be compromised by a "commotion" occurring two rows behind her.

She stated that "there was a mom trying to help her son who had severe autism get calm and ready for the flight." Mare assumed that the mom and kid had "pre-boarded" the plane, which subsequently led them to sit in the cabin for a "really long time."

Assessing the situation, she stated that the issue with the child seemed as if it had been "ongoing" and that both the mom and plane workers were attempting to "calm" the child down for a "long time."

However, she couldn't be sure because, again, she was one of the last people to board the aircraft.

Next, she shares that she specialized in education while in college. Her interdisciplinary degree was geared toward "working with kids" and dealing with individuals who have experienced childhood trauma.

Furthermore, she has "a minor in childhood studies, which meant she would be "working with kids in hospitals and disabilities and just helping them cope in situations that are unusual for them."

Initially, she said that she was "nervous" about offering her help because she didn't want to "overstep" in attempting to help out with the situation.

However, she ultimately decided to approach the mom and let her know that she was "trained in child life" and offered her assistance by asking if there was "anything that [she] could do."

The mother stated that because her son wasn't calming down, there was a possibility they would have to de-board the plane due to his unruly behavior.

After asking the mother some basic questions, like the kid's name and his interests, she remembered that she always traveled with her favorite stuffed animal. Next, she walked back to her seat to go and get the toy and approached the "agitated [and] fidgety" boy.

She asked him if it was all right for her to sit in the open seat in his row because she wanted to be "closer to the window." The "mostly nonverbal" child nodded, stating this was all right by him, so she sat next to him and began to have a conversation with the kid.

In their talk, she revealed to the boy that she gets kind of scared when she's on an airplane, which is why she keeps her stuffed animal with her. Following this, she asked the child if he would like to hold Ellie (the name of her toy) and he obliged her.

Afterward, Ellie said that she noticed most of the coping techniques offered by flight attendants were ones that were distractions, like videos. However, she said she thought the child was simply overwhelmed by the environment he was in. So she decided to try to orient the boy to his surroundings.

Then she told the kid that her favorite part of being on an airplane was the ability to look out the window. She started to look out the window and pointed at things and asked the child to call out what he noticed on the tarmac.

Following this, she offered to sit next to the child throughout the flight in this seat so she could monitor his behavior and try and help him assess what was going on. That's because after she introduced herself to the young boy and began speaking with him, his attitude improved.

She made sure to express how excited she was about the flight while discussing all of the things that were going to happen. This was presumably done in a way to preemptively address anything that might trigger the boy to enter into another emotional outburst.

Mare adds that this was a technique to "re-direct his agitation" throughout the duration of the flight so that instead of being overwhelmed, he was instead enthusiastic about the departure.

As the plane took off, he kept looking back at her. She said he was "amazed" at everything he saw.

During the flight, the young boy seemed sufficiently calmed down and Mare says he was calm throughout the remainder of the journey. The child's brother ended up taking the seat she occupied and she returned to her original seating arrangement.

While still up in the air, other passengers began talking to her, telling her how much of an issue the child's behavior was before she got and spoke with him.

When the flight was over, Mare was told that she helped save the flight from a major delay and that her actions saved her fellow passengers from being late to their destination.

Mare reveals at the end of the video that when she was asked by others if she had ever done that before, she told them she hadn't. The TikToker chalked the success of her attempt up to her training in her college courses, and she focused on just re-directing the young child's feelings of being overwhelmed into excitement.

To close out her clip, she said that she was only trying to act humanely, and she was grateful for the opportunity to step up instead of just ignoring the problem.

And it seems like her fellow passengers also felt the same way.