Planes often bring out the worst in people.
We’ve got to contend with armrest battles, crying babies, and maybe a little bit of turbulence.
But nobody boards a plane bracing for a full-blown poop explosion. Most parents would probably prefer to deal with snakes on a plane before being greeted with a code brown.
“No diapers – brink of disaster”
A mom has been met with the ultimate airborne nightmare – her son had a bowel movement and there were no diapers in her carry-on luggage.
“Woke up at 3:30 a.m. for the flight and put the diapers in the checked bag,” she wrote in the caption of her TikTok.
At this point, I’d be questioning every life choice I’d ever made. But not her.
The text on screen jokingly says, “POV: Mom raises eyebrows with rogue solution to diaper fiasco on flight forgot to bring a change of diaper on the flight and we are on the brink of a disaster.”
She whipped out a panty liner and tucked it into her toddler’s pants.
Problem solved? Practically yeah. Theoretically, we’ve got questions.
Did he just sit in his dirty diaper for the whole flight? Did the panty liner work? Did it smell? Why did she have a panty liner, but not a diaper?
The comment section of the TikTok found hilarity in the unique handling of the situation.
“He’s like woahhhhh what is this?” read a comment left by feminine hygiene product manufacturer U by Kotex.
“Him looking in there like what kind of sorcery is this,” another person commented.
There are also a variety of alternative methods suggested to the mother, none of which would be useful in practice.
One suggestion was to ask a flight attendant for help.
Others suggested taking the toddler to the toilet. As a toddler mom myself I cannot imagine a worse place to begin the potty training journey than in an airplane toilet. Nightmare fuel!
Diapers are not just mom’s responsibility
Many also took issue with the implication that this was solely the mom’s responsibility.
“Everybody forgot. Not just mom,” one commenter wrote.
“Correction: ‘POV: both parents forgot to bring a change of diaper on the flight,’” another agreed.
An exhausted error is understandable, and it’s easy to criticize this mom, but in the moment, she did the best with what she had on hand.
There’s a long list of things she could have done before, during, and after. Sure. But it’s hard to confidently say what we would all do in her situation, too.
#nojudgement