A Kiwi man has sparked debate on Twitter after posting a photo of a small gift bag, given to him by a mother on a plane as an apologetic gesture for her baby.
Rueben Skipper, from Dunedin, uploaded a picture of the goodie bag to Twitter in June. The bag of candy and chocolate had a typed message on the front, written on behalf of the mother's 9-month-old boy, Yi Ning.
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"Hello. My name is Yi Ning, a 9 months old boy," the message says.
"I am going to Auckland with my parents. I'm a little bit nervous... because it's my first flight in my life. Which means that I may cry or make too much noise.
"I will try to keep quiet, though I can't make any promises. Please excuse me. And my mum prepared a little gift bag for you! It has some chocolate and candy.
"Enjoy your trip. Thank you."
Skipper said the unexpected token was from a family seated behind him, clearly hoping to appease passengers in the immediate vicinity.
"What a considerate and thoughtful thing to do," Skipper captioned the post.
"They were a beautiful whānau."
The gift bag has generated a mixed response from Twitter users. Almost 1000 people have liked the photo, and close to 100 have retweeted the kind gesture. Although reactions were overwhelmingly positive, a few comments said the bag was missing alcohol and earplugs.
One woman who works as a cabin crew member retweeted Skipper's post, saying she found the gesture "really sad".
"Sad that a mum feels like she has to plan in advance to apologise and give gifts to her neighbours on the plane so they're not d***s about the baby crying."
Many users commented on the token being unnecessary, saying parents should not have to apologise for their babies' behaviour on flights. Many also expressed that passengers should not have to be pacified when a baby is on board.
"This is a beautiful gesture, but a parent shouldn't feel obliged to give presents to other passengers to pacify them... babies cry, we all know this," said one user.
"I did the same thing when we first flew with our daughter... Virtually no-one bothered to acknowledge us at all... Didn't bother with the hassle of doing the same for the next two legs of the trip," someone weighed in.
"Don't be the kind of traveller who thinks parents should apologize for babies being babies," said another.
Mr Skipper told Newshub that the baby didn't make a sound for the duration of the trip, and he actively engaged with the infant throughout the flight.
Newshub.
