Being a mother is to be ready for anything?

Iam going to be a mother soon. I’ve joined a ton of parenting websites that often send me notifications on information about motherhood — things to do and advice on how to be a great parent. All these websites focus on tips on feeding and sleeping patterns of the baby, how to choose a baby’s name and so on.

All the articles end with the same message — you’ll learn by experience, you’ll learn along the way. I am addicted to social media — I get all my information, entertainment from it. It’s an integral part of my existence.

I was scrolling through my Facebook feed and happened to go through an interesting piece of news about a Filipino air hostess who breastfed a passenger’s child mid-flight as the mother ran out of formula milk.

The whole world is applauding the air hostess, who has won a million hearts by her kind gesture. She is being called a hero and why not? She didn’t hesitate to perform her duty as an air hostess, which is to make every passenger comfortable on a flight. Not only that, she went beyond the call of duty, she breastfed a wailing hungry child 10,000 feet above sea level.

The air hostess has been receiving praises and congratulatory messages from all across the world. She is the mother of a nine-month-old baby and her motherly instinct is commendable. She shared the incident on Facebook and posted a picture of her holding the crying baby. The post went viral garnering over 96,000 likes, 3,700 comments, and 18,000 shares.

For a moment let’s look at the other side. What about the helpless woman whose child we’re talking about? There’s no news about her anywhere. I’m sure she got a lot of flak from family and close friends for being irresponsible and not carrying enough milk powder for her child.

I’m sure she feels guilty for not being a good mother, for not being able to console the crying baby, for not being fully prepared for any kind of situation. I’m sure she’ll never be able to forget this experience. I’d say she doesn’t have to be so harsh on herself, it’s an honest mistake and can happen to the best of us. Moral of the story: Always carry extras.

The reader is a freelance writer based in Dubai.