To the mum on tHe train
This story was written a few years ago when my family and I were living in England. It felt right to give it a spot on this new blog. This one is for the all the moms out there just trying their best.
Last weekend we went on short trip back to my husband’s hometown to visit our family. We had a great time even though it rained the entire time. We were catching the 5:30pm train back to London that Saturday evening. After a lot of train cancellations, you can just about imagine how crazy packed all the trains were making up for other passenger’s missed departures. After having to kindly ask two people to move from our reserved seats, we were finally settled in with our sleeping toddler. He was out cold after a fun weekend playing and staying up way too late. We were excited about the possibility of reading or sleeping on the 3-hour journey ahead of us.
The train takes off and we are next to a family with twin girls about nine or ten years old and a little girl around one. I’m not exaggerating when I say this, they were everywhere. They were so loud that multiple people were making comments. They were running up and down the aisles, leaning on everyone, singing at the top of their lungs. I want you to imagine a loud noise that would frustrate you to hear repeatedly. They were probably making that noise. It was frustrating and not to mention it was so hot (thank you no air con). We were tired, sweating, annoyed, and had motion sickness because we were sitting backwards. This went on for two hours!
At one point on this frustrating journey, the little one year old girl was standing in the aisle, and she started leaning on me. Instead of getting even more frustrated at the fact I was sweating, and this small child was now leaning on me, I looked down at her and smiled. I looked up at her mum across from us and she looked at me and smiled. That moment my frustrations seemed to ease a bit, and I instantly felt compassion for this woman. I really saw her for a moment. She looked so tired. I could see in her eyes the gratefulness for being kind to her daughter while hearing all the rude comments being thrown out at them during our journey. I started thinking in that moment of times when my own child was loud or acting crazy in public and I wanted people to extend that same kindness to me. Sometimes I have trouble managing my one child. I cannot imagine having three at this point.
Was it one of worst train rides of all time? Yes, but I left that train ride and thought about her for a while. I think true kindness is putting yourself aside for a moment and to be considerate or caring towards others. You never know what someone else’s journey is like. Maybe one day I’ll be the mum on the train with three kids running around. If you don’t have children yet, trust me when I say this, it is HARD. It’s a beautiful dance of loving someone so much you would do anything for them and equally wanting to pull your hair out because you’re so frustrated at times. Parents need grace. People need kindness. I am so far from having it all together, but for a moment, I’m so glad I could let go of my own frustrations and extend kindness to her.
Be kind to someone today. They may need it more than you know.
