Flight attendant praised as video of her going above and beyond for passenger's young son goes viral
Niamh Shackleton
Featured Image Credit: michaelrutherfordonline/Instagram
As I'm sure any parent will tell you, traveling with young kids isn't for the faint hearted - so any extra help is always very appreciated.
Long haul flights are particularly hard, but this family's trip from Los Angeles International Airport to Tokyo, which is a gruelling 12 hour flight, was made that little bit easier.
This was all down to a Singapore Airlines flight attendant who went above and beyond for them.
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Dad Michael Rutherford shared a clip of the unidentified attendant crouched down next to his son's seat in business class and can be seen spoon-feeding the youngster, who appears to be engrossed with something on an electronic device.
Michael captioned the video shared to Instagram: "What would you do if this happened to you? We’re having the greatest flight ever and this just made it even more perfect."
Dozens of people have since praised the attendant for her first class service.
"Little man is living his best life! Kudos to the awesome flight attendant!!" one person wrote.
"She probably misses her children. This is sweet of her to let the parent sleep," wrote another.
And another person went as far as hailing Singapore Airlines as 'the BEST'.
But the now-viral clip hasn't received all positive comments; some others have hit out at Michael for not feeding his son himself, while others felt the boy was too old to be spoon-fed.
One person fumed in the comments section: "Flight attendants are not babysitters. They are there for the safety of the passengers."
"That child is old enough to feed himself," insisted another.
"You’re showing the whole world you’re a shameful parent," someone else wrote.
"You see a good flight attendant, I see a spoilt brat," wrote a different Instagram-user.
Michael has since responded to the attention the video has received and told Business Insider that the kind flight attendant offered to feed his son.
"The flight attendant asked if she could help him and showed him so much kindness, holding his hand, talking to him, and even feeding him a few bites," he told the outlet via email.
"He engaged with her, talked to her, said thank you and the 13-second clip was just one part of a 12-hour flight."
Elsewhere, in a statement to UNILAD, Singapore Airlines said: "We are heartened to see our cabin crew’s warm service to Michael and his family on board a recent flight from Los Angeles to Tokyo.
"We look forward to welcoming them on board again soon."