Exhausted mom forgot to bring spare diapers for flight travel — then she knew exactly what to do

Parenting is a two-person job for a reason. An exhausted mom boarded a red-eye flight with her toddler and husband, traveling across the country. It eventually dawned on her that the bag with diapers was checked in, and they had no spare diapers for the duration of the flight, which was three and a half hours before their first layover. Maddy Rasmussen (@maddyrasmussen1) from Philadelphia, who works as a nurse, panicked but realized there was an extra diaper packed in the front pocket of the toddler’s mini backpack. Turns out, it was nowhere to be found when needed. 

On TikTok, the mother posted about the parenting blunder with a hysterical clip of her stuffing panty liners down her 2-year-old toddler’s pants to tease the stress she and her husband were under during the flight. “POV: Mom forgot to bring a change of diaper on the flight, and we are on the brink of a disaster,” a text on the video read. The baby had wet his diaper, and the mom struggled to find a spare one. Nobody on the plane had it. Therefore, Rasmussen was forced to come up with a solution to get by - panty liners. As she shoved the pads in her toddler’s pajamas to pad the leakage, the sweet boy remained calm and patient. 

He even flashed a smile and curiously peeked inside to check what the big deal was. Meanwhile, the caption disclosed, “Woke up at 3:30 AM for the flight and put the diapers in the checked bag.” In an interview with TODAY.com, Rasmussen admitted, “It was a mom fail. We simply forgot.” The incident occurred in April when the family of three was flying from Pennsylvania to Utah. “We were so busy with school and work — I was working night shifts leading up to this, and my husband is in medical school — so there was a lot going on,” she recalled.

Initially, the mom of one had figured it would not be a problem, but when they could not find the spare, they panicked. The couple requested the flight attendant to fetch them a diaper, but unfortunately, they were not available. None of the families onboard had it, except the ones that had dozed off. Then, Rasmussen checked her purse, and a ray of hope shone in the form of her panty liners that had probably been lying inside for years. “They were probably in this travel backpack for years! We got very lucky ... it was our saving grace.” She was grateful her son did not make a fuss out of the inconvenience, and it got them through the flight.

After the plane landed, the couple wiped down their seats and dashed to a nearby store in the airport to buy diapers. “I was so relieved,” the mother said the moment they changed their son into dry clothes and a fresh diaper. Rasumussen and her husband were pretty spirited about the parenting slip and “laughed about it” in the end. The clip amassed over 1.1 million views and 15,500 likes.

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