Strangers to the Rescue - Parents - Families.com

by Michele Cheplic | More from this Blogger

There's a fine line between charity and prudence. It's a lesson I've learned the hard way since becoming a parent.

I was reminded just how challenging it can be to reconcile the two after hearing the story of the family whose summer vacation included a record breaking delay at Salt Lake City International Airport.

Earlier this month, the local ABC affiliate in Salt Lake City broadcast the plight of Curtis Saxton, his wife, and his two children, ages 13 and 4, who became stranded at the airport for nearly a week.

The clan was trying to get home to Virginia using JetBlue buddy passes. They scored the tickets at a huge discount and knew the restrictions associated with them.

For starters, buddy passes only allow holders to fly if there is room after all full paying passengers and standby passengers have boarded the plane. What's more, during the busy summer travel season it's rare that a family of four can find seats together on a flight using the cheap tickets.

The Saxtons didn't anticipate being stuck in Salt Lake City for more than a day or so. However, one day turned into two, and then three, four and five. For nearly a week the family hung out at the airport hoping to get on a flight using their buddy passes.

According to news reports, the Saxtons slept on the airport's metal benches and didn't shower for days. In addition, the family says it was short on money, so it survived on one meal a day for the entire time it was stranded at the airport. This led to 4-year-old Dominic getting sick. The lack of food apparently took its toll on the boy's body and he began throwing up in the JetBlue terminal. This led to a visit by a team of paramedics... and then the local media.

Once the news crew got involved and broadcast Saxton's story to the world, charitable strangers stepped in to help out. Within hours of the station airing the family's travel tale gone horribly wrong, an ABC 4 viewer purchased tickets for all of the Saxtons to get home to Virginia. In addition, a slew of other viewers offered free lodging, food, and medical assistance, including United Airlines, which paid for a motel for the clan to stay in until their departure from Salt Lake City.

For the record, a Salt Lake International Airport official told ABC 4 that Saxton refused lodging and food assistance during the family's ordeal because he did not want to leave the airport for fear of losing a chance at standby seats.

While my heart goes out to this family, I can't help but think of all the other clans who use buddy passes to travel. Most, if not all of them, are fully cognizant of the risks involved in using the uber-cheap tickets. The passes don't guarantee seats, so you have to have a Plan B, C, and D ready to roll, if you are determined to fly for practically nothing.

Thanks to charitable strangers, the Saxtons were able to get help for their ailing child, who probably wouldn't have been puking, if they had devised a better contingency plan. That's where prudence comes in. As a parent, you have to step it up a few notches and anticipate how your children will handle a given situation rather than just how you'd react.

Charity wants what is good above all things. Prudence finds the appropriate means to attain these goods. A wise parent knows how to reconcile the two.

Related Articles:

Traveling With Children-Learn From My Mistakes

Flying with Children: Layover or Not?

Tips To Remember When Traveling With Children

Flying With An Infant

Michele Cheplic was born and raised in Hilo, Hawaii, but now lives in Wisconsin. Michele graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Madison with a degree in Journalism.

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Source: http://parenting.families.com/blog/strangers-to-the-rescue

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