When Olivia Wilde’s son had a restaurant meltdown, strangers got involved
Booksmart star Olivia Wilde is mum to two-year-old Daisy and five-year-old Otis and just revealed she navigated a pretty familiar situation recently with the help of some kind bystanders.
Defcon 1
Olivia recently took to Twitter to share a lovely story that started off pretty stressfully.
Olivia says she was in a restaurant with her kiddos when young Otis began what she describes as a “level 10, Defcon 1, couldn’t-control-his-body meltdown.” Ugh.
“It happens,” she admitted. “Poor guy was hungry as hell and overwhelmed. I was holding four bags and my 2 yr old. It was chaos.”
“The place was packed and we were very much on display. I was in way over my head. I stayed calm but I was kind of crumbling inside,” Olivia continued and I think we’ve all been there, whether it’s in a supermarket, post office or while out to breakfast. Sob!
Thankfully despite being alone, she was not alone.
“In the midst of the madness, 2 strangers, a young man and woman, approached and asked if they could help,” Olivia recalls. #Angels
Learning to say ‘yes, please’
Rather than getting defensive, pretending to be fine and struggling on … Olivia decided to accept some help!
“I swallowed my pride and said ‘yes, please’ and they walked with us, placed my stuff into my trunk, and even put my daughter in her car seat, while I tried to soothe my son. I thanked them and they said, ‘hey no problem. We all have days like this.'”
Olivia noted that it’s easy to feel disheartened with the state of the world, but that there are moments like this tucked away in each day too.
“I’m so moved by this simple act of kindness,” she wrote. “Their generosity profoundly effected my (and my kids’) reality that day. I can’t wait to do this for someone else. Humans are good. We can’t forget that.”
Couple days ago my kid was having a level 10, defcon 1, couldn’t-control-his-body meltdown at a restaurant. It happens. Poor guy was hungry as hell and overwhelmed. I was holding four bags and my 2 yr old. It was chaos.
— olivia wilde (@oliviawilde) August 1, 2019
“Don’t worry! You’re doing great!”
In the comments under Olivia’s tweets, other people shared their own thoughts and stories. And gosh they are heartening.
“I feel this,” one parent wrote. “One time at an amusement park, I was leaving in a bus that takes you to the parking lot and a Dad was carrying a flailing toddler having a meltdown. His face was beet red. I leaned out the window and said, ‘Don’t worry! You’re doing great!’ He yelled ‘thank you!’ ”
“The best part of this is that complete strangers saw a mom in need of a hand, and jumped in to help,” another person wrote. “There aren’t a lot of people that would do that. They didn’t exploit the situation, or make anyone feel bad for needing help.”
“My son has autism and when he was very young he had a full blown meltdown in a store it was the first time he had done it when I was alone with him,” another mum posted. “I was lost. A nice lady came over asked if she could speak to him and proceed to calm him I am forever in her debt.”
“Same thing happened to me yesterday when I had all 3 kids with me at Trader Joe’s and a lady came up to me, said ‘You are a good mom’. I tried to make some comment about ‘don’t feel like it’. She said it to me again but more firmly ‘you are a good mom,'” another lady wrote.
So good.