This viral Facebook post will really make you appreciate flight attendants

The bane of every traveler’s existence undoubtedly lies in a crying baby on board. But every once in a while, these (not so) adorable nuisances are quieted by angels — not in the form of their parents, but rather, in flight attendants who have seen (and done) it all. In the midst of holiday travel, one New York mother took the time to write a public thank you to a Southwest Airline flight attendant, who worked her magic on a 9-month-old baby boy and succeeded in giving two tired parents a belated Christmas gift.

On Tuesday, Heather Gooch, a publishing project manager, took to Facebook to express her appreciation for an attendant named Anisse. She, her husband, and young son, Aiden, traveled to Florida over the Christmas break, and while the trip down south seemed to go smoothly enough, “on the way home, that was a different story.”

As Gooch tells it, “Anisse went above and beyond to make sure that the trip went as smoothly as possible.” When little Aiden started crying, his mother wrote, Anisse “came and picked him up and walked up and down the aisle with him while my husband and I ate our lunch.”

Applauding her kindness and dedication to keeping both the couple and other passengers happy, Gooch wrote, “I have NEVER had a flight attendant as kind and as helpful as she was.” And clearly, Aiden was a fan of Anisse as well, as he “kept looking for her as she passed by.” Baby boy know how to pick ’em.

Gooch’s post has since been liked over 380,000 times, and has been shared over 50,000 times. And best of all, Anisse was one of the Facebook users who found the sweet photo and accompanying caption.

“Y’all are going to make me cry!!!” she wrote in a comment. “It was truly my pleasure and he made MY day!! I needed him more than he wanted me to hang out.”

The post prompted an outpouring of affection for hard working flight attendants, and Gooch told New York’s NBC 4, “I’m so happy that so many people were able to share their wonderful stories and recognize how amazing Anissa is. Good things are definitely coming her way! I sure hope Southwest does something special for her … the small things in life mean the most.”