Things are better for Tamera Mowry-Housley and the family when it comes to traveling by airplane. There was a time, though, that the celebrity mom and her husband, Adam Housley, were “those” parents who couldn’t control their screaming toddler to the disproval of other flight passengers.
The year was 2015, and Aden was 2-years-old. “He was so used to sitting on Mommy or Daddy’s lap on a plane. He didn’t like having his own seat,” Tamera tells PEOPLE. “He didn’t feel comfortable with it, so he would not sit down. The flight attendant said, ‘We can’t take off until your son is sitting.’ I was like, ‘Oh no, we’re about to experience something crazy!'”
Crazy it was as Aden grappled with the notion of having to remain seated in a chair and not on mommy or daddy’s lap. “It took a while for my son to sit down, put the seat belt on without screaming and crying,” Mrs. Housley reveals. “You get a couple of stares at you that aren’t very welcoming, but in that moment, all you have to do is remember if you’re doing your best, who cares what anybody else thinks? And for the most part, you will get a flight attendant or a parent to say, ‘Hey, you’re doing a good job’ or ‘I remember this — you’re not alone.'”
The positive affirmations are what got Tamera and Adam through that uncomfortable moment. Now, the celebrity mom pays it forward. “When I see a toddler having a meltdown on a plane, I look at the parent, give them a little smile and say, ‘I’ve been there, you’re doing great,'” the star mom says. “It just makes them feel better because we judge ourselves as moms,” she adds. “When you have additional people judging you, sometimes you just want to cry.”
Something that makes Tamera want to cry in this present day is hearing her kids distressed at the same time. “Say they’re fighting over a toy, or Aden is upset with something and then Ariah gets upset with something and then I have an important phone call or I have to get them out of the house for school within that time … it can be very challenging, and I just sometimes throw my hands up and start crying too. We just all have a cry,” the celebrity mom explains.
Tamera Mowry and Adam Housley are the proud parents of two children. Aden celebrates his fifth birthday in November. Ariah turned 2-years-old last month.
