Waking Up Sleeping Mother
Question
I am on an airplane now as I’m writing this. I got up to use the lavatory and spent a while there. When I returned, my elderly mother I am traveling with fell asleep with her head on my seat. It is a full flight and there is nowhere else to sit. I had no choice but to wake her up out of a deep sleep. She was startled but is not angry about it now. She didn’t grant me permission in advance to wake her up. Did I do the right thing?
Answers
I hope that you and your mother had a pleasant flight and that you landed on time!
If you would have asked your mother before it happened – in general terms – if she minded, there would have been no problem whatsoever with waking her up. However, because you did not know that this would happen, and you didn’t discuss it with your mother first, I think that it would have been preferable if you would have asked one of the aircrew if you could sit on one of the fold-down seats that they use, until your mother wakes up.
Best wishes from the AskTheRabbi.org Team