Kaley Cuoco’s experience with mom-shaming on an airplane will make you rage in solidarity

Now that she’s a newly-minted mama to her nine-month-old daughter Matilda, Kaley Cuoco is seemingly loving motherhood. But one thing she’s decidedly—and rightfully—not loving is all the judgment lobbed at parents, with the Flight Attendant star telling Jimmy Kimmel about the time she was mom-shamed on an airplane.

Serving as a guest on the Jan. 8 episode of Jimmy Kimmel Live!, the first-time mom said that parenthood is “incredible,” except for all the blatant mom-shaming, telling Kimmel, “I feel like everyone judges what you do with your kid.”

Cuoco recounted her daughter’s first plane ride over Thanksgiving, a “terrifying” parenting moment for her and her partner Tom Pelphrey. (Relatable, indeed!) In an effort to help Matilda get some much-needed rest, the couple packed a sound machine, aka “the only thing that will get her to go to sleep.”

Sharing that they were “having one of those flights that you hear other people have and you’re like, ‘Ooh, that sucks for them,’” the sound machine finally helped lull Matilda to sleep. It was then that a steward approached the couple with a request from another passenger.

“He’s like, ‘Hey, one of our passengers would love it if you could turn the sound machine off.’ And I’m sitting there, and I’m like, ‘Oh my God,’” she recalled. “And I can feel Tom be like, ‘Hey, ask the passenger if she wants to hold our screaming child when we turn it off.’ I mean, the ice went into his veins.”

“I couldn’t believe, by the way, that she asked us to turn it off!” Cuoco added. “We were so angry.” 

After the plane landed and Matilda was happy and well-rested, the woman seated in front of them quipped, “Oh, so your daughter does know how to smile.”

“It was in that moment where I understood why women end up on Dateline,” she joked.  “I could have strangled [her]. … I could’ve thrown that woman off the plane.”

Kimmel empathized with parents on planes, flight attendants having to deal with irritated passengers, and babies themselves, with Cuoco adding, “You see all these things on social media where people are really, truly, getting mad at these babies. Like, justice for babies! This is ridiculous. Leave them alone.”

Parents everywhere will relate to the feeling of being judged or criticized, and seriously, can we stop doing this? Truly, what is the point? Flying with a child — let alone a baby — is no easy feat, especially when certain passengers are determined to turn ‘em into the unfriendly skies. Here’s hoping her next family trip is peaceful and free of judgment.