Couple Shares The 2 Words They Always Say Before Traveling With Their Kids
Sometimes, the simplest phrase brings us back to the basics.
Dani Bennington, 35, shared a video in September of her husband’s playful reminder as they drew in deep breaths and braced themselves for one of parenting’s greatest challenges: flying with young children.
The video — taken as they prepared to head home to Dallas, Texas, from Long Beach Airport in California after a trip to Disneyland— shows Jake Bennington, 34, standing with their three children (Harper, 6, Brooks, 4, and Hazel, 2) as they wait to board.
“All right, same team, same team. Same team. No matter what happens, same team,” Jake Bennington says as he reaches for Dani Bennington’s hands, gives them a clap and tells her, “It’s gonna get hairy in there.”
The exhaustion of two parents preparing their kids for a long flight is palpable. But in that brief moment, their connection shines through.
“Every time we take a trip with our wild pack of children he says this,” Danni Bennington’s caption over the video reads.
As of this story’s publication, Dani Bennington’s post has received over 594K likes, nearly 16 million views and is brimming with over a thousand comments.
“We have been shocked, completely, completely shocked,” Jake Bennington tells TODAY.com about how the video has resonated online. “It seems completely random that any of this happened. It’s just like a 12-second video was not meant to be a thing at all.”
For the couple, the phrase “same team” holds meaning beyond just travel and kid tantrums. The phrase has been a cornerstone of their relationship for years, going back to when they first began trying to start a family.
“We struggled with infertility for years, and that was really hard, and that can feel very isolating,” Jake Bennington explains. “That can be a really personal thing, definitely for the mother, but for both people, and it’s really important to show solidarity through that.”
Their journey and eventual successes with IVF brought them closer as a couple, and the phrase is one they return too often in parenting.
“No matter how good it is, no matter how well behaved the kids are, it’s still a ton of work and it’s so easy to lose yourself in that,” Jake Bennington explains. “(You’re) going from one need to the next to the next, and you’re sidelining yourself and your needs. So it’s really important to say (to your partner), ‘Hey, I’m there with you. Lean on me. Depend on me.'”
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