One passenger liked the gesture and snapped a photo which was shared online with the caption “This guy stayed up for 6 hours so his wife could sleep. That’s love.” While the Twitter post quickly went viral with over 16,000 hearts and 3,000 retweets, not everyone liked the gesture — at least they didn’t like it positively.
In fact, many commentators quickly turned to criticism, noting that they viewed the woman as selfish. Some people have said that they would rather feel lonely than experience love like this. Others were quick to throw in ways the couple could have felt comfortable without making such a big sacrifice.
One commenter suggested the wife could have simply slept with her head in her husband’s lap, giving them the chance to enjoy the ride. Someone else didn’t think it was an act of love and instead joked that the husband may have spent the whole trip planning a divorce!
Although there was a lot of criticism, many people saw the act as a gesture of love and were quick to add how touched they were by the act. Some commenters simply mentioned “goals”, noting that they wanted a similar relationship, while another said it was “absolute love”.
One person suggested the trip could be a trip to or from the type of treatment the woman was undergoing, and said he would be happy to stand up to make his wife feel comfortable if that was the case.