To ask a parent to move their buggy from a café so I can sit down?

But they aren't using the seat...

Well said.

Baby's probably prefer to be at home anyway than in a loud, crowded space.

It's the bitch about new motherhood that your life has changed and baby comes first. It is what it is.

I usually book online or by phoning the cafe a day or more in advance. "Hi, could I please reserve a table for 12pm tomorrow, for one/two". Easy.

If it's more spontaneous, which is less usual for me, then I look and see if there are free tables and if I'll be able to get one. If I can good, if I can't, I'll go elsewhere or plan to take my food elsewhere, like the park, an outside table, even my car.

So you get your kids or family bag a table ahead of any poor saps in the queue ahead of you, then would you get annoyed if they asked to use an empty seat? Hmm doesn't seem very fair.

Op said "where the chair would be", which I read as there was no chair...?

I'd honestly rather just leave and go and sit on the ground outside with my coffee, than share a two person table with a complete stranger in a packed cafe. What's the point when it's that crowded? So tense for everyone involved.
Suprised the OP would even be able to relax and enjoy her coffee on a tiny table that she booted a baby out of the way to occupy whilst being glared at by its mother.

But presumably the pram is in a place that is convenient for the mother where she can see and attend to her baby. It’s not just moving a pram is it? It’s moving her child. OP apparently expected the mother to fold the pram down, although quite where it was going to be stored in a busy cafe I’m not sure. Prams with babies in are not just randomly placed.

But they aren't using the seat...

If you're on your own how do you "reserve a table in advance"? ETA I mean you can't get someone else in your party to get a table.

I've never expected or attempted to sit down at someone else's table. Person sat there could be waiting for someone to arrive etc.

Sounds more European, I've been a hotel recently abroad where in the dining room there were large tables people could sit at to share, if they wanted. Most people just kept to the tables of 2/4. Especially the British. Even when the dining room was virtually empty some other nationalities preferred to table share at those tables.

In a coffee shop or similar here, I'd get a take out/go to another cafe that had space/go to the car, etc.

But there was obviously space for the chair/seat, as there was one there. I pictured/imagined the pram was just in front of the table and had to be moved slightly so OP could access the seat.

I do sympathise with having to manoeuvre the pram though - in most cafes the tables and chairs can be a bit of a squeeze. I'm more shocked by all the people commenting how unreasonable it is to ask to share a table in a busy cafe. I bet none of them have ever owned a cafe!

Are you in The Netherlands?

This makes me laugh cos coffeeshops in The Netherlands are a whole different concept where you go to buy hash and weed. Oh, you can get a coffee obviously and water/soft drinks, kids not allowed of course.

Asking yes, but OP didn't ask. She directed.

It's best to ask because if I'm on my own at a table, it means I'm waiting for someone who is due to arrive and will be taking that seat. I'd also have normally booked the table for two in advance of my own arrival to be sure of a table for us.

Nope. Uk. Only place I’ve ever shared a table with strangers is Wagamama and I am a weekly frequenter of multiple coffee shops. 😁

I’m not anti sharing a table. I’m anti moving my baby out of its pram to do so. The child is also an occupant of the table.

I've never had the experience of not getting a table because I get organised and reserve a table in advance.

Or I am already with a group (usually family), and can see there are limited tables and tell the teenagers, or whoever, to go plonk themselves at 'that' table while I do the order. Then I know I have a table. I wouldn't order if I didn't, unless I was prepared to take it away with me.

YABVU
She's there with her child. Would you gave moved a child out of it's seat onto it's mothers lap so you could also sit at that table? That's craziness.
She has a right to be there at her own table with her kid.
Now if she were taking up multiple tables I'd understand getting annoyed...
But being at a 2 person table with her baby... thats two people on a two person table! You'd absolutely no right to expect she moves her child for you.

I have worked in a cafe and if it hadn’t been welcoming to women alone with prams, on the basis they’re occupying a 2 seater table, it would have been half empty on weekday afternoons. Also, I often go to cafes alone and it’s very common to see people sitting alone at 2 seat tables.

And I agree if she’d folded up the pram then baby would have gone in a High chair in the space where the pram/other seat had been. So still no space for the OP.

Are you in The Netherlands?

100%

I can't believe so many people are anti-sharing a table when it's busy. I just thought that was normal.

Nothing wrong with asking to share a table if there are no tables free.

I hope you tip generously OP.

Of course. What would you do if you had a tray with your coffee and cake on and by the time you'd finished in the queue there were no empty tables? Would you just stand there awkwardly until someone else left? Or just give up and go home? So bizarre.

Do you also not sit next to someone on a train because they like to use the seat next to them for a bag? If there is a spare seat it is fine to ask to use it. It's not like she wanted to sit on her lap!

That’s not normal coffee shop etiquette.

What are you talking about? How does the OP not being able to sit at a 2 person table that was already occupied affect the bottom line of the cafe?

You never worked in one then. Like any business it works on a outgoings/income basis for it to be viable.

Bums on chairs and all that.