Not the biggest deal in the world, but interested in the view points of others. I'll take it on board if IBU.
I took my ds (9m/o) and my friend to a farm with a cafe today. The cafe was squashed with a funny layout. six 4 person tables round the edge and two 2 person tables in the middle. The little tables had a few feet either side and people constantly bumping as they went past. When we got there one table was free, a 4 person at the end which was the only one we could also leave the buggy behind without blocking a throughfare. I moved one chair and replaced it with a highchair for ds, he shared my meal and ate his own mush too. Just as my meal arrived a mum came over and demanded we move to one of the 2 person tables in the middle which was now the only free table.
1-I thought her manner was rude and felt disinclined to listen to her
2- My meal had just appeared and I didn't want to watch it grow cold while I moved highchair/ ds/ coats/ bags/ buggy
3- My table was comfortable and tucked out of the way, the little table was in the middle of the floor and I would have had everyone knocking me as I ate squeezing past and ds' highchair would have been pretty much blocking half the cafe getting past. I probably would have felt guilt-tripped into having him on my lap spoiling any relaxation I hoped for. My view was I paid for a comfortable meal, if there had only been a squashy table left I would have gone to a cafe up the road.
4-She moaned that herself, dh and 2 kids couldn't fit around a little table. But then why buy a meal if you can see there's nowhere left? Wait?
She got the cafe staff involved, who too suggested we stop mid-meal and move everything as it grew cold (I think she bullied them into it, they looked nervous). I noticed she wouldn't ask people without a baby but with an older child to squash up. No 4 person table actually had 4 people round it. In the end her family sat in the (heated) garden.
Am I really out of touch and has demanding other diners move become socially acceptable? To me it's the height of rudeness to interrupt meals.
(I'm not totally selfish, later on I clocked a family struggling to feed an older child on a chair and I offered to give them ds' restrainer highchair.