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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

to ask someone to move their child out of my plane seat

1000 replies

kipperssippers · 13/01/2016 20:00

more of a WWYD then AIBU but...
i booked the seat by the window as i always do and when i got to my seat a child around 8 was in my seat with her mum beside her.
When i got there i told the mother that the window seat is my seat and she said her child wanted the window seat to look out, i then replied then you should of booked one.
I didnt want to cause a scene but the women made out i'm an arsehole for asking her kid to move as she had never been on a flight and wanted to look outside.
I did give in and stayed pissed off for 7 hours in my non window seat.

what would you of done in this situation?

OP posts:
TheCatsMeow · 13/01/2016 22:05

Goodness that always happens on the train. I just accept it as it's what happens when you use public transport

ilovesooty · 13/01/2016 22:05

A stunt like sitting in the OP's seat.
And I don't give a stuff about whether the child wanted to sit in it.

TheCatsMeow · 13/01/2016 22:05

Regardless of what you think of the mother it's the child who will be upset.

TheCatsMeow · 13/01/2016 22:06

It's not a stunt to sit in the seat wtf. No one was in it when she sat there

TheCatsMeow · 13/01/2016 22:06

I'm really quite shocked by how much one person is being got at in this thread. Weird hive mind. Playground stuff.

I angered the commuters by posting a thread about trains so now they're picking on me. It is weird

expatinscotland · 13/01/2016 22:08

'Could you not have simply swapped seats with his wife, Iliketeaagain ... you would have been on her aisle seat (instead of your own aisle seat) and the husband and wife could have sat together?'

Not if there's a middle seat that's occupied.

Roussette · 13/01/2016 22:09

Cats with all due respect you are talking the biggest load of bollocks imaginable.

So the mother can't be bothered to book a window seat for her child. Child starts whining that she wants to sit by the window as she gets on. Mother says "don't worry, precious, we'll just sit in someone else's seat, it will be fine". So they take someone's seat that has been booked and paid for.

And that's a good life lesson is it?

Wouldn't it be better to say "Sorry, my love, but I forgot to book seats in advance, but how about we read that new book together and you can see out the window if you sit in the middle there"

I know what I would be doing and it wouldn't be the first option. You make out children can't cope with learning anything that might colour their rosy view of the world.

MillionToOneChances · 13/01/2016 22:09

I'd have kept my pre booked (and paid for) seat, but if I did relinquish it I would sure as hell reclaim it during the second loo visit Angry

ilovesooty · 13/01/2016 22:09

Of course it was a stunt. It wasn't her child's prebooked seat. She deliberately sat her in a seat that wasn't hers to make the OP take a different seat.
Are you usually this obtuse?

MaureenMLove · 13/01/2016 22:10

Next time OP, book the extra leg room seat. No under 16s allowed -sorted. And book the front row of the two extra leg room ones in the middle too. No kids kicking you from behind either!

I believe it's usually row 15! Can you tell I've done this before? Bloody kids on aeroplanes. They should be banned or heavily drugged. Wink

BoneyBackJefferson · 13/01/2016 22:10

Catsmeow

Your circus, your monkeys.

"It really isn't hard to consider others and I'm sick of this hard faced approach to children"

Just because you have children it doesn't mean that you can override what other people, want, need or have paid for.

Just because your child comes first to you (and they should) doesn't mean that other people should have to put them first.

MillionToOneChances · 13/01/2016 22:11

Of course it's a stunt to sit in the seat. If they thought it might be left vacant they could move across later. They were deliberately presenting the OP with a fait accompli.

TheWoodenSpoonOfMischief · 13/01/2016 22:11

I probably wouldn't mind swapping seats if asked nicely but in the scenario described, that woman's presumptuous ness and attitude would've pissed me right off and I'd refuse.

thelouise · 13/01/2016 22:12

Cats you have a bizarre pre-occupation with commuters and no, I don't commute on public transport or even use it more than once every couple of months.

SoupDragon · 13/01/2016 22:12

I angered the commuters by posting a thread about trains so now they're picking on me. It is weird

No, that isn't why people disagree with you. It's because they disagree with you and think you are talking rubbish.

iklboo · 13/01/2016 22:12

We let DS sit in the window seat for the 'joy' and 'excitement' of looking out. It palled after about 10 minutes, especially when we were over cloud cover. He spent the rest of the flight reading.

TheCatsMeow · 13/01/2016 22:13

Roussette
You're using loaded language there. Massively.

I'm not saying children can't cope with anything but is it really that important the OP gets a window seat?

The OP is an adult. Act like it. Instead of getting into an argument with a child over a bloody seat

Sooty
It's not a stunt. There was no one in it she she sat there.

I got on a train once and someone was in my pre booked seat. I'd booked a table. The person in it had 2 kids with them.

I didn't say anything and sat in a regular seat because they needed it more than I did and I'm not petty enough to inconvenience children out of bloody mindedness

Roussette · 13/01/2016 22:13

No one was in it when she sat there

Now I know you are doing this on purpose Cats. Have you ever been on a plane? It is very fixed as to what seat you sit in and the fact no one is sat in it when you get on, doesn't mean it's yours! It means the person is getting on the plane and wishes to sit in her seat

TheCatsMeow · 13/01/2016 22:14

Boney I put others children before me too. So it's not as if I'm saying everything revolves around my son

lorelei9 · 13/01/2016 22:15

Cats, so I can wander to any seat on the plane then?

ilovesooty · 13/01/2016 22:15

Oh for fuck's sake. You are that obtuse.

laylabelle · 13/01/2016 22:15

You can't just sit in a seat because no one is in it..not everyone gets on at the same time and surley been better to just wait till doors had closed and then defiantly knew no one else was getting on.no excuse.weird excuse...

TheCatsMeow · 13/01/2016 22:15

Roussette yes I have but I've never seen anyone get this angry about seats. And I've seen seat swapping

Holly34 · 13/01/2016 22:15

2 hour flight you can give a seat up surely but 7 hours and if it was a day flight no freaking way was I going to give it up!!

Eminado · 13/01/2016 22:15

"So the mother can't be bothered to book a window seat for her child. Child starts whining that she wants to sit by the window as she gets on. Mother says "don't worry, precious, we'll just sit in someone else's seat, it will be fine". So they take someone's seat that has been booked and paid for.

And that's a good life lesson is it?

Wouldn't it be better to say "Sorry, my love, but I forgot to book seats in advance, but how about we read that new book together and you can see out the window if you sit in the middle there"

Sadly i dont think Cats is about teaching life lessons like that. As and when it suits her, she is all about blocking exits, possibly causing people to miss their stops and getting annoyed with people who dare to get on a rush hour train behind her, the twats.

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