Who's right? Burning question inc overwhelming pettiness.

[DoJo]

I have told my husband that I would throw our petty bickering over to the MN wisdom and in order to try and remain neutral, I will not tell you which side of this is me.

We have a van which has two rows of seats in the back which face each other. We were trying to fit something large in the back, so removed the rear seat altogether, leaving just the rear-facing bench behind the driver's seat which led to a discussion about maximising the interior space.

One of us thought that moving the seat 'forward' meant moving it towards the front of the van (i.e if you were sitting in it, you would be moving backwards, but it would be moving in the direction the van was facing/travelling).

One of us thought that moving the seat 'forward' meant sliding it towards the middle of the van so that anyone sitting in it would be moving forwards but the direction of the seat would be towards the back of the van and therefore against the direction of travel.

So, who is right?

I don't think it matters where in the van I was..forward would mean to the front of the vehicle. Ie over the front wheels not rear/back wheels.

However.... men's minds work in mysterious ways

Aaaaargh, my brain can't take it, it's both ways! Moving it forward in relation to the van is moving it towards the front of the van, moving it forwards in relation to the seat is moving it towards the back of the van. In this situation I'd say it needs to be clarified if the person talking about it is looking from the point of view of the van or the chair. (If a van and a chair can have a point of view!)

It's like on a boat, if you are standing looking towards the bow your left and right are the opposite to if you are standing looking towards the stern, this is why you refer to port and starboard rather than left and right.

Or on a train, when sitting with your back to the engine/direction of travel you are travelling backwards, but making progress forwards! (Like the seats in your van.)

May I suggest you rotate the seat 90 degrees and have it facing the side of the van. Then you can move it left or right, depending on if you are facing the seat or have your back to the seat. Then you could be travelling forwards, but sideways at the same time; looking forwards, but sideways (out the side of the van) at the same time. Or replace the seat with a swing, or a trampoline, or a swivel chair. Yes, a Lay-z-boy swivel chair with speakers in the back, then you can use it as a waltzer fairground ride. Please, please save me from my own thoughts, my head hurts.

How2help
We have a regular ‘discussion’ about the fridge temp along the same lines.

Oh the aircon discussion!

Yes it took me a while to realise that my DH wasn’t being deliberately annoying but didn’t understand that “turning it down” meant a cooler temperature 🙄

I would say forward meant in the direction it's facing.

But don't listen to me.

I too would consider "forward" as meaning the direction of travel of the seat itself, ie the seat would move to the middle of the van. Is it a Viano? DH had one of those.

I'd like to know which of you thought which way round. My brain is a bit scrambled but I'm a nosy bugger.

If you are sitting on the rear-ward facing seat, then moving forward involves pulling the seat even more towards the rear of the van.

Everyone saying to the front of the van is totally correct but I know if I were sitting in the seats I’d be arguing towards the middle of the van until I was blue in the face

Ha ha - @Fromage you are correct, we were trying to move Piers Morgan's ego, but it turned out there isn't a vehicle in the world large enough, regardless of how you jiggle the seats around. (Or it was a piano, which is currently still in the van).

For those who were interested (and now that the responses have balanced out a bit and stopped being near-unanimously on my husband's side!) I was the one who thought that moving the seat forwards would be in the direction the seat was facing (i.e towards the back of the van) and I agree that there is some degree of ambiguity.

My main reason for throwing this out to the MN jury was that my husband steadfastly refused to even acknowledge that any level of ambiguity exists. I was happy to acknowledge that there was a degree of logic to his position, but he was emphatically adamant that I was so wrong there was no possible way anyone else would agree.

So, I just need to wait for him to get home so I can do my 'I told you so face' and show him this thread (and if anyone else wants to weigh in on my side because of how eminently reasonable I clearly am, then do pile on).

1. On the deck of a ship, facing towards the stern, if you receive the "forward march" order, which way would you go?
2. If the object in question was not a bench seat, but a cube (cardboard box), what is forward and backward?
3. Use "Frontwards" and "Rearwards"
4. Were you doing a lot of "to me, to you" with the seats?

I’m on your side OP.

Now don’t show him this part - I actually think moving it forward would be to move it towards the front of the van. Sorry!

My head hurts and I didn't understand the question.

Aircon is defs up for cooler.

I see you have kind of resolved this but for me moving it forward would be like if you moved the drivers seat forward as in forward in the direction the seat is facing! There is definitely ambiguity in the statement! Sorry you weren't able to move pierce's ego somewhere I never have to see it again