AIBU… Genuine mistake

[LetsGoOutside]

What is the done thing when this situation happens? it was a genuine mistake. Picture of seats attached so you can see our thinking.

We have not been the pictures in over 5 years. Took the kids yesterday. Booked what we thought were back seats, they look like back seats on the pictures.

Film starts. Lady, Man and their child approach us. She says “You’re sat in our seats move.” My husband said “I don’t think we are, opens his phone to find the tickets.” I said what’s the seat number, I check both ends of the isle and they only say numbers not letters. So I came back and said I don’t know what to do. My husband said I’ll go and ask one second. The woman is getting more annoyed by this point. I said he’ll only be a minute. She said you need to move now, I said I can’t move both kids, all our food on my own it’ll only take a minute we genuinely think these are our seats. She starts pointing in my child’s face, whose three, saying move him, he’s in my son’s seat and he’s autistic. It’s my child’s first time at the pictures, it’s dark and there is a strange woman pointing at him telling him to move. He gets upset. Not that this is relevant but I felt like saying so, son is autistic too! Anyway husband returns and says yes we are in the wrong seats. We both apologised while moving the kids and our things.

I understand I was wrong, it was a genuine mistake though, look at the picture would you think these are back seats? Or if you go the pictures a lot is it obvious and we’ve just been really silly. 😂 I genuinely thought we were in the right seats and did everything we could to resolve it quickly.

AIBU would you have moved two young children under 4 if you thought you were right?

Some parents think their child's Autism makes them important and special, they honestly think that by saying "my child is autistic" is a golden pass and entitles the parent to act like a dick. Yes you were in the worng seats but it was an honest mistake and she should never have acted like that towards any child but her sense of entitlment makes her think she can.

Unfortunately some (in fact most) people’s response to most of life’s challenges is hyper aggression. You were unreasonable to sit in the wrong seats but you know what, mistakes happen, we all make them. It doesn’t justify abusive behaviour or getting in the face of a three year old.

If that picture is from your actual visit I call BS because row F shows the corresponding chairs as 2 spaces for wheel chair uses so you wouldn't be sat their anyway

I mean - it’s row A - surely the huge screen in front gives you the indication - also surely you’ve been in the cinema before - you must know A is in front? Having said that - she sounded frustrated and I don’t agree with the rudeness towards a child.

To be fair, you only have to see the number of people on a train who genuinely can’t handle the concept of a carriage letter and a seat number, as they wander round the train completely and utterly befuddled by a simple system of seat allocation. A very large number of people are as thick as mince.

That woman was just plain rude OP and she handled it badly, not you.

At my local The Light cinema, which is where I always go, you enter at row A, so at the front near the screen and that's where the wheelchair spaces are. Then you go up steps to the back. Obviously different cinemas are built differently. I find it difficult to see row letters & seat numbers on going from a relatively brightly lit area into a dark cinema and sometimes stand at the side until my eyes have adjusted. But I'm getting old!

Don't let it put you off.

I get that, but if I saw someone sitting in the
more expensive seats that I paid, and not only that but they were all settled in with their popcorn, I would also think WTF and assume they’re CFers rather than someone who made a genuine mistake.

She literally said that they had a popcorn each and a drink each. Fairly standard.

I didn’t even know the front was less popular, I only go to the cinema about once every 3 years and last time we went all the seats were the same price at my local showcase.

At my local cinema, you can buy a bottle of wine to take in with you. When I went with my friend a while ago, she commented that it cost less than popcorn and cokes for her family at a chain cinema in the nearest big town, and there are only 3 of them.

I suspect that's because it's a not-for-profit venue, run as a community asset trust though!

Aye!

The problem is that everyone and their cousin’s child seems to have additional needs, be neurodivergent or belong to a protected group these days. Whatever happened to simply treating everyone with consideration, kindness and respect? Why does everything have to come with a label or a special card? It’s a shame that society seems to have moved so far away from basic common sense. Some parents of perfectly ordinary neurotypical children also are quick to label their child as having additional needs just cos they’re highly strung, can't accept boundaries and insist on having their own way. Not saying the OP is like this at all but some parents would claim that their 3 year old was traumatised in the process of moving seats

I would have thought those seats were the back row. Every cinema i've been to has disabled seats at the front. It was an unusual set up so i'm not suprised OPs family made an honest mistake. Seating plans also usually have the screen labelled so that it's clear, that plan was ambiguous imo.

People are allowed to make mistakes ffs. There's never an excuse for being rude or upsetting soneone else's child. Her DH went to check, they were dealing with the situation amicably, so there was no need to start harsssing OP and her kids.

Agree with PP - if you booked Row A seats 5-8 the corresponding seats in Row F include two spaces for wheelchairs - so even if you thought it was the right row presumably you’d have noticed there were no seats in two of those spaces, so must have been sat in a seats 1-4 or 3-6 as there are no other seats in the same configuration.

They are front seats. Wheelchair spaces are usually at the back.

ETA - I see that other people say that the wheelchair spaces are usually at the front!! Apologies! Might bd to do with the layout of the building. I normally go to a cinema that’s about 100 years old. I’m probably wrong about the “normal” place for wheelchairs in cinemas then.

Yes, I see your point. You made a mistake and someone was unnecessarily rude. Write to the manager of the cinema and say there were no labels on the rows that you could see, which in turn led to an unpleasant exchange, and this ruined your trip.

Complain to the cinema about her own mistake… that’s a bit silly. It was her mistake and it’s over with now, no complaint to the manager needed

It usually says SCREEN at either the top or the bottom to make it clear which is the front row and which the back

She meant that while her husband was out confirming, she physically couldn’t move 2 young kids, 4 popcorns and 4 drinks by herself. She needed her husband to come back so they could do it together. Not that she didn’t think she should move her kids full stop

Not really. Around 10 years ago Vue reduced their saver seats to £4.99 & even the VIP.s are only £8ish. Plus you're allowed your own food & drimk in most cinemas

Row A is obviously front row whether cinema or theatre (unless there's an AA row even closer to the front).

I’m honestly surprised by these responses.

Everyone keeps pointing out that they were front-row seats. So what? She was sitting in the wrong seats. These things happen!

I work with autistic children, so I understand how challenging things can be for parents. However, that doesn’t give anyone the right to point in other people’s children’s faces or behave aggressively towards their parents in front of them.

Understanding someone’s difficulties doesn’t mean excusing their behaviour. I’m shocked that so many people here seem to think this kind of reaction is acceptable.

Everyone seems to think they’re entitled these days. Apparently, they can’t even wait two seconds while someone checks whether they’re in the right seats. Instead, they expect children and their food to be moved immediately. Absolutely shocking! A bit of patience and basic decency wouldn’t hurt anyone. Imagine being so angry over such a small thing. She must be pretty miserable to react that way.

Well it wasn’t 2 seconds was it? It will have been closer to 5-10 minutes. The woman was rude but OPs questions were ‘would you think these were back seats’ and ‘would you move if you thought you were right’ which is why people are commenting on that

To be honest I am not sure why the husband went out to check. Why didn't you just say these are our seats and got out your tickets as proof? The woman would then have said no, this is not row A, that's at the front you are in my seats and shown her tickets.

Based on responses here it seems most people do know that A is the front, so maybe the woman was rude as she, like others on here have said, thought you were trying to get better seats without paying for them.
Also in hindsight I expect she arrived late as she didn't want her autistic child to wait through the adverts so they probably timed it for the show to start knowing they had seats reserved, not anticipating someone to be sat in them and then refusing to move without checking with someone.

None of this is an excuse to be as rude as OP says they were, or to get in the face of a three year old. OP says they haven’t been to the cinema for five years so it’s hardly surprising she found it a bit confusing.

Often wheelchair spaces are at the back because you walk in at the back and then go down steps. The Wheelchair spaces have to be by the entrance/exit to have level access.

Sometimes you enter at the bottom and walk up, then the wheelchair spaces are at the front.