Refused to give up window seat to a kid

bortt

bortt

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I know the Mayberry is wholly comprised of cool, assertive gentlemen who, aside from never flying coach, certainly wouldn't suffer ruffled feathers over trivial incidents such as this. Nevertheless, try to relate as best you can, and cast forth your judgements.

I spent the last 2 days in Minneapolis for my sister's wedding, just returning early this afternoon. The return flight to Los Angeles was around 3.5 hours. Running on insufficient sleep from an eventful weekend, and mildly hungover, it was a pleasant little bit of luck that I was assigned a window seat wherein I could rest my head against the wall and not have to worry about moving out of the way for other passengers mid-flight.

It so happened that the passenger next to me was a kid of about 9 years of age, and his mother to the left of him. Directly across the aisle sat his father.
So sometime before take-off, I overheard this kid start telling his mom that he wanted to sit by the window, and what followed amid hushed whispers were two discernible words that sent a reverberating "FFFFFUUUUUU" through my brain. "Ask Him."

I tried to make myself unapproachable. I really did. Pretending to be asleep; don't-bother-me eyes; poor hearing; I tried them all, in that order. But this kid was persistent. When I politely declined to give up my seat, his mom who was tuned in to what was happening gave me a quick, unfriendly glare, and then turned to her husband, a yuppie-looking 30-something. A moment later he looks at me and says "C'mon, he's a kid, please let him have it." By this time I'm noticing more unfriendly glances directed my way from nearby passengers, and I'm feeling rather annoyed. "Look," I replied with forced frivolousness. "your kid is already going to enjoy this flight about 10 times more than I am. Why increase that disparity?" To which he just squinted his eyes at me and shook his head disparagingly, saying "That's some bizarre logic, man." Annoyed as I was, I took a more direct approach: "Sorry. This is my seat, so I'm going to sit here." And that was that.

Cast your stones!

---------------------------------------------------

FWIW: I'm in my early 30's. The kid's mother was attractive. The dad probably could kick my ass.

tl/dr: kid sitting next to me on 3.5 hour flight asked me to trade places. Like an ogre, I declined.
 
Should have switched and hit on the mom in front of the husband imo
 
You should have told her you were resting your head on the plane window or her boobs, so make a move, magn.
 
Those people were a bunch of fucking ****s. Screw them. You are completely in the right.
 
You should have replied "you know what's even more bizarre logic? The logic of 'he's a kid, give him whatever he wants'"
 
And the kid would probably look out the window for a couple minutes, get bored and then do something else. Meanwhile, you'd either have to sit between this spoiled kid and his mom or between the mom and the dad in the aisle. Fuck that
 
You did the right thing. You don't owe kid a thing
 
It was your seat. You chose to sit there. You're kind of a wanker for doing that, at worst. I'm sure you're nice about other things from time to time.

End of story.
 
Keep your seat. Don't spoil kids or they will think they own the world one day. Make them earn it, everything they want then they have a 50% chance of becoming a good citizen. :icon_chee
 
Screw that noise, i would have asked if it was ok i lean my head on his wife's shoulder as i slept and if they didn't agree i would continue to sleep.
 
You should've banged the wife, laughed at the dad, and beat the kid's ass.

Not necessarily in that order.
 
I would've been annoyed too.

I'm a little mixed on how I feel about the situation. On one hand, he's just a kid. I can't help but think it wasn't a very nice thing to do. At the same time, part of me would've wanted to do the same as you, especially if I was tired and in a bad mood the way your were.

I'd feel like I'd probably do the same in your shoes, but, chances are I would've caved.

Imo though, I don't really think it makes you a bad person or anything.

When I was that age I wouldn't have dared ask a strange adult if they'd move so I could take their seat. Or atleast I'd like to think I wouldn't have.

If you ask me though, the fact that the parents got pissy with you. My Dad would've just told me "tough shit, he doesn't want to move, leave him alone". Alot of parents are silly when it comes to their kids though. Obviously they felt you had to bend over backwards for him, just because he asked, like it would ruin his childhood if you refused.

Bottom line is though, unless these were people you were probably going to meet again later in life, don't lose any sleep over it.

I remember a slightly similar story during high school, only it was a female asking a guy if she could go to the bathroom before him. He said no, everybody called him an asshole. I thought the whole class were a bunch of ****s because of it. The guy asked to go before she did and didn't owe her anything, but because of female privilege, everybody got pissy because he refused to give up his bathroom break.
 
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tough shit for the family, buy three seats together then do whatever you want.
 
You should change your username to Rosa Parks there's no going back now.
 
Man, it's really a sh*tty situation they (parents) put you in. It would be one thing if it were 2 seats per aisle, but to give up a window for a middle seat where you are going to be bumped on both sides the whole flight not to mention bothered when the kid has to pee, is too much.

You could have compromised, maybe, and said you would switch during take off and landing since that's the time the kid was going to be looking out the window, but even then, you are not obligated.

Keep in mind as well, if you are at all a somewhat intelligent traveler, you can pick your seat most of the time. It is likely that mom and dad both wanted an aisle and stuck junior with a middle seat. If they were smart, they could have gotten one row all to themselves and it wouldn't have been an issue. As a parent, you certainly should not put others in a situation to make up for your own selfishness, which is likely what they did here.
 
So, not only did you not give up your seat to a child. You came on an MMA forum to brag about it?

What happened in your childhood, Man.
 
Haha, what's the problem? It was a great learning moment for the kid. "It's okay, Johnny. Some people are just jaded arseholes."
 
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