Woman Asks If She's Wrong For 'Refusing' To Unrecline Plane Seat For Mom And Kid Behind Her

Oct 26, 2022 by apost team

Traveling with kids can be extremely challenging at times, especially when the traveling time is quite long. Children have minds of their own, and no matter how much parents try, they can’t fully control their kids. All they can do is hope that their children will be on their best behavior.

Unfortunately, this proved not to be the case during a flight. A woman went to Reddit to share her experience and ask for advice about a flight she had previously been on. She explained how she had a 15-hour flight, and by the end of it, she would have been traveling for more than 24 hours. Needless to say, she definitely had plenty of sleep that she wanted – and needed – to catch up on.

However, the people sitting behind her didn’t seem to care much about this. The woman explained how a family was sitting behind her and her husband, consisting of a mom, dad and their child, who appeared to be 3 years old. The child was a nuisance to the woman, as she kept kicking her chair and even pulled her hair at times. The parents did absolutely nothing to prevent this from happening and did nothing to get their kid to stop. On top of that, the kid didn’t even have her own seat and was seated in her mother’s lap most of the time.

This later proved to be an issue for the mom, but it was then the woman’s turn to not care about the former’s discomfort. However, the woman couldn’t help but wonder if she was wrong for this, and in October 2022, she turned to Redditors for advice.

Starting off her Reddit post, the original poster (OP) explained, “I had a 15-hour flight that began at 8 p.m. and had been planning to sleep throughout the flight to help the time go by, as well as catching up on sleep after traveling for 24+ hours.” However, the family sitting behind her and her husband seemed to prevent that from happening.

“Throughout the first two hours, the child kicked my husband’s and my seat, stood up on their parents’ lap to grab my hair and pull on my shirt and shoving the papers in the back of the seat in between our seats, poking us with the papers,” OP said. 

The child would occasionally stop kicking OP’s chair but instead proceeded to kick her husband’s seat. However, OP explained that she and her husband “remained quiet” as they both assumed it was “difficult” traveling with a child.

Finally, the child fell asleep, and OP took her chance to get some shut-eye, too. “I reclined my chair, about three quarters of the way, not fully, but enough to be comfortable for my sleep,” she explained. OP continued:

“But, since the child was larger than the normal under 2 years old for lap-sitting, it wasn’t as comfortable for the mother. Immediately, she tapped my shoulder asking me to move my chair up so she could be comfortable. And I’m sure having a child in your lap is not as pleasant, especially when they’re larger and on a long flight.”

However, OP was so frustrated with the amount of sleep time she had already missed out on that she didn’t have it in her to care much about the mother’s qualms. 

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“I, however, remained in the reclining position, as I felt that I had put up with her child making me uncomfortable for hours and preventing me from sleeping when I was in need of it,” OP reasoned.

She continued, “However, in doing so, I made the mother more crammed in her seat, as she needed space for the both of them.” She then asked Redditors if she was wrong for “refusing” to move her seat back to an upright position.

Fortunately for OP, Redditors were on her side. One user commented, “While I understand that it's expensive to do so, the parents should have purchased a seat for their child for a long flight. Any discomfort is the result of their own choices.”

Another said, “OMG, they let their toddler torture you for hours and then have the gall to complain about you reclining your seat??? You handled this in a pretty kind way. After about 1 hour of the kid's antics I would have been calling the Flight Attendants and getting someone to act like a parent to poorly behaving kid.”

A third user pointed out how frustrating it probably was for all parties and said: 

“Do parents deserve special privileges? No. Will agitating a child potentially result in a meltdown you then have to listen to? Yes. Kids are individual people, and parents may do their best but at the end of the day they do have their own feelings and actions that are beyond anyone's control. Just a terrible situation to be in for all parties. They should have paid for a third seat and brought a car seat.”

What would you have done if you were in this situation? Have you ever had a bad travel experience? Let us know, and be sure to pass this along to your family and friends.