'Any discomfort is the result of their own choices': Traveller insists on reclining their airline seat to get back at poorly-behaved toddler

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Remy Millisky • Writer and Editor
May 20, 2024 11:00 AM EDT

Parents who travel with young kids deserve a medal of some sort. Going to the airport as an adult can be a stressful experience on its own, let alone bringing along your 15-month-old who loves screaming and throwing handfuls of Cheerios. Lots of people will see your kiddo and give you a smile, because kids are super cute.

 What's less cute is a toddler who is on your actual flight. The little ones just can't sit still! They want to run around and play. They can't understand why they're expected to sit down and be bored for hours on end. Parents can bribe them with snacks and by putting Disney movies on the seat-back TV screens, but that doesn't always stop the little fellows from throwing temper tantrums. They don't understand why their ears are popping and why they can't play with their usual toys at home. 

Since most people on the plane are going to be adults, passengers realize that the occasional baby is something they'll just have to deal with. But this person, u/mngirl2465, had a terrible experience with a mom and her baby, which she shared in a post that you can check out below. 

Next up, this aunt and uncle are really against giving an iPad to their college-age nephew, but for some reason, they're readily giving their young baby an iPad of her own. 

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  • 01
    O DE SU ASIENTO
    via Michelle Spollen on Unsplash
  • 02
    AITA for refusing to un- recline my seat on an airplane after a mother with her child asked me to?
    via u/mngirl2465
  • 03
    Also had a guy that could barely talk he was so h wanted every sauce on his chicken bacon ranch, it was more soup by the end. Then he gets to the register and he remembers he doesn't have any money and walks away. My manager actually asked anyone if they wanted it.
    via u/mngirl2465
  • 04
    I had a fifteen hour flight that began at 8 PM 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.
    via u/mngirl2465
  • 05
    On the flight, there was a mom, dad and a child that was about three years old (older than the under 2 limit for a child to sit in a parents lap for free, for sure). Throughout the first two hours, the child kicked my husbands and my seat, stood up on their parents lap to grab my hair and pull on my shirt and shoving the
    via u/mngirl2465
  • 06
    papers in the back of the seat in between our seats, poking us with the papers. Occasionally, I got a break from the child kicking me when she switched to her fathers lap, though at that time she began kicking my husbands seat. We remained quiet as we know it probably is difficult. traveling with children.
    via u/mngirl2465
  • 07
    Finally, when the child was sleeping, about four hours into the flight, I decided I, too, could rest. I reclined my chair, about three quarters of the way, not fully, but enough to be comfortable for my sleep. But, since the child was larger than the normal under two years old for lap-sitting, it wasn't as comfortable for the mother.
    via u/mngirl2465
  • 08
    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.
    via u/mngirl2465
  • 09
    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.
    via u/mngirl2465
  • 10
    However, in doing so, I made the mother more crammed in her seat, as she needed space for the both of them. AITA for refusing to move up my seat?
    via u/mngirl2465
  • 11
    teresajs NTA 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.
    via u/teresajs
  • 12
    rocketsecretclaw Am I the only person who thinks anyone who reclines. their seat in economy is an ? All the stuff that came before, yeah that's behavior and you should have said something either to the parents or a flight attendant to improve your situation. That said, I think ESH and for your part, martyred A
    via u/rocketsecretclaw
  • 13
    nott... NTA and a better human than me. No one is comfortable on normal commercial flights and you have already sacrificed a lot for that random family. Parents feel they are entitled to more comforts way too often. Simply for having children.
    via u/nottheblackhat
  • 14
    And before anyone jumps down my throat, no I am not saying that people should be to parents and/or children. I'm saying that parents should not expect everyone to bend over backwards for them.
    via u/nottheblackhat
  • 15
    1 GardenerCats NTA From the age of 2 a child should have it's own seat, it is even required by a lot of airlines. So if the parents did not arrange that (and the airline not enforce it) then it's on them if their seat is to crammed with a parent and a larger child in it.
    via u/GardenerCats
  • 16
    Throwaway24422... NTA, if you can't control your kid in a plane then don't travel. If she wanted comfort, she should have bought a seat for her kid. And you have been nice enough to not fully reclined. your seat, yet she had the nerve to complain !
    via u/Throwaway24422
  • 17
    audible_smiles The airlines are the for cramming people in like livestock; passengers just do the best they can and no one's ever really comfortable.
    via u/audible_smiles
  • 18
    Huge_Industry_1259 NTA. 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
    via u/Huge_Industry_1259
  • 19
    Attendants and getting someone to act like a parent to poorly behaving kid. Let's be honest, unless you're in 1st class, the rest of us are crammed into tiny seats, too close to each, in a tin can and hurtling across the sky. Nobody is truly comfortable.
    via u/Huge_Industry_1259

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toddler kids travelling Travel airplanes children airplane
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