'Social etiquette at a waterpark: am I wrong?': Family of 5, 8, 14, and 15-year-old kids confronted by waterpark guests who want to take their chairs

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Remy Millisky • Writer and Editor
Aug 15, 2025 5:00 PM EDT

Summer wouldn't be complete without a trip to your local waterpark. If you can go to both a waterpark and the beach, that's the ideal summer getaway!

Spending a scorching hot day at a waterpark with your family or friends makes you feel alive. You've got to put on sunscreen first, find chairs to lay all your towels and belongings on, maybe grab a snack too, and then finally, you can head for the slides!

I'm always curious which types of water rides people are partial to. There are the kind where you just go down the slide by sitting down, others you're in a single or double tube, and then there are those kind where you're with like 8 people and you're all in one giant tube clinging onto the sides with handles. Also there are log flumes, which combine the best parts of a roller coaster with water. I especially love the water playgrounds — who doesn't love to stand under the giant bucket that dumps 600 gallons of water on everyone's heads every few minutes? 

These people caused quite a stir at their latest waterpark adventure, though. They wanted to claim some chairs all day… but they weren't really using them very much. It sparked an interesting debate about how to claim chairs (or not) in a waterpark environment, and the etiquette surrounding such things. 

Next, read about the employees who got their toxic bosses fired, like one worker who "marched straight to HR to resign and let them know what she was doing." 

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  • 01
    Three teen girls rest their arms on a yellow floatie in a pool full of light blue water
    via Kateryna Hliznitsova For Unsplash+

    The image does not depict the actual subjects of the story. Subjects are models.

  • 02

    "AITA for thinking there is waterpark etiquette?'

    Social Etiquette at a Waterpark: am I wrong? I took my two young nieces (5 and 8) to a waterpark we live near yesterday, along with my 15 y/o daughter, and one of my good friends and her 14 y/o daughter. This Waterpark is very popular, and with the heatwave we are having, I knew it would be a very busy day, so we arrived early (30 minutes before the park even opened) to ensure that we could get some chairs in the "little kid"
    via u/FurMama_13
  • 03
    area near where the girls would want to be playing most of the day. No issues obtaining chairs for all of us right away, and we were even able to find a spot with an umbrella for some shade if needed (these are all over, but are definitely "sought out" and the spots are occupied quickly). Park opens at 1030am, and our morning was fabulous. Fast forward to 1:15pm, the girls are hungry, so for the first time all day we all as a group leave our seats to go get the girls lunch
    via u/FurMama_13
  • 04
    (there are several places in the park to grab food). The lines were long, since it was a busy day. No problem. We wait in line, get our food, sit down at a picnic table next to the food area so the girls can eat quick (maybe 15 minutes, they are little and too excited to get back to playing to eat much). We get back to our chairs about 2pm, to find them occupied by 5 women, with several children. Mind you, our towels and and all of out stuff is still on the chairs.
    via u/FurMama_13
  • 05
    I've never encountered this before. So I said to the women "hey, you're in our spots" and their reply essentially was "well, you can take your stuff, but we aren't moving". Flabbergasted and confused by this, I told them we would not be moving and they needed to remove themselves from our seats. To which they told me "you can't reserve seats here. If you don't like it, go get a manager". I did go find one and tell them the situation, to which she said she would go look at the
    via u/FurMama_13
  • 06
    cameras and then come over. That process took a long time (probably a half hour- 40 minutes total?), after which she came over, but the women had finally left out spots about 3 minutes before she came back. There was a lot of arguments that they made as to why WE should not expect them to move, such as "you were gone for over an hour" (we weren't, it was 45 minutes, maybe.), "you can't just leave stuff on chairs ALL day and "reserve" them while you go do
    via u/FurMama_13
  • 07
    other things" (someone was sitting in at minimum 3 of our chairs at all times, all morning, until we went to feed the littles), and "well all the chairs in the park are taken, so what did you expect us to do? You weren't sitting here". Sorry for such a long post, but please give me some opinions on if you believe there are "unspoken" rules at waterparks for stuff like this. I've never had this issue before, and I just don't believe that WE are the as$holes for leaving our chairs
    via u/FurMama_13
  • 08
    for a little while to get food for the kids, and not moving our stuff (obviously we were coming right back), or just backing down and taking our stuff and letting them have our chairs when we came back. Thoughts?
    via u/FurMama_13
  • 09
    I'm conflicted a bit in that maybe we should have just let them have our chairs.
    via u/FurMama_13
  • 10
    Waterpark scene with pool full of swimmers, lounge chairs in sand with towels draped over them, and palm trees in the background
    via Meg von Haartman on Unsplash+

    The image does not depict the actual subjects of the story. Subjects are models.

  • 11
    JeepersCreepers74 YTA. There is a price to keeping your coveted chairs all day, and that's making sure someone stays behind to guard them and your stuff at all times.
    via u/JeepersCreepers74
  • 12
    Slin... YTA. People who save chairs are alway the AHs, water parks, pools, cruise ships, lounge chairs at the beach. Everyone wants them and if you want to reserve them, you leave a body there.
    via u/SlinkyMalinky20
  • 13
    Yikes44 I'm not a regular user of water parks but I'd say it's not reasonable to expect those seats to stay free if you left the area completely, especially if you picked a busy and popular spot. YTA probably.
    via u/Yikes44
  • 14
    Inconceivable44 I get where you're coming. from, but YTA. You were gone for almost an hour at a crowded water park. If it was a 10 minute bathroom trip, I'd be on your side. For that long an absence, waterpark etiquette says someone needs to stay with your stuff.
    via u/Inconceivable44
  • 15
    halfbakedcaterpillar NTA at all. god, people like this drive me nuts. some people really think the world revolves around them. there's totally waterpark/beach etiquette. my parents used to leave the towels and bags on chairs anytime we went to go grab a snack or run to the bathroom. Hope you and the family still had a fun day all told!
    via u/halfbakedcaterpillar
  • 16
    Rude_Independen... NTA. It's implied that seats with towels and stuff are already taken. Since people sk in general, it's always good to leave someone behind to hold down the fort.
    via u/Rude_Independence_14
  • 17
    Bullitt_guy ESH Them for just disregarding and presumably touching other people's stuff. Like you said, they knew how long you were gone so they knew you were sitting there and your stuff left behind.
    via u/Bullitt_guy
  • 18
    Waterpark view from a distance, colorful red and yellow and light and dark blue waterpark slides, with trees in foreground
    via Oswald Elsaboath on Unsplash+

    The image does not depict the actual subjects of the story. Subjects are models.

  • 19
    You for abandoning your seat and stuff in public with the expectation no one would ever touch anything that didn't belong to them or bogart your seats a la "move your meat, lose your seat". Then getting upset when someone did it, which you set yourself up for to happen.
    via u/Bullitt_guy
  • 20
    The Manager for taking a very vague position on "first come, first served". It's easy to say you were right and they were wrong when they had already left and weren't there to argue their position. But I guarantee if they were still there when the manager showed up, they wouldn't have just rolled over. Likely
    via u/Bullitt_guy
  • 21
    lots of sass and confrontation like you got and the manager probably would've just sided with them since it's just not worth the hassle to fight over.
    via u/Bullitt_guy
  • 22
    RJRoyal Rules ESH: you for being gone for 45 minutes on a busy day and thinking nobody would want the chairs, and them for sitting in a place that was clearly marked as being occupied. Next time leave someone behind to secure the claim to the space or send someone to get the food and bring it back.
    via u/RJRoyalRules

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family drama kids chairs seats swimming parenting etiquette family water parks family vacation parents children water park
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