I Refused To Give Up My Window Seat So A Mother Could Sit With Her Toddler—Challenging Entitlement

A no-nonsense traveler took to social media to share her frustration over a mother who had the guts to ask for a seat swap so she could sit next to her toddler. 

The video clip is making rounds on Reddit. The traveler revealed that it was not her problem that the mother and kid didn't book together when she was asked to switch seats. 

On the trip from Japan, the traveler sits on a window seat, whereas the kid is in the middle seat. 

However, the toddler’s mom was also sitting in the middle but in a row directly behind them.

 “She asked me – and just me – to switch with her so she could have my window seat, and I’d take her middle seat a row back,” the user wrote. “Hell to the f–k no.”

The frustrated passenger stressed that the mother could have asked other people if she wanted to sit beside her toddler.

 In the passenger's words, they were surrounded by other people from her tour group, so there were plenty of options.

“The gut to ask just me and expect an inferior trade on my side.” The user wrote. Reddit users weighed in on the discussion. While some acknowledged her frustration, some did not. 

A Reddit user expressed displeasure that the traveler didn’t move and was okay sitting beside someone else's unsupervised toddler. 

The passenger fired back, saying someone else could have moved. Then, the commenter began correcting the original poster for being angry about a mom trying to sit next to her daughter and watching over her and calling it “dumb.” 

Another Redditor asked the poster, “Why were you so eager to sit next to a stranger’s toddler daughter?”

Another Redditor supported the traveler and talked about the rule of thumb. “Will only change an aisle for an aisle (my preference). 2). Will never change an aisle or a window for a middle 3). Will never change if I had to spend extra money to get my seat,” the user wrote. 

Another commenter called the toddler’s mother “entitled.” “I don’t like entitled people, and it is quite intense on planes and becoming rapid recently. I don’t know you and care about you beyond reasonable human compassion. Blame the situation on your poor planning and not me.” 

This plane situation is only one out of many traveling debates. Some TikTok and Reddit users have also grumbled about their airplane anguish, leading to intense dialogues over the morality and courtesy of swapping seats. 

One social media user went viral last year when he inquired if he was “an a-hole” for not giving up a seat he paid extra for to a mother who wanted to sit next to her family. 

Another user revealed that she turned down a mother who wanted her to switch her window seat for the aisle seat. 

Upon the refusal, she took a short nap only to be interrupted by the woman’s baby “crawling” all over her while the mother watched and did nothing about it.

Content Creator, Audrey Peters, had a similar experience. She revealed that she would not swap her designated seat even if a family asked her to. 

Audrey grimaced at the viral TikTok sound which said, “Girl, f–k them kids, and f–k you too,” and many commenters seemed to share the same sentiment.