Woman Feels Conflicted After Making A Little Girl Cry On An Airplane Because She Refused To Give Up Her Window Seat
The father claimed that she is "just a child."
MNStudio / Shutterstock A woman had booked a window seat for her international flight but was surprised when she arrived at her seat and found a little girl already seated there.
When she told the girl’s father that it was her assigned seat and that his daughter had to move, she burst into tears.
Now the woman wonders if she should have given up her window seat for the little girl.
He expected the woman to sit in the aisle seat since his daughter was 'just a child' and wanted the window.
Sharing her story to the subreddit thread, r/AmItheA-–hole (AITA), the 22-year-old woman sought the advice of other Redditors regarding the situation.
She began her post by revealing that she is traveling internationally on an eight to nine-hour flight.
She's having a difficult time leaving her family and booked a window seat so that she would have something to look forward to during the trip.
However, when she boarded the flight, there was a small child in her seat with her father sitting beside her in the middle seat.
“I looked at the dad and pointed at the window seat saying that I think it’s my seat expecting him to move,” the woman wrote. “He looked at me and said she’s a child and pointed at the aisle seat suggesting I take it.”
Confused, she decided to call her father and ask him if she was within her right to demand the window seat she booked.
“My dad called me and told me to get my seat because he paid for it and it wasn’t a free seat,” she shared.
The woman approached the man and told him that the window seat was hers and that his daughter had to move.
“She started crying and I felt terrible but my dad told me to hold my ground,” she admitted.
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The sobbing little girl moved into the middle seat and her father shifted into the aisle seat.
Still, she leaned back to allow the girl to see out the window, but it wasn't enough for her father.
“Her dad has made one or two snide remarks about me wanting my seat,” the woman wrote. “So I just wanted to know, AITA [Am I The A-–hole] for insisting on sitting in my seat?”
Redditors sided with the woman and believed that she was entitled to sit in the seat that she booked and paid for.
“You bought a seat to be able to use it, and the father in this situation knew that the seat he put his child in wasn’t theirs to use,” one user commented. “If the father wanted their child to have a window seat, they should have selected one.”
“I’ve had to deal with these people as well. It just bums me to no end. If need be get a flight attendant involved,” another user suggested.
“What is this epidemic of people assuming they can take another person's assigned seat? The seats can have different prices and can be selected ahead of time. The father can keep his snide remarks to himself,” another user wrote.
“Kids don't get special treatment on planes just because they want to see out the windows,” another user pointed out. “They need to learn not everything will go their way sometimes.”
Hopefully, the girl’s father takes this as a lesson to book her a window seat on their next flight to avoid tears.
Megan Quinn is a writer at YourTango who covers entertainment and news, self, love, and relationships.