Separated From Kids - The Flipside

[inkkognito]

I often see posts here about how people refuse to move on an airplane, preventing a parent from sitting by their child. Yesterday, my husband experienced the flipside...a parent who did not WANT to sit by their children! He was in the window seat, and two kids who appeared to be 10 and 8 were in the middle and aisle seats. The mother was across the aisle in the aisle seat. Granted, that's not too far, but if I were a parent, I'd want to be as close as possible to my kids in case of emergency. He asked if she would like to switch, and she said no. He offered again, saying, "I really don't mind." He strongly prefers window seats, but he didn't mind taking an aisle to let the mom be with the kids. She got huffy and said, "THIS is where I sit!" For the whole flight, she didn't even interact with the kids. Weird! I can understand if she's claustrophobic or something and wanted an aisle seat for that reason, but she could have had it in the row with the kids; she could have just had one move to the window. Seems to me that kids prefer a window anyway; my little nephew loved it when we flew with him. Oh well, my husband was rewarded for staying in his window seat by a breathtaking view of the Wishes fireworks from overhead.
Barb

 

[tinan]

All I can say is WOW! I can't understand why she did that and it doesn't make any sense to me. I guess she had her own reasons and wasn't about to share them. When we head down to Disney in Nov, this will be our kids first flight and only my second time. We specifically asked to be in two seperate rows with a window seat in each row for the kids. I will be sitting next to the youngest while my hubby will be next to the oldest. By being seated this way, we also thought we could pass things back and forth if we wanted.

 

[NotUrsula]

I've seen this one MANY times, especially on SWA, when a parent (most often a Dad) will sit in the exit row and leave his kids forward a row or two. This version goes one better in that it requires him not to acknowledge the children, b/c the FA will bump the adult out of the exit row if it is clear that he is supposed to be supervising kids.

When it gets really amusing is when you see someone put the kids in coach and try to use FF miles to sit in business or FC. The airlines won't allow that little trick unless you pay the unaccompanied minor fee, and they won't allow it at all if the child is under 5. (Well, US carriers won't. One of my cousins, who is English, says that when she worked for the BBC, one of the presenters she worked with used to routinely put her 6 yo & 3 yo in coach on flights from London to NYC, but sit in FC herself.)

 

[punkin]

HUH?

I hate to be judgmental (not true actually, jumping to conclusions is the only excersize I get) but this sounds really wierd to me.

 

[luvmarypoppins]

Can't help but think this mom definetely wanted a little space and mom distance between her and her kids. I am sorry, but I wouldnt feel comfortable with a complete stranger sitting with my kids if I had the choice to book a seat next to them. It was very nice of your dh to offer to switch seats. Our flight back will be pretty booked and we are near each other but strange seats. DH and DS 17 have aisle seats across from each other, ds 14 has a middle seat about 5 rows behind. I cant help but think this might be parents with a young child who purposely made that space if they didnt want to pay for a seat for a toddler etc. Well they might be surprised when they see my ds , sorry little toddler, on your parents lap you shall go , show up and then little ds and I are right behind ds 14. At least going there we are all across from each other. Makes passing snacks, gambeboys etc. much easier. Oh well, I am just lucky we got this flight. Its so booked up here for spring break and its a direct flight so I should be thankful. I guess she thought you would put on her kids oxegyn masks if anything happened, or clean up their spills etc. huh?

 

[inkkognito]

Hopefully you'll luck out and it will be a couple in the window and aisle seats. My husband and I used to do that when we booked ATA online in case it was a half-way empty flight. If someone was booked between us later, we always offered to switch. 99 percent of the time they were happy about that, but one guy did not want to! He just sat there between us for the whole flight. We tried to be courteous and not reach or talk over him, but it seemed very strange that he didn't want to switch. Oh well, to each his own! But if it's a couple rather than people with a toddler, they'll probably be doing what we were and will be happy to switch things around.
Barb

 

[chasbos]

DH and I have not always been able to sit with our kids. We have 4 DD's and well, there are only 2 of us! We have been assigned seats of 2's in 3 different rows, seats of 4 and 2. So we have the oldest 2 sit by themselves - they have no problem with it and kind of like being independant. No - we did not ignore them the whole flight. Actually 2 of my kids had a great flight home from St. Maarten when they were seated with a pilot, he explained the airplane to them and how turbulance happens. The flight ended to soon for them.

 

[minkydog]

Since she was nearby, i don't see any problem, unless the kids were unruly. Perhaps she just needed some downtime.I wonder if mom has some fear of flyng issues?

 

[inkkognito]

Fortunately, they were well behaved and eventually fell asleep. I can understand needing down time, but as luvmarypoppins pointed out, what if there was an emergency and they needed someone to help with their oxygen mask? Sure, maybe it would be easy for her to come across the aisle, but maybe not...in a major emergency there could be turbulence and God knows what else going on. I'm sure my husband would help if he could, but it's really not his responsibility. Maybe I am just paranoid, but when traveling with my little nephew, I wanted him right next to at least one of us.

There could have been a fear of flying thing going on; sometimes it's hard to tell. We had one flight with a lady next to us, on the aisle, and she was calm and chatty as we were waiting to take off. But there were delays that stuck us out on the tarmac for quite a while, and all of a sudden she almost lost it. She was going to storm up to the front of the plane and demand an explanation, and I could tell it wasn't anger...she was on the verge of freaking out. Fortunately we took off shortly thereafter and she was okay for the rest of the flight. I suspect it was either claustrophobia or a fear that something was wrong with the plane. She was very upset that they were not telling us why we were delayed.
Barb

 

[MazdaUK]

We've been told we've got 4 seats in a row, but one of them is separated by the aisle. That's fine by us, rather that than all 4 together in the middle of the place. DH will probably sit on the solo seat with the boys by the window and me on the other aisle.

But I would not want the boys on a different row with strangers, and especially not out of sight

Ooooh, look at that countdown going