People praise traveler for making little girl cry after asking her to move from paid seat

People are praising a traveler who made a little girl cry as she noticed that the child was sitting in her paid seat and made her move.

Traveling can be rough, even if the destination is fun. For me, there is nothing worse than having to sit still for hours at a time because the boredom can become too much.

With that being said, I like to pick my seats on an airplane so I can ensure that I have the best journey possible - which usually means staring out of the window with child-like wonder.

But it has never occurred to me that somebody, albeit a child in this case, might already be occupying that seat, and luckily I've never had to ask anybody to move.

Pre-booking specific plane seats is usually customary. Credit: DuKai photographer/Getty

The same can't be said for one Redditor who boarded a nine-hour flight to find that a child was occupying the window seat that she had paid for.

Sharing her experience on the popular Am I The A**hole forum, she said: "I (22F) am traveling internationally today. It’s an 8-9-hour flight, and I’m traveling alone. Leaving my family this time has been hard, and I’ve been crying on and off the entire day. I had a window seat booked for my flight, and I was looking forward to it.

"When I got there, a child was sitting in my seat, and her dad was 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. He looked at me and said she’s a child and pointed at the aisle seat, suggesting I take it."

The Reddit user went on to describe how she eventually settled in the unoccupied aisle seat, informing her family about the situation.

Her father, who had paid extra for the specific seat, confirmed that it rightfully belonged to her. When she relayed this information to the child's father, he relocated his daughter to the middle seat, resulting in the child bursting into tears after being separated from the window.

Throughout the flight, the man allegedly made snide comments, but the Reddit user sat back, allowing the little girl to enjoy the view from the window. Still, she was uncertain if she had done the right thing.

The Reddit community overwhelmingly supported her actions, with one user stating: "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. If the father wanted their child to have a window seat, they should have selected one. People choose their seats of preference for all sorts of different reasons, and they shouldn’t have to deal with someone just assuming that they can sit there."

The woman was praised for making the child move from her seat. Credit: freemixer/Getty

A second person said: "No, 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."

Other users praised the woman for standing her ground and claiming her seat, adding that she was incredibly generous to spend the long flight sitting back so the child could see out of the window.

So apparently there are occasions when making a child cry is an okay thing to do.

Featured image credit: Csondy/Getty