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Seats on a plane

Categories: Just for moms, Money & work

Last week I was on my way back from a one-day business trip.

These trips are always whirlwind: 4:00 AM wakeup calls, early to the airport. I never know if Customs is going to take fifteen minutes or an hour. I take these trips at least once a quarter and rely on my Mom and Nanny to tend to Nolan while I whip around in another city, meeting clients and giving presentations and trying to look like I know what I'm talking about. By the time I board the dinner-flight home, I have purple bags under my eyes, runs in my tights, and blistering heels. I pledge to never wear high-heels again and plead to the Universe that there will not be a baby beside me on the return flight home, so I can drool peacefully into the window in silence.

In fact, there usually is a baby beside me on the ride home, which is OK, really. I have been that parent on a plane many times myself, and I'm happy to help out, where I can. In the case this week, it was a forty-something father with his toddler daughter, and it was obviously his first trip alone with her. He fumbled with the bottle, he reassured her that she'd see Mama soon, and he periodically glanced over at me apologetically when she wailed.

We were crammed into the seats: the little girl by the window, he in the middle, and me on the aisle. The seats on airplanes seem to be getting continuously smaller and smaller: my legs were actually wedged up against the seat in front of me and it was impossible to shift or cross my legs without brandishing my knee into the back of the man in front of me. None of us had any room, and I felt bad for the Dad, trying to juggle sippy cups and crackers and a massive diaper bag with .6 inches between his leg and the seat.

So I was appalled when the woman in front of my seat mate reclined her chair all the way back and proceeded to sign in relaxation. The man and his giant diaper bag were now basically pinned in his seat, with absolutely no room to move.

"That is ridiculous," I muttered," She doesn't need to recline her seat that far."
"What's ridiculous is that the airlines provide this little room to begin with," he whispered back, and we wedged the diaper bag between our two chairs in an attempt to free up some room. Then the man in front of me decided to recline his seat, thereby slamming my kneecaps right up against the seat. I was pinned, too.

I sat wondering if I could ask the people in front of us to move their chairs back up, at least half-way. I didn't end up saying anything -- because I guess it's their right, but...do you think it's rude? Given that the airlines already sardine the passengers together, I never make it worse for the passenger behind me by reclining my own seat during a flight, no matter how much I crave the extra room. That extra room for me would mean serious wedging for the person behind me, and I'm very aware of that.

What's protocol here, traveling parents? Is reclining a right or a faux-pas?

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