Sitting next to a baby on a flight can be an extremely frustrating situation to be in, especially if they are crying. One passenger, however, who found himself sitting beside a toddler on an aircraft, was put into an even stranger situation after he ended up sandwiched between the child's parents.
Most people would understandably expect and allow the family to swap seats, but the father of the baby refused to move from his aisle seat to sit beside his wife and child. This left the stranger to awkwardly place himself between the separated family on either side of him, the Mirror reports.
The gobsmacked passenger took to Twitter to describe his bizarre flight experience, where many also struggled to understand the reasoning behind the dad's choice to sit away from his wife and child. Sam Neve tweeted: "Just boarded a flight and I’m sat with a couple and their baby, but the husband refused to give up his aisle seat so I’m now just… in the middle of them?"
Fortunately for Sam, he did not find himself awkwardly in the middle of a two-way conversation between the couple, as he said the dad ignored his partner and child for the duration of the two-hour flight. Sharing an amusing update for invested commenters, he added: "He stuck his headphones in, ate an entire pack of Haribo and didn’t talk to her for the entire two-hour flight."
Several people were quick to shame the dad for his actions, suggesting he had been trying to get out of his responsibilities of being a father for a few hours. One person who criticised the man said: "Of course he didn’t want to sit in the middle. Then he might actually have to help with his own child instead of expecting his partner to not have down time on a holiday that should also be for her to refresh."
However, others disagreed with this point of view, and suggested the dad might have been keeping quiet during the flight for the benefit of the passenger wedged between him and his family.
"Maybe with you being in the middle, he was conscious of talking across you and was being polite and considerate," someone suggested. "Would you have liked them to keep passing the baby to each other over you or having a conversation with you in the middle?"
Another person pointed out that the dad may have chose not to swap seats for another reason They said: "Some people are quite frightened about flying and use different coping strategies. Headphones on pretending you’re somewhere else is one of them. Having an aisle seat is another. You never know what’s really happening in his head."
Some also commented that the trio had perhaps booked two seats apart and hoped that the airline would leave the seat next to the child free for them to use. Another person wrote: "Obviously hoped the middle seat wouldn’t be sold so could stretch out with baby … so pretty poor show by him, frankly! Any chance of moving or is it completely chockablock?"
Despite the situation, all passengers happily went on their way as Sam responded: "Very busy, full flight unfortunately. Only a couple of hours, so no harm done - just a little odd!"
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