Adults too often seem to take liberties with children that they would never dare take with adults, even when the children are not under their care.

Earlier this month on an AF flight to the US, I saw a paranoid adult male business passenger repeatedly grab behind at the dangling feet of my relative's child based on a false suspicion that the child was kicking the seat or the footrest even as the random passengers across the aisle knew no such kicking happened from any child in my row. [That French business traveler coming for a conference in the US apparently can't tell the difference between mild turbulence and an actual kicking of the seat or even foot rest.] At different points, I placed my feet where the child's feet could not reach and used the footrest myself in an otherwise normal fashion.

If the child would have kicked away the strange adult's hand, the defensive kick would have been well justified IMO; and I would suggest that the the strange adult was unlawfully assaulting the child and deserved more than a kick from a child.]