Originally Posted by travellingwineO

Our youngest son has always had a temper and, despite everything we tried, continued to throw tantrums, often at the slightest provocation. He loved (and still does) the window seat and plopping into the window seat would almost always result in enough distraction that he would calm right down, regardless of his frame of mind. As we boarded one flight (don't remember any of the details), after a particularly harried journey both to and through the airport I realized that somehow, I had messed up our seat assignments! Yup- center seat and aisle seat. He went ballistic! After we sat down, I politely asked the guy sitting in the window seat if he would mind trading (for our 75 minute flight), as I knew it would calm my son down. "No way", was the smug, self-satisfied response he gave. His disdain was practically visible. My usual response to my tantrum throwing 3 year old would normally be to frantically do everything in my power to calm him down, so he wouldn't bother those around us. On this occasion, however, I calmly settled into my seat (remember, I was used to these tantrums) and let my son go to town. It only took about half an hour for him to resolve his little problem......

Just in case any of you are wondering, the boy in question is now 10 years old and has morphed into a calm, well-behaved young man who is an excellent traveller. He also deals quite calmly with a non-window seat and is happy to read his book and keep to himself, even in a middle seat. The SOB from seat 22F, I suspect, is still an SOB. Here's hoping he manages to regularly sit next to difficult toddlers, especially on long haul flights.