Originally Posted by
PTravel
And, happily, I'm not at a loss for words over the attitude of parents who think they have superior rights to my seat.
You left off the qualifier:
"I treat all the passengers the same: as long as they don't create a nuisance for me, I simply don't care who they are -- they're welcome to sit next to me."
Four year olds require constant supervision and attention. That creates a nuisance for me. Your four year old is not welcome to sit by himself/herself next to me. On the other hand, as I mentioned, I've had 7-8 year old UMs seated next to me and they were fine and very pleasant seatmates and presented no nuisance to me whatsoever. They were welcome to sit next to me.
I don't think that's particularly confusing.
Firstly, I don't have a four year old and it was your general attutude/tone that I found unappealing.
Can you define pleasant? Does that mean they don't make any noise/talk/eat with their mouth open etc? Some four year olds can be wonderful, others not so.
Have you considered if these people what these people think of having to sit next to you? Does the child/parent have the right to ask the CC to get you offloaded because they don't want to sit next to you, after all they have a seat as well, and you just so happen to be next to them.
Of course, parental attitude aside, it takes nothing to be nice and to ask, rather than just assume somebody else will move. I would also be annoyed at anybody who expected me to move for their benefit.