I recently had to ask to switch seats, traveling was myself, wife, and 9 y/o daughter. We had a window in row 7, a middle in row 23, and a window in row 26.
I asked the window seat in row 23 if she would take row 9 window so I could sit with my daughter, she politely refused as her bags were overhead already. Not a problem, my daughter sat by herself and was just fine.
The thing that makes it funny is just after I got my daughter settled in and too my middle seat in 23, I'm such a good guy, 2 people with an infant sat in the row in front of me, and the look on the person's face who had declined was priceless...