Originally Posted by Often1

In at least the US, it is a parent's duty to assure the safety and security of their minor children. This thread is all over the place on the minutiae of what font some third-party website does and does not use to disclose whatever about a given fare.

None of that changes the parent's responsibility to either know or research all of this and to make decisions accordingly.

The title of the thread is misleading in the extreme as a result.

Several observations:

1. There is no US law, rule or regulation which requires that parents/guardians be seated with their kids. Even the proposal which failed would only have required seating together if that did not require infringing on paid seating arrangements (such as E+ in the case of UA).

2. If a child is too young to be seated without a parent close by, then it is unsafe for the child and thus the parent to board (presumably it is not a good solution to leave a 2 YOA at the gate and fly off). Common sense suggests asking others to switch. But, if asking does not work, the only option is to offload the parent and child and accommodate them on a flight where suitable seating is available.

This all sounds harsh and it all ususally works out, but blaming anyone other than the parent in this situation is simply wrong.