Obese woman sparks debate for not giving up extra seat for toddler
An obese woman has sparked debate online after refusing to give up the second seat she paid for to a fussy toddler.
The 34-year-old booked the two seats for her cross-country flight to visit her family for Christmas because she was previously unable to comfortably fit in one seat.
All was well until the young woman next to her demanded that she "squeeze into one seat" so her son could sit on the other.
"I am obese," she admitted on the Reddit thread. "I'm actively working toward losing weight and I've made progress - but I booked an extra seat because I'm fat."
She added that she insisted on keeping her seat because she paid for it, but the mum "made a big fuss over it, and she told the flight attendant I was stealing the seat from her son."
"Then I showed her my boarding passes, proving that I paid for the extra seat. The flight attendant asked me if I could try to squeeze in, but I said no, that I wanted the extra seat I paid for."
The woman claimed that the toddler was only 18 months old, so he didn't need his own seat and could've sat on his mum's lap for the duration of the flight.
"I got dirty looks and passive-aggressive remarks from her for the entire flight and I do feel a little bad because the boy looked hard to control - but am I in the wrong?" she asked other social media users.
Many shared their overwhelming support for the woman and slammed the mum and flight attendant for their "horrific" behaviour.
"The mum is an a**hole for not buying a seat for her son and assuming someone else would give up a seat they paid for. Odds are she was hoping there'd be extra seats on the flight so she didn't have to pay and used the lap thing as a loophole," one commented.
"What's even the point of the extra seat if the flight attendants are going to let entitled people bully others into giving it up?" another added.
"People buy entire seats for high-end musical equipment. Not even people. Their lack of planning does not constitute an emergency on your part," a third wrote.
However, there were a few others that said the woman was in the wrong for causing an inconvenience.
"If you are so fat that you have to have more than one seat on an airplane then you are selfish," one said.
"Flights overbook all the time especially during the holidays - how can you justify having two seats to yourself?"
"How much room does a kid take up, seriously? Yeah the mum should've bought a seat but that doesn't mean you have to be selfish and cause two people discomfort," another commented.
Image: Getty