Woman slammed as rude for trying to swap plane seats to escape screaming child

A woman has been slammed as 'rude' for trying to swap plane seats to avoid a screaming child - although the online community has a totally different take on the matter.

Reddit user 'cryingbabyplanethrow' took to the AITA (am I the a**hole?) thread to get the opinion of others over the unfortunate travel experience.

The 23-year-old explained that she and her 24-year-old boyfriend were boarding the two-hour 2am flight when they noticed a family in front of them - a man and woman who looked to be in their 40s.

And with them they had their young child, who appeared to be around five years old, and a baby.

"The five year old was bouncing off the walls, absolutely full of energy," she wrote, while the baby was 'crying very loudly'.

"I felt bad for the parents because they were trying their best to keep their kids under control to no avail."

When the younger couple sat down in their seats, they realised the family were just across the aisle from them.

Although the seats were assigned, the Redditor said the plane was 'half empty' and that another couple sat close by had moved after they asked a flight attendant.

"I decided that I also wanted to change our seats, but when I asked the flight attendant, she said no because of the weight distribution on the plane," she continued.

"It seemed most passengers congregated to the back of the plane to sit further away from this family.

"I then asked her if I could purchase first-class tickets and be moved to the front because I saw there were two seats still available.

"Again, she said no because all transactions had to be done at the counter before we boarded. I understood her points completely, so boyfriend and I stayed in our original seats."

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What ensued was what sounds like a nightmare flight - the baby cried for the first hour and the older kid was shouting and bouncing in his seat.

"I tried to keep a stoic expression because I didn’t want the parents to know how annoyed I was," she explained.

"At some point, the five-year old accidentally spilled juice on my shoes from squeezing his juice box too hard (child and I had aisle seats so we were basically next to each other).

"The parents side-eyed me and my boyfriend the entire flight. They apologised for the juice incident when it happened, but I felt their glares until we landed."

When they finally reached their destination, the OP went up to the parents to make sure everything was okay, but the husband told her they were rude for 'putting in so much effort to get away from them' and 'going as far as offering to buy first-class tickets'.

"I told them I didn’t mean any harm," she said. "It was the middle of the night and I was hoping to get some sleep during the flight. I wanted to find a solution without bothering anyone."

Although she didn't get the warmest reception from the family, the Reddit community were on hand to tell her she's 'not the a**hole' in this situation.

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"They were probably upset that the whole plane was trying to get away from their loud kids but there is only so much you can do in situations like this," wrote one.

Another said: "They were probably mad bc THEY couldn’t get away from their loud kids."

"You didn't do anything wrong. They were probably overtired and obviously stressed out," added a third. "Not everyone likes kids, parents in general should know that by now."

A fourth described it as a 'nightmare scenario', while a fifth chimed in: "You don't get to be mad that some people don't like excess noise at 2am. Dad needs to grow up and mind his kids."