‘Rude mum tried to guilt trip me out of seats I reserved’

There are few things more awkward than turning up to an event and finding people sitting in your seats.

One of the most important parts of booking to attend an event with allocated seating is making sure you get your hands on the best possible seats for your budget. Whether it’s the cinema, a concert or a theatre performance, you want to have a great view of the action.

But what happens when you turn up and find that there’s already someone sitting in the seat that you booked?

Often it ends in an awkward exchange in which you have to ask them to move and they awkwardly realise they were meant to be sat in an entirely different section.

One man, however, was left baffled when a similar situation happened to him and his family – and the woman sitting in their seats tried to “guilt” them into just giving up their seats for her.

In a post on Reddit, the man explained he was attending a parade in his city with his “entire extended family”, which amounted to around 15 people. His grandfather had booked seats for them all, but when they arrived they found a mum and her daughter sitting in two of them.

When the family explained they’d reserved the seats, the mum instead looked at her child and sadly told her they would have to get up and find somewhere else to sit.

The man wrote: “She looks at her daughter and says ‘Well, I guess we better give him his seats…’, probably expecting us to feel bad and say ‘No, it’s ok!’. We didn’t. Instead, our group just stared until she got up with her kid and left.”

Commenters on the post were largely on the family’s side, with many saying the mum had taken a “passive-aggressive” stance by “moving slowly and acting sad” in the hopes that she’d be told she could keep the seats.

One person said: “Good you stood up to her. Many think that everyone is their slave and is to bend to their will.”

Another added: “The audacity of people amazes me.”

Many others shared their own experience of people stealing their seats. Someone said: “This past Wednesday we were on Amtrak in reserved seats. When we got on, of course, there was a couple in our seats. When we said they were our seats they just replied ‘Well someone’s in our seats. So…’. Nope. I just looked at them until they moved.”

Another shared: “We went to a concert in New York and was late getting to the concert. The usher took us to our reserved seats and two men were in our seats. They looked annoyed that we actually showed up for the concert! One guy said ‘Thanks for coming!’ when he had to give up his seat that belonged to one of us.”