We went out to see Pirates 3 last night… me and my 3 boys. Arriving at T-30 minutes to the start of the film, it was getting pretty full on the main floor in the theater so we walked up to the balcony where it was also starting to fill up, but we found some seats and waited patiently for the movie to start. At T-10 minutes, 5 teeny-bopper girls come up to the balcony and walk right up to 2 people who have been there for at least as long as we have. They say to them, “Could you two move? There are 5 of us and we want to sit together in the front row.” There was more conversation between the “Princesses” and the two that were sitting, but the upshot of all this was that they convinced them to move!!! I couldn’t believe it. I wanted to get up and rip each of them a new one, but had to stay and deal with my kids who were quite impatient and active while we waited.
So to the 5 girls who did this last night:
Who the hell in your self-centered fucked up universe made you all the princess bosses of the world? When you are in a theater, it is first come-first serve! If you need someone to move down a seat or two so all of you can sit together, that’s one thing, but making two people move out of their front row balcony seats just because you all wanted to sit in the front row together… all because you didn’t have the intelligence to show up 15 minutes earlier yourselves… That is just plain rude. May the fleas of 1000 camels invade your ever so pristine hair, you self centered, fucking bitches!
I don’t get it. Maybe there weren’t five good seats together anywhere else. It would be much easier for two people to find two good seats together than five people, wouldn’t it? Maybe they just wanted to help out.
Actually, it’s not rude to ask other theatergoers as a favor to change their seats because you want to sit together with your friends. Asking people as a favor to move out of the front row is no more or less rude than asking them to move down a seat or two.
Yes, theater seating (except when reserved) is indeed first come first served. But it is not rude in and of itself to ASK other theatergoers, politely and deferentially, if they would kindly do you a favor by changing seats.
Nor is it at all rude for the other theatergoers to respond politely but firmly, “No, I’m sorry, we’d rather stay here”. Naturally, people are always entitled to keep their own seats without feeling guilty about it. (And that’s just as true when they’re being asked to move over a seat or two as when they’re being asked to move out of the row altogether, btw.)
Now, if the princesses in question were putting their request in a rude manner, or acting as though they were entitled to kick other people out of the seats they wanted (which I can’t quite tell from your OP), then yes, that would be hideously rude and inconsiderate.
But just making the request in a polite and conciliatory way is not prima facie rude.
I agree that it’s not at all impolite to ask someone (very nicely of course) to move so that your party can sit together.
Similarly, I boarded an airliner last week to find a young woman in my aisle seat. She asked if I minded taking the center seat she had been assigned, but I told her (politely of course) that I didn’t want to do that and that she could talk to a flight attendant about getting reassigned. She moved. End of story (except I noticed a young man sitting in that seat later, so apparently she was able to convince someone else to take it).
Jeez, mind your own business! Nobody MADE anybody do anything. The girls asked, the couple agreed, end of story.
You know, sometimes I do nice things for strangers just for the hell of it. If some damn busybody decided to harsh my squee by butting in, I’d rip THEM a new one.
Yeah, this is the key for me. If the request were polite, and if i had no particular reason to need those particular seats, and if there were plenty of other groups of two seats, i’d probably move too.
If the request were haughty or impolite or plain old rude, they could go fuck themselves.
Actually, i think it’s pretty brazen and impolite to sit in someone airline else’s seat before you’ve asked them if they would mind swapping. People who do this clearly think that their presence in the seat will influence your decision about handing it over. I had someone do something similar once, and i politely thanked her very much for her kind offer to take my aisle seat off my hands, but told her i’d have to refuse.
Usually when I go to the theater with a pack of people, we do all want to sit together. Often it’s for a just-recently-out movie on the weekend as it’s hard to get five of my friends together at once any other time and for any other purpose. The lines have been known to start hours before the movie, and even if you get there early there are only so many acceptable seats. Asking if two people who have three empty seats around them would be willing to move for five people to take up that space is not rude.
Getting huffy and expecting the answer to be yes, however, is. I would ask the question in my most polite and apologetic and Canadian manner possible, apologizing for disturbing them if they said no, and hunting down some other solution. Likewise, if someone asked me politely to shift or move so they could sit with their friends, I’d probably do it if I could find a decent seat elsewhere. If the only seat left was in the very front row in a corner or something, I’d politely decline.
I also maneuver large restaurant parties so the married couples and families are sitting together without planting myself right between a husband and wife. And if someone else is giving me a ride in their car and their SO is also on the trip, I generally offer the front passenger seat to the SO*. I’m failing to see a disparity here. Barring some good reason like navigation, broken legs, promises made, or ‘Shotgun!’ called out before reaching the car.*
About a year ago I went to a summer blockbuster. I knew it would be busy, so I took a book, got there early and picked out a good seat.
A family came in 5 minutes late. They wanted to know if I would move so that they could all sit together.
I actually usually try to help people, try to be kind.
But I thought about it for a minute and decided that I had paid for the good spot not just by virtue of the fact that I bought a ticket, but I also purchased it with the time I spent to get there early. I said “I’m sorry, no.”
The father called me a jackass and they walked away.
A younger me might have kicked his ass. But I just ignored him and finished the movie.
