What CEOs don’t understand about parents on planes

A woman in the US was widely praised for refusing to swap seats with a mother so she could be next to her children, writes Charlotte Cripps. As a mum myself, it just seems mean

A CEO has been praised for refusing to swap seats on a plane so that a mother could sit next to her two children during the flight. As a mum with two young children myself, I can’t help but think: why?

Tammy Nelson, who is a chief executive of jewellery brand CONQUERing, appears smugly self-righteous as she shared the incident on TikTok, explaining that she didn’t want to switch seats to help the mum – because it meant she lost her window seat.

“She just expected me to flex my plans to suit her needs,” Nelson said, while adding that “people are fed up with people feeling entitled”.

To which I would retort: Oh, really? Who exactly is the entitled one here? Because it’s not this poor mum.

Nelson was 100 per cent wrong not to give up her seat – it’s shocking behaviour. To not be kind and empathetic and let a mother sit next to her kids on a flight brings tears to my eyes. I’m a mum and know how hard it is to manage two kids on a flight. Why doesn’t she?

Nelson justified her ruthless behaviour by saying she had only had 90-minutes sleep the night before and could only sleep on the plane next to a window. She had a “high-pressure work week” where she was presenting to 500 people – and she also suffered from motion sickness during take-off and landing, unless she was sitting by a window.

It sounds like whining to me – I’m not surprised the mum was reportedly “super annoyed” before moving back to her own middle seat.

Good luck to this woman; it means she’s left to mind somebody else’s kids. She should check her moral compass – rather than her boarding pass.

Has this high-flying business woman ever experienced what it’s like sitting next to two children on a plane who drop iPads under the seats, argue, get scared during take-off and landing, have popping ears, scream and want snacks and to jump around the place every five minutes?

How exactly was she planning on having a nice little power nap on this Delta flight from Cincinnati, Ohio to San Jose, California, anyway?

It’s mean. End of story. I can’t believe Nelson has received support from TikTok users for her stand. “Nope. If it’s not an upgrade it’s a sacrifice,” said one user. “No obligation to switch,” said another.

I haven’t had a situation yet where I’ve been separated from my kids on a plane, but it reminds me of how unkind people were when I was in a supermarket clinging onto a screaming newborn baby and my toddler having a meltdown. Nobody let me jump the queue at the checkout – instead, I was treated like a pariah.

Like this mum on the plane, I genuinely wasn’t trying to pull a fast one. I was just asking for help. But I was pushed back in line. In the end, I left all my shopping and fled Tescos in floods of tears. I bet this is how the mum felt – except that she couldn’t escape like I did.

For all the online criticism of this mum for not booking the right seats in advance – well, have they considered that perhaps she wasn’t able to book three seats together?

It was hardly a long flight – and Nelson could have always moved to the middle seat after take-off to avoid motion sickness. I know who I’d prefer to sit next to, any day. And it’s not a CEO.