Does she know she's kicking me?

Our flight was booked for a mere 2 hr, evening flight.  Which is nothing compared to the 10 hour flights that welcomed in a new time zone, that my children have became accustomed to. So I felt very confident that the flight would be a piece of cake.

To my dismay, and of course, there I was with a man staring me down because my 6 year old daughter kept kicking the back of his seat. Now… I am a very aware parent and make it a point to teach my kids manners. I had asked her to stop several times. But the irony was that the man had all three seats in his row to himself, but he just had to sit in the seat in front of my daughter. It’s like my 6 year old was also aware of this fact. So it was very comical when the man finally turned around and said, “Does she know she’s kicking my seat?” I paused before I spoke, trying to come up with something clever to say. Finally I said, “Yes she knows, and I am sorry but I have asked her to stop and on a plane there is only so much one can do. You..?... could (I said very slowly) move over one seat since there is no one sitting in either of those seats and then you wouldn't have to worry about anyone kicking your seat. ….(Wow! Did I just say that out loud?)…. He just kind of nodded and then said “yeah I have thought of that.” Then he turned back around and put his headphones back on and did Not move over.  Really? … 

My daughter had it all figured out. Distractions with stories or toys wouldn’t work. Telling her she was going to be in a time out when we got off the plane only seemed to work for 2 minutes, then she was back to dangling her feet..swinging her legs back and forth and  inevitably kicking the seat. Saying she was going to lose items didn’t work… she just replied, “Ok that’s fine”..Then she would go back to singing and talking like she had a microphone attached to her cheek.

The battle of wits was underway…whose patience was going to break first? The isolation hovered, as the flight attendant spoke over the loud speaker and said… “Please stay in your seats for the remainder of the flight.”

Maybe it was the man’s stare or my constant whispering into her ear to “STOP kicking his seat”

Finally (she, my 6 year old) decided to move over to another seat and switch seats with me.

Why didn’t I think of that?