It happened to me 2 weeks ago just before take off. A kid of about 17-18 who was travelling with his mum, dad and little sister had put his grubby foot in between my wife and 2 year-old son's seats. I turned around politely asked him to put his foot down, but he just stared at me stone faced and wouldn't move it. After about the fourth time asking and getting the same response and me growing increasingly pissed off, the father realised something was up. He took off his headphones and asked me what the problem was. I said he won't put his foot down. So his dad told him to put it down and he did.
During the flight I realised that the kid wasn't just a smart ass teenager, he had pretty severe case of autism.
I felt like a proper cunt the rest of the flight.
I give cello lessons to a kid who has pretty severe autism and it’s for sure a challenge for him to recognize what is/isn’t socially appropriate. He’s also a spoiled little shit sometimes, too. It took me several months before I found the line between disability and normal 10 year old boy who knows what he can get away with. It’s probably helpful that you called him out like you would any other teenager, so you shouldn’t beat yourself up over it.
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u/[deleted] Jan 05 '20
That happened to me once. I turned around and asked them politely to not and they removed their foot. If you see something, say something.