Pregnant woman refuses to get up from massage chair; couple waiting gets furious.

Finding a seat in a busy dessert spot can quickly kick in deep-seated survival instincts.

One minute, you're just a chill person buying ice cream, and the next minute you're claiming a seat like it's the last lifeboat on the Titanic, fully ready to throw anyone else into the water if needed.

The social politics around claiming space in public can get complicated quickly, especially when other people push back.

In a popular post on the AITA subreddit, a pregnant woman asked if she was wrong for refusing to give up a massage chair for a couple.

She wrote:

AITA for not getting up from a massage chair when someone wanted to use it?

I am currently 8 months pregnant, and because of that, I often get quite tired when I stand or walk for long periods of time. Yesterday afternoon, I was craving ice cream, so I drove to a nearby shopping center to visit my favorite ice cream shop.

Unfortunately, the place was quite crowded, and all of the tables surrounding the shop, as well as some nearby sofas were taken.

Because of that, after getting my ice cream, I decided to sit on one of two massage chairs that were close, and eat it there.

Once I started eating the snack, I got approached by a couple that was in their late teens, or perhaps early twenties. They asked me to get off the chair, since I wasn't getting a massage, and they wanted to receive one together, which I refused to do.

In return, I offered to leave once I finished eating, or if they found me a different place to sit, since I could not stand for more than a few minutes at a time, and had a relatively large dessert that I wanted to finish.

Upon hearing that, the girl was not happy. She told me to stop acting as if I was ill, that just because I was pregnant, the world did not revolve around me, and because I was not paying for a massage, I had no right to sit on the chair.

She then asked her partner to get a security guard, and a few moments later, he came with an employee.

The guard took my side, and asked the couple to either take turns using the second massage chair, or wait for me to finish eating, which upset the girl quite a bit.

She accused me of being selfish and preventing the owner of the chairs from earning money, and left with her partner.

Upon telling this story to my younger sister, she told me that I should have gone to the ice cream stand when the shopping center was less crowded, if I wasn't able to eat while standing.

However, my older sister believes that I had every right to sit on the massage chair if all the other spots were taken, and the couple was being unreasonable. Because of that, I'm not sure if I am the a**hole in this situation.

People on the thread didn't hold back.

PorcupineTattoo wrote:

So, let me put this situation in another context. The massage chairs are a business. Someone installed those with the goal of making money from people paying to use the massage function.

Would you take your ice cream from one store and go sit at the tables of another restaurant and refuse to vacate when someone else wants to use that table to eat at that restaurant? That's what you did here. YTA.

photosbeersandteach wrote:

YTA. The purpose of the massage chairs is for people to get massages, not to provide extra seating to patrons for another business.

It was fine to use the chairs while they were not being used, but as soon as someone wanted to use the chairs for their intended purpose you should have gotten up.

ChaosNHamHam wrote:

YTA - you being pregnant has nothing to do with this. You were sitting in a chair meant to provide a service, you weren’t using the service and refused to move when someone wanted to pay for the service.

You don’t get special treatment because you’re growing a human.

starbright234 wrote:

YTA. Those massage chairs aren't for eating. You could have eaten in your car or just drove home.

CauliflowerChoiceldn wrote:

YTA. As a heavily pregnant person about to give birth I hate seeing this sh*t. Being pregnant is not a license to be entitled and expect everyone around you to accommodate your needs. Why couldn’t you have just eaten it in your car?

After the post blew up, OP jumped on with an update.

Edit: This really blew up, and now that I think about this situation, I can see that I am, indeed, in the wrong. Next time a similar situation happens, I will order the ice cream in an edible bowl, and eat it in my car, instead of taking up sitting spots that are owned by other businesses.

This seems like a rare straight-forward situation where OP took the assessment of the rest of the internet to heart.