<p>Our last highschool solved a lot of this by only opening the doors 30 minutes early and by reserving seats for parents of any award winners or speakers (they also gave key volunteers 2 reserved tickets which many gave up if they didnt have graduates). Family members got tickets on the main floor and other students and community members got balcony seats. All views were good!</p>
<p>this was the ultimate seat saving story - it was my daughter’s 8th grade class play - honestly no huge production, just a small play held in the school cafeteria. We (total of 5 people) got there maybe 15 min early and got seats in the 4th or 5th row – another parent (who I knew fairly well) was right in front of us with 2 other adults.</p>
<p>Flash forward to about 5 min to showtime; the sister of the parent in front of us comes in with others…the mother in front of us says, “You have to move, I’ve been saving those seats for them.” </p>
<p>Seriously?!?!? So I said, “I’m sorry, what did you say?” and she repeated that she wanted us to move because she had been saving our seats for her relatives. I said something along the lines of well we’ve been sitting here for over 10 min so no, thank you, we are not moving.</p>
<p>Her sister was obviously a bit drunk and started yelling at us…the other adults were also quite upset but I stood my ground and didn’t move. Everyone around us was laughing at them and FINALLY after 3 min or so they retreated.</p>
<p>Honestly, I’d never seen anything like it in my life.</p>
<p>generally I’m ok w/saving 1 or 2 seats but a whole row? Wrong - if you have that many folks coming, make sure you get there as a group. That’s why many restaurants won’t seat a large party until they’re all there!!</p>
<p>My son’s graduation is in 3 weeks. We are allotted 8 tickets per family, but there will be only 4 of us attending. I plan on going early (with a book) and saving seats for the other 3. Since I have returned my extra 4 tickets for others to use, I will feel no guilt whatsoever!</p>
<p>floridamom, I can beat that one. Son’s kindergarten Thanksgiving show. Little chairs set up in the kindergarten room, maybe 30 chairs. We get there about five minutes early, as do most of the other parents. There is a woman sitting in the front row, with coats and jackets draped over 14 of the other chairs. Other parents started moving stuff and she kept hopping up saying “I’m saving that”. Kindergarten teacher comes over and asks her to move the coats. She flat out refuses, saying her family is coming and she needs the seats. Finally, the principal has to come in and tell her that she can have one chair, and anybody else will have to stand. She huffs and puffs, and complains until the show starts. First poem the kids do? “Thanksgiving is about sharing” (done in that very serious way that only children can do). Every other parent in the room was dying laughing.</p>
<p>lololu, 14 seats for a kindergarten play? Oh, brother.</p>
<p>zooserman, lol: “The horse’s butt next to me got up over twenty times to take pictures.”</p>
<p>These stories about seat-saving reminds me of the time I went to a Christmas Mass with my kids. Instead of a homily, the kids acted out The Christmas Story with about 20 children. I got there early to sit on the end, but the priest had us (1 adult + 2 kids) move down one row to accommodate the cast. The Church was filling up fast and available seats were quickly disappearing. I moved to the row behind were we were originally sitting only to be told it was “taken” by the one seat-saver. There I was with 2 young kids, waiting to see the “show”, but she practically said “No room in the Inn” and wouldn’t share her space. She looked ready for a fight. Eventually, I moved down several rows further from the front with other members who squished to fit us in. Then–just 5 minutes before it started–about 10 adults showed up, all over dressed. They didn’t have kids in the performance and were obviously not regular Church goers, but they had perfect seating.</p>
<p>I think it’s reasonable to save one or two seats, but NEVER a whole row. What makes anyone think they’re that important that they can’t acknowledge others want to be there too!</p>
<p>All I know is that I always seem to be the one wandering around and being chased away from a “saved seat” and I guess it makes me feel kind of unwanted. For this reason, I don’t save seats because it makes me feel bad.</p>
<p>As a practical matter, I can see one person saving a seat or two.<br>
In principle, I don’t like it at all. I have a hard time drawing the line what is ok. One saved seat per attending person? 2? 3? If you permit 3, then why not 4? If 4, why not 5? and so on.
If there were reserved seats, they’d each have a row and number like at a pro stadium. I’ve not seen that at graduations. Since there aren’t such reservations, then I see it as first-come first serve. To me, that means the first one there can pick from any available seat. It does not mean the first one there can hold 11 other seats for the 11 not yet there. I don’t like the idea that with fcfs seating someone not there yet gets preferred seating over someone who is.
After all, isn’t that what fcfs means? The first to arrive gets it?</p>
<p>I had a situation yesterday on the bus that takes all this to a new level. The express bus is usually pretty crowded but yesterday it was packed because the bus before mine had broken down and we had to pick up its passengers. Earlier in the trip a young woman got on with a large suitcase. No one thought much of it till we picked up the stranded passengers and one after another asked to sit next to her and then walked away. Turns out she had her suitcase on the seat and told them all “sorry, I have a large suitcase” and wouldn’t move it. Several people got into arguments with her, but she wouldn’t budge. A pregnant woman and an elderly woman with a cane both got off thte bus. It wasn’t until the last stop that a man who I’ve seen before and know to be sweet and mild-mannered, politely told her that seats are for people not baggage and she could either move it or he would. She huffed and puffed and he told her that if someone was getting off it would be her and her suitcase. She moved it.</p>
<p>zm, I wish I could say that such a situation was new to me, but I’ve seen it on buses and subways.</p>
<p>Hunt, it’s one of those situations where I wish I was a very large, scary looking man for a day.</p>
<p>I’ll send you a picture of me that you can print out and use as a mask,</p>
<p>When we were in Rome we got tickets for the weekly Wednesday Papal Audience. We had been told to sit on the aisle. I guess an entire busload of Japanese tourists had been told the same thing because they were running to the aisle seats, sitting one deep. I got to my aisle seat and wouldn’t budge. (Our family of 5 sat in a row of 5, not one deep.) The whole time we were waiting for the pope to be driven in, it was funny to watch, because some teens from Chile kept incroaching on the Japanese folks and their aisle seats. (The teens were probably the only ones among us who were actually Catholic.) Anyway, our family held onto its aisle position. As the Popemobile approached the square, everyone stood up. At that point, a tiny little Italian nun appeared and worked her way in front of us. What was I going to to, keep the nun from seeing the pope?</p>
<p>I don’t have a problem with people saving a few seats for ticket holders but saving large
amounts or saving seats for late arrivals who don’t have tickets yet is just rude and self centered. </p>
<p>A couple of years ago I arrived at the high school where my daughter’s dance recital was being held and started to cruise around the parking lot for a space. Near the building, I found a space…but with a woman and man standing in it with a large cooler being used to “save” the parking space. I sat there with my blinker on (really passive aggressive, I know) just to make them feel like the a$$es that they were. They didn’t even flinch as they flagged down cousin Bill and coached him into the parking space. I walked from the overflow parking area carrying 8 costumes and two hat boxes.</p>
<p>In theory, I think one person, one saved seat makes sense but just a couple of weeks ago we had my son’s college graduation and two of us saved five seats. We had three grandparents, all in their 80’s and two with physical problems, walking in just a little later with my kids. While many of the seat savers may be doing so for hoggy reasons, you don’t really know that’s the case. At college graduations it’s not unusual to have grandparents there who may not be officially handicapped enough to need designated seating but really can’t sit outside or on bleachers for hours.</p>
<p>The bus situation - I remember a touchy situation my daughter had about a year ago with a parent with a young child. The child was young enough to travel for free but the mother put her in the seat next to her. That wasn’t a problem I guess until my daughters stop, the last one before NYC, where there appeared to be exactly enough seats for the ticket holders. Daughter said there was almost a confrontation with the mother saying her daughter needed a seat and other passengers saying that she should put her on her lap. Fortunately, a seat was found in the back next to a sleeping passenger who had missed all the commotion.</p>
<p>OK with saving a few seats, but saving an entire row is just plain rude. I’m also not a big fan of “calling out” names (heard enough of that at dance competitions). But that’s just me.</p>
<p>I am glad that I read this and the thread about calling out before my S’s graduation in 3 weeks. I will lower my expectations for audience behavior. His graduating class has fewer than 200 students and the event is being held in the Mellon Arena. (For those not familiar with Pittsburgh, the arena is the soon-to-be closed home of the Pittsburgh Penguins). There will be plenty of seating but I am sure that there will still be lots of “hogging” of what some perceive as the best seats. I think that my son will be one of the speakers, so I hope that we can be somewhat close.</p>
<p>Just read through the “instructions” for graduation that my son brought home and it says basically that 1 person can save only 1 seat. So, I think I will take my younger son with me and we’ll save seats for DH and MIL. I can read my book and he can play with his iPhone!</p>
<p>lotsofquests - I graduated in Mellon (Civic) Arena in the '70s! judging by how far away I am in the pics my parents took, I’m guessing they didn’t get there early to save seats ;)</p>
<p>I’m with Hoss and Rip on this one. Where to draw the line? One, two, three, … I guess the best thing is for there to be an actual rule about the situation. Only one seat save per person, or 2 or whatever. The one per rule sounds reasonable to me. They only allow one guest to sit with the handicapped person in that section, not the whole family or group so why should able bodied folks be allowed to save more than that?</p>
<p>Having said that, there really isn’t much that can be done other than to cause a scene ans see who wins out if someone is a seat hog. Hate to say this, but I have saved a number of seats myself, including whole rows. Never had problems, because I use an official looking ribbon and sign that says reserved. I match them up to the official reserved placards being used. Yeah, sneaky, but it serves the purpose and noone gets upset. It’s when you put coats or scraps of paper, or programs on the seats that people get mad. I even saved an entire row of movie seats that way without any issue–did get official permission for that one though I brought my own equipment to save. Selfish, yes, but it causes no issues and is not against the rules set for the occasion.</p>