How to fit on an airplane

Back before airlines gave up service and started playing at security, flying was more fun. Now they want to tell you how much you can weigh and whether or not you fit in the seat. My thought is that if you are sitting in the seat, you fit. If someone says you do not when you obviously do, they just want to find a reason to charge you more money.
Some people are fat and some are thin, some tip their seat in your lap, and some are holding a crying baby all the way home. Once I was on a flight to Berlin with a 6-year-old and an infant (both mine), and the flight was full of German tourists going home after a fun time in the U.S. The flight was the final fling, and they kept the stewardesses busy bringing them drinks. I understand a last fling. Who doesn’t? We need to have a little tolerance for other people.
What we do not need to tolerate is crowding and overbooking. On that same flight I was told to bring the car seat because regulations required the baby to be in the car seat with the car seat belted into its own seat on the airplane. I did bring the car seat. At the airport they put a luggage tag on it and sent it on with my suitcases and told me that they had no extra seats so I would have to hold the baby. I protested, and they were willing to let me file a complaint and take a later flight, or they said I could file a complaint when I got to Berlin.
So the airline charged for two seats, and then put me, the baby, and all of the stuff I had to carry for the two children in one seat. Believe me, we spilled over the armrests big time. And the tourist who fell in my lap fortunately chose a time when the baby was on my shoulder, and he did in fact apologize. It left me a little light-headed from the side-stream alcohol.