I stepped onto a tram to get home from town after sitting for two hours in a very uncomfortable chair at a work training course. I was vaguely aware of woman heading for the vacant seat I was headed for. I quickly judged her as much younger and my back was hurting. It is my seat. I am just short of officially being a Senior.
She had three girls with her, all of similar age about nine or ten, Little Jo's age, to the point where they could not have been her daughters, but that is irrelevant. She sat two of the girls on vacant fold down seats, and then said to man of Middle Eastern appearance on the third fold down, perhaps a 40 year old bloke, would you mind? He acquiesced and gave up his seat for the third child.
I could not believe what I had just observed. In my world, don't children give up seats for adults? Gobsmacked is good word, and that is what I was. Am I wrong?
I believe there are signs on the trams showing children giving up their seats for the older people, am I wrong? ;)
ReplyDeleteSnoskred, I am not sure about now, but there certainly have been in the past.
DeleteIn my day children most certainly gave up their seats for adults! Had I been with my mother, I'd have been given a bit of a whack had I not automatically given up my seat for a grown-up.
ReplyDeleteI can only assume that these kids had some sort of illness that doesn't show.
Rozzie, all of them? They looked ok, and yes, sometimes people do even when it is not obvious. Sense of entitlement will be well instilled in them.
DeleteYou're absolutely right Andrew. She was a cheeky one! I'm glad she didn't get your seat!
ReplyDeleteGrace, I really felt like saying something, but it wasn't my business.
DeleteGob and smacked. Flabber and ghasted. Giving up your seat to a much younger child (two or three) not a problem. A nine or ten year old? Not a happening thing.
ReplyDeleteEC, yes, little ones do tend to forget to hang on and fall about. Actually, people generally forget to hang on and they fall about.
DeleteOnce kids these days are on their mobile phones, the outside world, including you, simply doesn't exist. - Ian
ReplyDeleteTrue Ian, but none had a phone out.
DeleteYou'd have thought - well maybe she's not the thinking kind. Why didn't the girls share the two seats? ~ Cathy
ReplyDeleteCathy, they probably could have. It makes no sense to me at all.
DeleteRecently in Bangkok I found out adults give up their seats for children. Was strange seeing an elderly woman standing for a child in school uniform.
ReplyDeleteGo back to the old days when we would get a clip around the ears if we didn't stand for an adult on buses and trains.
Allan, that is extraordinary. I am not sure how we learnt to give up seats for adults, but we did.
DeleteAnything for a quiet life! If they are that incapable of standing, then let them have a seat. I'm the same with people who barge into queues, I just inform them that I'm in no rush.
ReplyDeleteCro, somehow I don't expect what I observed would not happen in France. An older man said that to me once, since you are in a hurry, you go first. I really didn't think I had done anything wrong.
DeleteWow, spoiled little brats, already have their adult trained well to their bidding.
ReplyDeleteIndeed they do Strayer. She stood while they sat but with kids, sometimes it is a better thing to do.
DeleteI'm gobsmacked also, how rude! and they will continue to be rude in this manner having now been shown the way. I was pleasantly surprised one day to be given a seat on a bus full of school children. A teenaged boy stood up and insisted I sit. Yes, I did thank him.
ReplyDeleteRiver, you are right about them being shown the way. The will have privileged lives and expect everything to go their way. What are you doing out and about when schools come out? Always best to avoid that time. I see many teens give up their seats for adults, but then I do get about in very middle class areas where the youth know some manners.
DeleteLittle tykes, they should be walking!!
ReplyDeleteFen? Children walk? Nah, they will get runover, stabbed, abducted and molested.
DeleteHa ha ha ha ha!
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