Right, I apologise that this is so tedious, but it is a perfectly genuine AIBU - I have no idea, and as it happened I did rather wonder what MN would say.
I have a long bus ride to work. It is always busy, and this morning - weary after a bonkers few months, headachy, PMT-y and with sore feet - I was thrilled to get the last .
I was just settling into my book when a mother got on with 2 children, one about 4, the other about 3.
They were bonny, bright, cheerful kids, fairly biddable, but obviously (and who can blame them) mighty fed up with standing on a crowded bus.
The mother didn't seem particularly distressed or flustered, but obviously maintaining contol of 2 small children on a busy bus is not easy. There was a lot of "No, don't sit down. No, there aren't any seats. Hang on to your brother. No, hold the strap. I SAID DON'T SIT DOWN. Would you rather we walked, hmmmmm? I SAID COME BACK HERE!", that sort of thing.
They were right next to me and I was fully aware that if I gave up my seat the 2 children could have sat there together and the mother would have had an easier time of it.
But I didn't. My head hurt, my eyes were swollen with weariness, my feet ached, and I was in a terrible grump, and altogether thought that although the children were not Having Fun I needed my seat more than them.
Does a mother with children trump an able-bodied (if 'ageing', sore and weary) adult every time?
For the record, if I see a pregnant woman, someone elderly or disabled, or a mother who is in a right old state for whatever reason and could desperately do with a kind face, I would always bounce out of my seat.
Was I being unreasonable? Rarely for AIBU, I genuinely want to know, and am willing to be told.
AIBU?
Boring AIBU of the day: Mums, children & seats on the bus... <yawn>
JodieHarsh · 28/09/2011 08:49
Thanks all (including the YAB a bit U ones).
Birds I think that was the question I was internally struggling with - does a small lively child need a seat more than someone who's so weary they want to just sit on the kerb and bawl their eyes out. I realise manning up before offering a seat would have helped 
Doodlez that is a lovely way of looking at it
chicken I did wonder if the seat would've been put to use. I don't have children d'you see, so this is all rather a mysterty to me...
i dont think you need to give up your seat for a child 
they can hold on . i wouldnt dream of it. and anyway i bet the motehr wanted the seat more.
i would have thought children shoudl be the ones giving up their seats
SEe that the thing, my mother would never have expected an adult to give me their seat...in fact if I'd been sitting down and a woman got on, I'd've been plucked from my seat before I could say "Seen and Not Heard."
Petite why offer a seat to the Ma? 
She looked one hell of a lot more perky and competent than I felt and if she'd've been sitting down she wouldn't have been able to get to the children!
I totes agree about the respect thing. And tbh I've never liked the idea that children always take precedence over everything in life - I think it gives a sense of early entitlement and being cossetted and not being able to cope when life finally deals you your first unfair blow. but I'm a bit british and 1950s like that 
I am also from the generation that was made to stand up, or sit on an adult's knee on a bus if there were any adults standing. dd (8) is also made to sit on my knee if there is an adult standing.
It's more complicated when there are tiny ones involved....on reflection, I'd probably have asked the mother if she wanted a seat, on the presumption then she'd gather the kids onto her knee (or at least the little one) but I'd probably wait and see if someone else did it first 
YANBU not to have stood though, not at all.
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