To think you don't let your toddler play with noisy electic games on a packed train?

[Hammy02]

Or any train for that matter. I was on jam packed train at the weekend (no spare seats, aisle full of people standing up) and one woman was sat with her small child playing with a toy that said 'triangle', 'square' etc when the kid pressed each shape. I was a couple of seats in front & could hear it! AIBU to think this was utterly selfish of the mum? Other people were giving her the evils but she seemed oblivious.

Surely better than a bored screaming child though?

I try to keep mine quiet but a toy is better than a screaming child. Was it a quiet carriage?

She was probably so stressed that she didn't care.

A jam packed train and you're moaning about a childs toy?

Depends for how long, how loud, if its for a short time to keep a child occupied then I agree with Chessie, better that than a shouting child that you are trying to restrain on a packed train. If it goes on a long time though, it is unfair and you should have brought some crayons, books etc as well.

By the way, anyone playing music too loud so that you can hear the bass or a tinny sound, anyone talking loudly on a mobile phone, all sorts of people can be annoying on a train.

How is that worse than annoying conversation?

How long was the journey?
I would have thought it amusing.
Everyone I see on trains seems to be in their own little electronic world of iphone etc.

Oh FGS.

Yes, YABU.

I've been in the position of having to choose between a tantruming child or letting her have a noisy(ish) toy on a packed train before. Which would you have preferred?

I have to do this frequently with my phone. Believemea child screaming is far far worse!!! It's no more annoying than people talking on their phones or loud head phones.

As adults we can suck it up , toddlers bet bored and frustrated and upset!!! They r too young to stay quiet or understand y they r still stuck in a train.

I'm sure it was irritating, but no more irritating then loud conservations of music playing out loud, and definitely better than a screaming toddler.

Yes but those electronic worlds are usually confined to headphones.

Drives me mental too OP. Same as when adult passengers are annoyingly noisy too, I don't restrict my ire to children. I either bury myself in headphones or if possible move carriage.

Or the best solution for me is if I can drive in the first place

Maaaan, take a chill pill. It was one train journey.

I'd much rather listen to a child play nicely with a toy than hear them cry, moan and scream the place down through sheer boredom!

There seems to be no pleasing some people

Better than a screaming child - for the poor mum and for the rest of the passengers. Are you expecting a "peaceful" journey on a "packed train"???? Or is it just that you are willing to excuse "adult" noise (all the pings and beeps made by using smartphones, playing games on said phones etc etc) and not child noise?

YABU.

If it was a packed train, its unlikely to have been quiet. Fair do if she was sat in a quiet carriage on a unpacked train, but it soundsl like she was doing a good job at entertaining her child. A gripey toddler would have been much, much worse.

YANBU. Very selfish and annoying to the other passangers.

No she wouldn't have been oblivious, she would probably have been well aware of the judgemental attitude of some people on the train who have obviously never had to try and keep a potentially very noisy/irate toddler quiet for the duration of the journey.
Would you have preferred a screaming baby?
YABU. And so were the people giving her 'evils'

If it was during the evening or night, I'd agree, but it's day time in a jam packed train. Yabvu.

To be honest, this annoys me also. But I would move to the quiet carriage or find somewhere to stand elsewhere.

We don't have any toys like that but on a long coach journey I know DS2 was annoying the passenger behind us with his incessant chatter about the book I'd given him to read. But then he in turn was irritating me with his protracted whiney phone calls and the crap choice of music on his ipod. Most other passengers on a packed train are annoying.

Doesn't bother me, kids are kids. What makes me shabby is teenagers / adults listening to music through their phones without earphones!! Makes me want to smash their phones up!

It could have been worse, she could have given it a recorder.

I travelled by train a lot when mine were toddlers, I never put noisy toys in my bag so I could avoid the inevitable tantrum when they weren't allowed to play with it.

For the same reason my mobile phone is always on silent on trains and I never answer it.

On a train, my solution would have been to read DS a story, but is regaling the carraige with the adventures of Topsy and Tim any better than "Traingle"? It has a bit more variety but would still be annoying if you were hoping for quiet.

I know years ago I went on a train to a job interview, and sat near a woman with a toddler who had brought his toy car. As he drove it across the table, it went pop, pop, pop and the little plastic balls in the back bounced around. The mother instantly realised that it wasn't a good toy to have brought and tried to get the child involved in colouring.

YABU to moan about the child being entertained in this way on the train, YANBU to wonder why the parent thought this toy was a good idea for a train journey. i know it has few pieces to chuck under seat or lose, but anything with an electronic voice is bad news when you're stuck near it.

It might be annoying but it's far less annoying than a screaming child. So YABU. I find music through headphones more irratating. So I move. Easy.