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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

to enjoy winding up people who think their bag needs a seat

212 replies

motheroftwoboys · 13/03/2013 13:20

I usually wimp out of asking people to move so I can sit down but yesterday and today have, with a smile, asked to sit down. You would think I was asking the earth. Young woman yesterday, sitting on the aisle seat on a busy bus with very small handbag on seat. She sighed dramatically and made a big play of making me sit at the window instead of moving across herself. I got off before her and she actually tutted when I politedly said excuse me. I said thank you in over loud and friendly way and I was still chuckling when I got off the bus. This morning there was a bloke who thought his paper needed a seat when he was reading it. Same tactic. Same response. Wonder what my journey home will bring. [wing]

OP posts:

OutragedFromLeeds · 13/03/2013 13:26

These people drive me mad. YANBU.

I think you need to go a bit further than a loud thank you to wind them up though. Maybe sit on their lap?

Cosmosim · 13/03/2013 13:27

Er, how are you winding them up by being overtly apologetic and friendly?! I look at the offending article with disgust, look directly at them (half the time they're too british to even meet my gaze) and if they haven't moved the item by the time I look back at them, I snarl "excuse me, can you move that". They have about a second before my ass sits on their precious item.

WhatsTheBuzz · 13/03/2013 13:29

YABU she might have paid for 2 tickets . Seriously though, I hate it when people do this though I tend not to say anything too, a bus full of people is the last place I want to draw attention to myself.

mungotracy · 13/03/2013 13:29

Good for you! I will deliberately make them move their things even when theres another empty seat available next to someone not being rude.

MrsTerryPratchett · 13/03/2013 13:31

There was a lovely lady standing on a train from Gatwick when I was in Croydon last. She had flown from the Caribbean and was elderly so very tired. There was an idiot whose guitar was tired or ill or something, that needed a seat. DH and I took great pleasure in loudly talking about how the poor guitar needed a seat more than her until he moved it, red-faced.

Luckily the lady, and the rest of the carriage, found it amusing. Him, not so much.

thefirstmrsrochester · 13/03/2013 13:33

YANBU!
Ditto business persons on the train. No, your briefcase or laptop bag is not requireth of its own seat.
And what's with the person sitting in the aisle seat with bag merrily perched at the window? If they think it will deter me from obtaining their items seat, they are very wrong indeed.
Selfish entitled behaviour.

SofaKing · 13/03/2013 13:35

My former boss used to just sit down on bags if they were taking up room on seats. If challenged, he would say what on earth is that doing taking up a seat? He seldom got an answer!

LadyBeagleEyes · 13/03/2013 13:36

I always give my bag a seat until it looks like the bus is getting busy and then I move it.
It's the people who pretend to be oblivious to it that annoy me, they're the ones who I always sit beside.

Lottapianos · 13/03/2013 13:38

YANBU OP. This drives me crackers too, it's so selfish and antisocial.

'And what's with the person sitting in the aisle seat with bag merrily perched at the window? '

That's the worst of all! How can be people be so brass-necked?

KellyElly · 13/03/2013 13:39

I never understand why people do this when the bus/train gets busy. I would feel far too uncomfortable. If DD is sitting in a seat and it gets busy I move her on to my lap never mind a bag!

MrsMangoBiscuit · 13/03/2013 13:39

I bus a lot, and I always move my bag off the spare seat once there are no more empty doubles. What pisses me off though, is the people who think they are entitled to the empty AND part of the seat I'm actually sat on! I understand that they don't want to be hanging out into the aisle, but practically sitting on me is not the answer. Sitting down, then gradually trying to shuffle over, pinning me to the window is not ok either.

Sorry, as you were!

MrsMaryCooper · 13/03/2013 13:40

Yes the aisle sitters can annoy me hugely when they regard it as an imposition when I want to sit down and they don't want to move over. It's a bus people will want to use all the seats, it's not unheard of.

Lovesabadboy · 13/03/2013 13:41

Well Done!

I wish I had the guts to do this. Just what goes through their minds?

We caught a bus from Oxford to London recently and my husband politely asked a woman if he could sit where her bags were.
She said that she was saving the seat for her friend who was in the loo, so my husband finally found another seat (with difficulty and lots of pig-headedness from other passengers).

We were very pissed off to observe that said 'friend' never materialised from the loo and Madame sat there in great comfort spread out over two seats for the whole 70 minute journey!

Just how can people do that without feeling embarrassed?!?

claudedebussy · 13/03/2013 13:41

yanbu

fucking annoying and inconsiderate.

Katiepoes · 13/03/2013 13:42

Oh just ask them to move the bag. How the British ever ran an empire is beyond me. The elderly lady tale above - oh please, why not ask? Do you enjoy being so passive agressive?

DinglebertWangledack · 13/03/2013 13:43

I just walk over and start sitting down, bag soon moves! (Especially at the moment they see the bump and act quicker!)

Fillyjonk75 · 13/03/2013 13:44

It annoys me when your bag has a seat and someone wants to sit next to you when there are plenty of other seats available. Who does that?

CuthbertDibble · 13/03/2013 13:45

I had a stand up (well I was standing he was sitting) row with a bloke on a packed commuter train who was saving the seat next to him for his girlfriend... she wasn't getting on the train until the next stop.

Lottapianos · 13/03/2013 13:47

'If DD is sitting in a seat and it gets busy I move her on to my lap never mind a bag! '

Good for you KellyElly. This drives me nuts too - tiny little tots taking up a seat on a packed bus or train when they could easily be sat on an adult's lap

This is another example of 'my bubble, my rules' in action - some people feel they have an absolute right to behave at all times as if they were in their own front room without any awareness of other people needing to share the space. Grr.

Fillyjonk75 · 13/03/2013 13:50

Have to say though, in the grand scheme of things, with what you have to put up with on public transport especially in London, I think most people behave in a remarkably civilised way to one another.

TheElephantIsADaintyBird · 13/03/2013 13:53

Where do you all live with such angry bus people around?! I get the bus a lot and rarely get this problem

everlong · 13/03/2013 13:58

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

BinarySolo · 13/03/2013 13:59

lovesabadboy were you not tempted to tell her to recommend her friend starts drinking prune juice?

Lady in front of me on a train demanded a bag was moved for her I sit down despite there being empty seats opposites. Maybe she didn't want to go backwards, but either way I admired her moxy!

I'm way too polite. Got turfed out of a seat when heavily pregnant because some bloke had only been in the loo. The people opposite offere me a seat tho and I spent the rest of my journey glaring at him!

Bejeena · 13/03/2013 14:02

I think I had the worst one ever on the bus yesterday, I never catch the bus but weather was too bad for me to cycle. There was a lot of snow so the bus was more packed than usual, probably also because bus was running late.

I am 18 weeks pregnant and ok with my coat on you probably couldn't tell. As I said bus was really full and because I am quite short I can't always reach the bars above to hold on to and was totally being bashed about by other peoples bags and stuff.

Then a seat close to me became free, I thought bliss but saw another woman making a beeline for it (ok she was standing closer to the seat than my by an inch or two) so I politely asked her that since I was pregnant would she mind giving me the seat.

She looked and at me and just said that she had been standing on this bus for over 20 minutes and anyhow I didn't look that pregnant.

I was totally gobsmacked and just let her take the seat.

Fillyjonk75 · 13/03/2013 14:05

We were very pissed off to observe that said 'friend' never materialised from the loo and Madame sat there in great comfort spread out over two seats for the whole 70 minute journey!

After ten minutes I'd have gone and asked her if I should alert the driver to stop the bus and help her friend get out of the loo, as she clearly had had some kind of accident in there. :)

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