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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

to expect otger coach passengers to move so I can sit with my baby?

128 replies

froken · 10/09/2013 19:25

wI recently got a coach from Heathrow to my home town.

I was travelling with my ds who is 8 months old, national express recommend that you bring a age appropriate car seat when traveling with a baby, they book you 2 seats under 1 booking.(it's very kind of them to give an infant an entire seat) we were one of the last to get on the coach and by tge time we arrived there were no seats together. There were lots of people sitting alone in a double seat.

None of tge passengers sitting alone in a double seat would move, I ended up threatening to leave the very grumpy teething out of routine baby next to a lady.

Eventually someone moved but I had to organise where he would sit and tge lady he was going to sit next to wasn't at all pleased that he was going to sit next to each other.

Aibu ( and an entitled mum) to think that people should move seats so a parent can sit next to their small child?

OP posts:

DawnOfTheDee · 10/09/2013 19:51

I'd have been tempted to sit on them Jaime....

And froken I have a very wrong mental image of a boob across the aisle scenario. You should've done it.....

CharlieCoCo · 10/09/2013 19:52

did someone seriously suggest OP put their baby next to someone else across the aisle, instead of that person moving to the single seat next to the aisle??? people on here can amaze me sometimes!

LoganMummy · 10/09/2013 19:55

That's terrible!

Last month I had to take my two month old on a coach in her car seat. Car seat wouldn't fit down aisle, only empty seats were right at back. I had to hoist car seat over my head to reach empty seats. Not one person offered to move/help. I accidentally knocked someone on the head with car seat (couldn't see where I was going) and got a huge tut. I asked what did he expect me to do, got complete silence.

StanleyLambchop · 10/09/2013 19:57

I would have thought the driver would have come and sorted it for you. After all, he can't drive off if you are still standing in the aisle clutching your baby seat. Did you ask for his help?

Elsiequadrille · 10/09/2013 19:57

No, YWNBU. But I'm saddened that you had so much trouble.

LRDMaguliYaPomochTebeSRaboti · 10/09/2013 20:02

Who on earth wants to sit next to someone else's eight month old baby?

Weird.

sleepyhead · 10/09/2013 20:09

A similar thing happened to me on a train when ds1 was about 2.

I'd paid for a seat for him in order to reserve 2 seats together. Didn't turn up at the station until half an hour before departure (since 5hrs on a train with a 2yr old is bad enough). Big mistake.

Due to some fuck up, they'd cancelled all the seat reservations and were one carriage short. No one would move to let ds & I sit together so I settled for seats not quite opposite each other across the aisle.

Ds1 was having none of this and insisted on sitting on my knee much to the fury of the man beside me who huffed every time ds1 as much as exhaled. But he wasn't giving up his window seat for any of the dozen aisle seats in the carriage, no siree. So we all had a shit time till Crewe

fairylightsinthespring · 10/09/2013 20:12

Ah but she can't ask the driver for help because according to the thread yesterday about buggies on the tube, employees of travel companies can't help or they might get injured and / or be sued if they do and that's not what they are there for. I am 100% on the side of people just being a bit damn nicer and more helpful to each other but there are some interesting inconsistencies on MN

tripecity · 10/09/2013 20:16

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

hettienne · 10/09/2013 20:18

Fairy, talking to passengers on your coach is not the same situation as carrying multiple heavy items up and down stairs every day!

IsleOfRight · 10/09/2013 20:19

Yanbu

Magicjellyflood · 10/09/2013 20:20

Wow if you had changed the word coach to plane you would have have complete opposite answers!!!

Original poster

froken · 10/09/2013 20:22

I did ask, I suppose I asked in a "would you mind, is there anyway you could move" to which the people saidyes they would mind they couldn't possibly move.

I didn't ask the drivers because they were already angrywith me as I had said I may get of an x station but possibly ( if my mum couldn't pick us up) I'd get of at y station which is tge station after.

OP posts:

hettienne · 10/09/2013 20:22

Ah but on planes you can pay to choose your seat - once you have spent some money all expectations of common decency go out the window!

Magicjellyflood · 10/09/2013 20:24

Hettienne op has already said her seat was reserved on the coach. No difference except the mode of transport. Op was on the coach 5 hours. A plane journey would probably be shorter.

SomethingOnce · 10/09/2013 20:24

fairy, in what parallel universe does that qualify as inconsistent?

Ashinagai · 10/09/2013 20:24

YANBU. What a shower of bastards.

omwards · 10/09/2013 20:24

We got on a coach in China a few years ago and the driver physically yanked people squawking out of their seats and rearranged them so that DP and I could sit together. It was mighty embarrassing.

ilovexmastime · 10/09/2013 20:29

YANBU, blimey some people are akward bastards aren't they?!

pianodoodle · 10/09/2013 20:29

That's ridiculous I can imagine people not offering to move but to actually refuse on being asked nicely is another level of arsiness altogether.

I was heavily pregnant on an airport bus at the terminal once and everyone (who had shoved their way on to get a seat first) I made eye contact with pretended not to have noticed...

Portofino · 10/09/2013 20:31

I have come across absolutely lovely people and complete cunts on trains in the UK. From when dd was 4 months old and no room for the car seat. They all looked horrified when taking their seats but were practically begging me to go to the loo so they could have a cuddle by the end of the journey. Sharing their haribo and entertaining (when dd was bigger), swapping seats without moaning. And a particularly miserable pair, who when a coach was canceled, between Manchester and North Wales moaned all the bloody way that they did not have their allotted seats (like everyone else) though they still got to,sit together in different seats.

fairylightsinthespring · 10/09/2013 20:31

sorry, badly phrased - what I meant was that there are many many threads on here when people ask some variation on "should people have helped me more" and usually the overwhelming response is "no - your baby, your problem". That doesn't seem to be the case on this one, which is nice

Blu · 10/09/2013 20:31

The only people I have avoided sitting next to on long coach journeys are knitters.

Portofino · 10/09/2013 20:35

People can be so selfish. It shocks me really.

grumpymummamucker · 10/09/2013 20:35

No you are not,and on national express coaches i think it says on the windows that the first 4 rows are to be vacated if needed for parents travelling with small children

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