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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To have taken toddler in quiet carriage

164 replies

MamaAwayOnBusiness · 28/02/2016 21:22

Took my DS(2) to London this weekend and after habit (I usually travel this line for work) booked the quiet coach. I deliberately chose his nap time for the journey and he did sleep all the way. But I see another thread now people advising OP to book quiet coach if she wanted to avoid kids and I realise I might have made a commuter faux pas had my boy not been asleep. I wouldn't have been able to move with a pushchair, two bags and the whole shebang. I thought quiet coach meant no phones, no music and no loud conversation, a usual 2yo heckling about seeing trains, cows and boats would have been ok. WIBU?

OP posts:
Oysterbabe · 28/02/2016 21:23

Yes yabu.
Luckily he was asleep but if he wasn't the other people in the carriage would have been pretty annoyed I'd have thought.

doughnutslikefannys · 28/02/2016 21:25

Honestly, I would be pissed off if I booked the quiet carriage and there was a toddler making a racket for the whole journey.

Maybe I'm a miserable cow but I don't have children and don't enjoy listening to them natter on.

As your child was asleep it's a non issue though.

Redglitter · 28/02/2016 21:27

If I booked a seat in the quiet carriage I'm afraid toddler chatter about cows and trains would be one of the things I'd be there to avoid. YWBU taking him had he been awake

Littleallovertheshop · 28/02/2016 21:30

....YABcompletelyU

CooPie10 · 28/02/2016 21:31

Yes Yabu to have booked it. I wouldn't want to listen to any child chatter on there.

MyKingdomForBrie · 28/02/2016 21:32

Yep, YABU. In this case obviously not as he was sleeping but you sit in the quiet coach if you're going to be quiet, not if you're likely to be chatting etc. Toddlers don't always chat in an undertone!

The quiet coach is for people who don't want to listen to other people's conversations/music etc.

FiveGoMadInDorset · 28/02/2016 21:32

Sorry a YABU from me as well

KatharinaRosalie · 28/02/2016 21:33

I don't know your 2 year old but at least mine, excitedly pointing out trains and cows, would definitely not be quiet carriage appropriate.

Original poster
MamaAwayOnBusiness · 28/02/2016 21:35

Thanks everyone, I was confident he would sleep, and he did within 5 min from setting off each way. Once he drops naps, that's it for us then, no more lovely quiet time on trains.... Dreading it already

OP posts:
Lj8893 · 28/02/2016 21:35

There's no way on earth I would ever take my 2 year old in the quiet carriage of a train.

weeblueberry · 28/02/2016 21:37

Don't dread it. Train journeys with little kids can be excellent fun. They get excited about all manner of rubbish they see out the windows and love to chatter on about it. :)

FiveGoMadInDorset · 28/02/2016 21:42

My two loved going on the train from an early age

Sgoinneal · 28/02/2016 21:46

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Mumblechum1 · 28/02/2016 21:48

Sorry but YWBU. Quiet coach should be virtually silent IMO

TheSkyesTheLimit · 28/02/2016 21:50

I have a 3 year old and 16 month old and the (very) occasional journey on my own in the quiet coach is one of life's small wonders. I would NEVER take my own children near it. Seems you timed it well though.

TrappedInAWitchesCurse · 28/02/2016 21:53

Actually, I agree with you OP about the definition of the quiet carriage. I wouldn't be annoyed by a child in there. It's the quiet carriage, not the silent carriage, you are allowed to talk to fellow passengers and that includes toddler chatter, IMO. And I'm as curmudgeonly as they come and have told people off before for being on their mobiles in the quiet carriage!

Lurkedforever1 · 28/02/2016 21:54

Yabu. However as he was asleep, no harm done. So more Yabu to think your toddler would be fine making the usual 2yr old noise, and ywbu to book it again.

turkeylovessprout · 28/02/2016 21:55

I don't usually use the trains but no, I wouldn't take any of my kids in the quiet coach.

grannytomine · 28/02/2016 21:56

I think a 2 year old would be alot less annoying than some of the adults I've had to listen to in quiet carriage. I always thought it was no phones or music.

WizzardHat · 28/02/2016 21:57

You'd have been U if he'd been awake I think - quiet means quiet! But you timed it well.

eyebrowse · 28/02/2016 21:57

We got randomly booked into the quiet coach. DCs seemed more worried about it than I did and did not want to watch their dvd.

abbsismyhero · 28/02/2016 21:59

i wouldn't take my teen on a quiet coach my three year old is not too bad actually Blush

Lweji · 28/02/2016 22:02

I think I suggested it on the other thread.
Normally I wouldn't book with a child, no.
But in the quiet carriage if a child was being annoying at least your be able to rightfully tell the parents to ensure they were quiet or move away. Grin

Having said that, I think I've only had lengthy conversations with fellow train travellers, and total strangers, in the quiet carriage. Blush
In one the guy basically told me first to shut up and then decided to have a chat once I pulled out my laptop and started working on my congress presentation. Angry

Dollymixtureyumyum · 28/02/2016 22:03

Can I just say a toddler in the quiet coach is not always the fault of the parent. We travelled to London last year and booked seats and we were put in the quiet coach with a two year old. We had thought about this and had actually rang Virgin to ask if there was any way we could request to not be put in quiet coach and was told no we couldn't.
So you can request the quiet couch but not actually say you don't want to be put in the quiet coach.
I know that was not really to Op but just wanted to add

Sgoinneal · 28/02/2016 22:04

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.