Woman on bus got people to move for her toddler

[questioning1]

Not sure whether AIBU or not. Was on the rush hour bus this morning (in London) sitting on one of those raised high up seats at the very front of the bus.

A lady with a baby in a pram and a toddler (maybe 3?) got on the bus. She walked down the aisle past me and parked her pram, and said to the bus at large, 'Can someone move for my son please?'

I was always brought up to think that children make room for adults - for example they give up a seat for someone, not the other way round. Anyway a few mins later I turned around again and the woman was sitting in a priority seat with her son on her lap!

AIBU to think that 1) she shouldn't have asked for a seat for her son and 2) she shouldn't have sat in a priority seat herself once it had been vacated?

She then got off two stops later! I'm genuinely not sure if it's just me or not.

Ffs yabu

I've seen 3 year olds on small beams, standing on one leg with the other in near full splits.

Good for those kids but that certainly isn’t normal 3 year old behaviour.

Anyway OP

You were sitting in a priority seat yourself ! Those raised seats in London are priority seats too

So people in glass houses and all that

I've never seen any 3 year olds do full split on a balance beam. I've seen many of them fall over their own feet though, often without provocation.

I think flowerpot's experience with three year olds might be coming from Chinese Olympic bootcamps. That's the only explanation I can think of.

Snort.

Also, I'm not sure this is a peculiarly British thing so much as a peculiarly fuckwit thing. I've used a lot of public transport in the UK and have generally found people to be sensible about young children. Perhaps I've just been lucky, but I've never encountered anyone as divorced from reality as the posters here who think 3 year olds shouldn't be priority for seats on buses.

And it isn't a young child being given a priority seat, it is a mother with a young child being given a priority seat, so she can sit down with the child on her lap. She shouldn't have needed to ask as, presumably, most of the other people on the bus were able bodied adults. They should be thoroughly ashamed of themselves for not offering. Why didn't you offer OP?

Flowerpot, my then 3.5yo and my then 18mo learned to jump (ie with both feet lifting up from a flat surface and down again) at the same time.

Both perfectly normal. Yes, you heard it here, on Mumsnet.

The fact that some talented toddlers and pre-schoolers can do gymnastics, doesn't mean that all toddlers and pre-schoolers can balance on a moving bus.

Bananas post was spot on. Strange how only the issue of disability is 'trotted out.' Other subjects are just posted about without the need for a dismissive term to describe it. Nasty attitude.

I've seen 3 year olds on small beams, standing on one leg with the other in near full splits.

Unless gymnastics has changed an awful lot since I last watched it, the beam tends not to travel about, lurching suddenly and making frequent stops. Not even the special small beams.

*So if you were in a priority seat and someone asked to sit down, you would refuse unless they were visibly disabled/disabled enough for your liking?

Do you have any idea how bigoted that is? How much damage attitudes like that hurt people with invisible disabilities?*

I wouldn’t sit in a priority seat but if someone asked me to move then I would assume they had a disability or were pregnant and just move. How nice of you to make all those assumptions from a few lines of post though. 🖕🏻

Soup

I more wavy hand when it’s a toddler, but I have seen parents demand a seat for children 7 and up, asking adults to vacate a seat so they can sit together. No, that is so not happening. Half term week is always fun when a family from the sticks gets on a busy commuter train and try to pass ag a group of complete strangers to stand ‘so they can sit together’

Toddlers are people too, and are deserving of a seat. If the Bus has an accident the child would be safer in a seat. I teach my son to move for elderly, pregnant or disabled people. Anyone else no. He trumps an adult in my mind.

The simple soloution for those who sit in priority seating who cannot understand the signage or don’t think anybody needs it more despite them being able bodied.

Just don’t sit in them

I really think British people are generally nice. I have got lots of help, and also seen people being helped.
Maybe the Mum on OP's bus wasn't a nice person, thus negative the reaction from OP?
Some people can be very entitled and rude. I once held the door for a lady with a buggy. She just passed without saying anything, totally ignoring me.

BakedBeans47 upthread you posted that if you'd been in a priority seat and someone asked you to move you would refuse! You've done a total 180!

Well, that' great, isn't it? People can change their mind.

LaurieMarlow

I've never seen any 3 year olds do full split on a balance beam. I've seen many of them fall over their own feet though, often without provocation.

Still keeping on and on and on are we LaurieMarlow? The way you are behaving, no wonder you don't see 3 year olds doing full split on a beam. I'm surprised you can see anything through all that cotton wool you're using.

That's the only explanation I can think of.

Thankfully, your lack of mental ability to think wider is only your problem, and not mine.

^^
?!
I do not understand this. A 3 year old will not be confident on a moving, unpredictable bus. It would be outright dangerous.

2-3 stops are manageable with a 3yo standing, I do it daily with my DT to go to school, I just hold their hands and lean against a wall and it is fine.
More than 3 stops we would need seats though so I would say YA a bit U

hamburgler I didn’t mention sitting in a priority seat. I wouldn’t sit in one of those. I have stood up for other people when been in non priority seats though. It’s not only priority seat sitters who get up is it?

Perhaps the people who don't understand the signage are exactly the people who should use the priority seating NeedsAsockamnesty!!!

Oh and I have never known anyone ask for a seat either here.

And before anyone pulls up their judgy pants, read it in the context it was meant!!

What is going on on mn lately?!

Shaming breastfeeding mother's, men's depressing is an excuse to get out of housework, toddlers should be forced to stand on buses so they don't upset able bodied adults...
I worry about some of you lot