Noise on trains

[Flower884]

Why do parents think it’s ok to let their child listen to a children’s programme loud on a train with no earphones?

I’ve experienced this a few times now on trains and planes. They seem oblivious to the noise.

Another lady has just asked the mum to turn it down as she’s trying to work. The mums response - well my child can’t hear it!

Leighhalf great keep swearing, just don't complain when kids are just acting like kids on train tho because swearing is far worse.

I feel like headphones are becoming less popular in general for use in public, so it's probably not that surprising that people don't get them for their children either. Why is this though? Was there some memo that went around in about 2012 saying "everyone else on the train really wants to hear whatever you're listening to, share the love!" and some of us missed it?

@GoldenOmber

I can see that you really very much want to argue with somebody who thinks that parents should just ur bubz ur rulez hun their way through life doing whatever the hell they want, and that you dearly want that person to be me, but no amount of "yet ANOTHER straw man from you! TYPICAL of your IRRESPONSIBLE DISHONEST WAYS!" is going to make that person be me.

It's crystal clear to me that you are an educated, middle-class parent with the huge confidence and superiority complex that comes along with that.

It doesn't mean that you're not creating endless straw men (you are), avoiding answering questions, selectively quoting, distorting and misrepresenting my posts and other sources, and promoting advice that I believe (with evidence already discussed) causes real damage to parents who, unlike you, are vulnerable, disadvantaged and struggling with parenting.

I guess it just gives your own kids even more of an advantage though, so I can see why you're in no hurry to challenge it.

Swearing is far worse than a 2 year old watching Peppa pig.
Unless you're 2, it's not

It doesn't mean that you're not creating endless straw men (you are), avoiding answering questions, selectively quoting, distorting and misrepresenting my posts and other sources, and promoting advice that I believe (with evidence already discussed) causes real damage to parents who, unlike you, are vulnerable, disadvantaged and struggling with parenting.

God in heaven.

You know that moment in the 1992 classic Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves when Kevin Costner says "Did I wrong you in a past life, Will Scarlett?"

I am 'avoiding answering' your questions because you don't actually want to discuss anything, you just want to yell at me for whatever it is you have convinced yourself I have said. To recap, what you've said to me so far:
"You win the prize for the most dishonest quoting of anything, ever"
"the most dishonest I've ever known someone to be in an online discussion"
"hurling out straw men left, right and centre"
"there you go again"
"OK, now I think you just don't understand what it says, rather than being deliberately dishonest (giving you the benefit of the doubt)"

I see now we've moved on to my background, social class, (absence of) struggles with parenting and 'huge confidence and superiority complex'.

And what terrible awful things did I say to warrant this? That letting a child have an iPad "even if it WAS a problem, isn't going to do much on a one-off journey".

I can only conclude that I have, in fact, wronged you in a past life, and can only apologise.

Things that annoyed me on my commute into the office this morning:

2 men having a booming conversation with one another less than a foot apart
The man who wouldn't take his backpack off
The woman applying her makeup...including foundation
The woman talking loudly on her mobile phone
The woman i was squashed into, their cigarette breath

Peppa pig would have had nothing on these issues for me.

Strawberry so it's ok for adults to swear on public transport in front of children then but it's not ok for 2 year olds to watch Peppa pig?

well if they had headphones on while watching Peppa then they wouldn't be able to hear the swearing, so...

No but every other child would 😠

Strawberry so it's ok for adults to swear on public transport in front of children then but it's not ok for 2 year olds to watch Peppa pig?

What if it was this version (warning not safe for work or anywhere else do not view if easily offended) ?

Plus it's double standards, the posters complaining about kids behaving like kids are the same ones who think it's acceptable to swear around kids. No its not.

I’d pay a premium for a properly enforced quiet carriage

So would I. I'm often travelling 2-4 hours on business trips, and need to work in that time. But my public sector employer will not reimburse me for First Class train tickets.

I find GWR trains (long distance ones) better for the train managers enforcing the Quiet Carriage expectations of behaviour. Although not from Paddington to Reading. I have come to despise those commuters - selfish loud manspreaders.

I'm a railway guard. I mostly work on inter-regional services (journeys of 1-3 hours, stopping every ten minutes on average). On Tuesday, a tablet was playing Peppa Pig at full volume (give me a tantrum any day rather than that cartoon) so when I got to their part of the carriage I asked the mother to find some headphones or turn the volume down. She was most affronted but I politely persisted until she had done so.

Later in the journey there was a teenage boy (13 or so) playing hip hop or whatever the music might have been loudly for all to hear. Again, I drew his attention to the fact that not everyone has the same taste in music. A passenger commended me on alighting (over an hour later) for 'eloquently' dealing with the noise (I didn't ask which bit of noise, both were in the same part of the train).

Last week, I was off duty and going to Manchester for a concert. A woman was playing a video without headphones. She was wearing headphones but they weren't actually plugged into the offending device. I pointed out that headphones tend to work better when actually plugged in. A man sat in the seat behind her shook my hand.

None of the trains I work have a quiet coach (where you would expect a library atmosphere with conversation limited to whispering and non-leaking headphones in use) but noise elsewhere should still be kept down to a reasonable level.

I have no objection to parents playing eye spy, reading a book or even letting their kids use a tablet quietly. Kids running up and down the aisle are frankly still less intrusive than that bloody pig.

Those who do use devices to project noise out for all to hear are actually committing an offence under Byelaw 7:
7(1) Except with written permission from an Operator no person on the railway shall, to the annoyance of any person:
(i) sing; or
(ii) use any instrument, article or equipment for the production or
reproduction of sound.
Byelaw 6 covers threatening, abusive, obscene or offensive language as well as littering and other Anti-Social Behaviours. Again, I've no qualms about stepping in to tell someone to tone their language down.

I never work on trains but i do expect to travel without listening to someone else's digital device. In general, try and live life without impacting others negatively.

I was on a train yesterday and was treated to pj masks at full volume. The parent of said child just ignored and closed his eyes,

I don't swear on public transport. I do however swear on MN.

Fuck me it's hard work 🤣

If you let your child make noise on a device with no headphones then I promise you I’ll have a very sweary phone call.

Just spent a miserable hour on a Great Western train sat near a child of 5 or 6 playing a cartoon on his iPad with no headphones.
Irritating as hell.

Just like the 41.5% of children in deprived areas who are overweight or obese are not having an 'occasional' McDonalds, but are having their bodies destroyed by a constant diet of junk and no exercise.

There is a link between poverty, poor diet, and obesity. Its not so much that these children in deprived areas are having constant McDonald's, its that the cheapest food available is often the most unhealthy.

Chardonnay yes that's the way to act like an adult. Why should all tne other kids and parents have to listen to your swearing phone call just because 1 kid is watchingPeppa pig? My kids have been brought up to be tolerant of others, they use headphones and behave but they have also been taught to be tolerant of others One thing I will not tolerate is so called adults swearing around them esp when it's someone so far up their own but they are doing it in response to a toddler.

Ddraig - you rule!

@DdraigGoch I wish everyone working on the trains was like you. I work with the public and I understand it can sometimes be intimidating to stand up to people but far too often the people working on the trains I'm on completely ignore people doing these things.

@DdraigGoch you need to clone yourself and have multiple versions of you working on the LNER between Leeds and Kings Cross. Too many people are scared of saying something for fear of a huge argument in public.

@DdraigGoch

Thank you thank you thank you thank you!!!!!

Trains need people like you working on them. Thank you from a grateful regular long-distance traveller.

@DdraigGoch I wish there were more people like you!

Actually, I just remembered the time I was sitting waiting for a doctor's appointment and a small child (I'm going to guess around 4 or 5) was playing a game on a mobile phone with the volume turned up.

I tolerated it for a moment, then I asked the mother to please turn the volume down. She responded, "well, I can try and get him to do it but I can't promise", and gave me a sympathetic smile, as though I'd understand how difficult this particular parenting minefield was.

I think this just about sums up the attitude of so many people. Don't want to risk upsetting the kid at the expense of courtesy to everyone else and don't want to deal with a potential tantrum because that's too much like hard work.