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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Bus weirdo! Should I have moved?

353 replies

Baternburg · 12/09/2020 17:48

Was on the bus home from town with my DS, almost 1 year. We’d gone in to buy supplies for his birthday cake. On the bus there is a space for wheelchairs/buggies so I put the buggy there as usual and sat down on the little fold down seat next to it, and started to give baby a bottle as he was getting hungry.
I get a tap on the shoulder and turn round to see a man, no mask on, smelling of booze, telling me I can’t sit there as I’m sitting too close to him. Now, there were perhaps 6 other people on the bus and it was a double decker, so plenty of space where he could have moved. I said to him ‘no, I’m feeding my baby’ and turned around back to face pram. Get another tap and turned round, said ‘can you stop touching me’ and turned back around. Man then says again I need to move, 2 metres distance etc. Again without a mask on. I say ‘I’m not moving at the moment as I’m feeding my baby’. He then attempts to fold up my chair WHILE I’m sitting on it. I said again ‘don’t touch me’ and turned away again because I could see him getting agitated and I didn’t want a scene or want things to escalate, even though I wanted to call him a miserable bastard. He then says he’s going to tell the driver, and gets up and over to the driver. Old lady across from us has a go at him as well. The driver tells me there is another seat on the other side of the buggy so I can turn the buggy around. I didn’t realise this seat was there as it’s also a fold up one and it’s kind of folded into a wheelchair pad thing so looks like it’s just part of that. So I do go and sit there l, again I’m not wanting to make a scene or stoop to the weirdo’s level. As I’m leaving the bus the bus driver thanks me for moving and apologises, says if someone spoke to his wife like that he’d give them a swift punch.

So my question is should I have moved in this situation and was I being unreasonable for sitting closer to the man in order that I could sit next to the buggy to give baby a bottle?

OP posts:
MrsBrunch · 12/09/2020 18:14

@ElfAndSafetyBored

I can’t believe these answers.

OP had baby and a buggy. It does rather limit your seat choice on a bus. On a near empty bus, which right-minded unencumbered person wouldn’t just move to another seat if they wanted more space?
First come first served isn’t always right.

If the man hadn't said anything, they would have been sitting too close to each other and OP would have put herself, her baby and anyone else she meets at risk. That's the whole point of social distancing. Not to plop yourself down and expect someone else to take responsibility for your carelessness.
WorraLiberty · 12/09/2020 18:15

@ElfAndSafetyBored

I can’t believe these answers.

OP had baby and a buggy. It does rather limit your seat choice on a bus. On a near empty bus, which right-minded unencumbered person wouldn’t just move to another seat if they wanted more space?
First come first served isn’t always right.

Which right-minded person would be rude enough to just plonk themselves down, without asking the person whose space they were encroaching upon, if it was ok?
Baternburg · 12/09/2020 18:15

I’m not sure how some of you experience buses but on the buses I take it’s pretty tricky to manoeuvre a baby from their buggy and sit on a seat, the drivers don’t generally stop for you to do that as it’s expected usually that they’ll stay in their buggy. I’ve literally never seen someone taking their baby out the buggy on the bus.
I guess yes he could have had a disability but I’m just used to drunk/drugged people using the buses in my area so I assumed he was just drunk. I should also say I wasn’t within a very close distance of him, the seat was fairly spaced out. I was more surprised that someone without a mask and coming closer to me. tapping my shoulder repeatedly and then physically trying to remove me out of my chair.
I also did not argue with him at any point so not sure why people assume I did? I asked him why he couldn’t move, the lady across from us said the same to him. He was slurring his words.
I’m literally the least rude and entitled person haha so I’m quite suprised by these answers

OP posts:
BubblyBarbara · 12/09/2020 18:16

I don’t get why you’re getting a negative reaction here, that space is specifically for you. I imagine a lot of people on this thread are the type to not move for pregnant women or the disabled either

DioneTheDiabolist · 12/09/2020 18:17

YANBU OP. It's only common sense that he should move further away from the buggy bit. Unfortunately common sense seems to be in short supply these days.🙄

WorraLiberty · 12/09/2020 18:18

I’m not sure how some of you experience buses but on the buses I take it’s pretty tricky to manoeuvre a baby from their buggy and sit on a seat

Yeah most buses are like that and always have been but it's doable.

And if for whatever reason you felt it wasn't, you should have politely asked the man if he didn't mind, as you needed to feed your baby.

That's just manners.

SheepandCow · 12/09/2020 18:18

Whatever the rights and wrongs, it was very unprofessional of the bus driver to tell you he would've punched someone.

TheSeedsOfADream · 12/09/2020 18:19

That space is NOT for buggies.
It's for the disabled, elderly and people who need it which can include mothers and babies. But only if neither of the other groups is present.

angeltop · 12/09/2020 18:20

Yep, and entitled also,

Baternburg · 12/09/2020 18:21

Also I’m in no way saying I deserve that seat were a disabled person, less mobile person, pregnant person, elderly person to need a seat. I would have offered them my seat straight away, as I always do. But I suppose I then expect the some courtesy given to me if I’m using the buggy/wheelchair space for its intended purpose.

OP posts:
Baternburg · 12/09/2020 18:22

@WorraLiberty
I literally did. I asked him. I said I’m feeding my baby, could you move. He proceeded to try folding my chair up while I’m sitting in it.

OP posts:
Baternburg · 12/09/2020 18:23

@TheSeedsOfADream
It is for buggies. It has a sign up. Wheelchairs have priority then prams afterwards

OP posts:
Lolwhat · 12/09/2020 18:24

yabu, he was there first I don’t know why you think you’re entitled to things just because you have a child

IntermittentParps · 12/09/2020 18:24

which right-minded unencumbered person wouldn’t just move to another seat if they wanted more space?

He might not have been 'unencumbered'. He might be unable to safely or comfortably stand up on a moving bus and move elsewhere.

OP, YABU, obviously.

DioneTheDiabolist · 12/09/2020 18:24

There may not be buggy spaces on the buses you use @TheSeedsOfADream, but there certainly are on lots of other buses.

WorraLiberty · 12/09/2020 18:25

[quote Baternburg]@WorraLiberty
I literally did. I asked him. I said I’m feeding my baby, could you move. He proceeded to try folding my chair up while I’m sitting in it.[/quote]
And that was very rude.

"Excuse me, do you mind if I sit here? I just need to feed my baby".

At least that's how most pleasant people I encounter tend to talk.

user781210 · 12/09/2020 18:27

[quote Baternburg]@WorraLiberty
I literally did. I asked him. I said I’m feeding my baby, could you move. He proceeded to try folding my chair up while I’m sitting in it.[/quote]
How do you know that he didn't need to sit at the front of the bus due to a disability? It seems unfair to ask him to move when he may need to be seated at the front.

Heyahun · 12/09/2020 18:28

Lolz at him being so bothered about someone being too near him and then touches you several times - if he was that bothered he surely would have moved. He sounds like an idiot tbh!

ilovesooty · 12/09/2020 18:29

You deliberately encroached into his space and expected him to move though he was there first. You were rude. Since you seem to think the other people on the bus validated your behaviour and you think you were in the right, I don't see why you're asking.

Baternburg · 12/09/2020 18:29

@WorraLiberty
Maybe you misunderstood me. I didn’t sit next to him so there was no reason for me to ask if I could sit there. I wasn’t particularly close to him, I’d say around 2 metres. I didn’t plonk myself right next to him. The man just took offence to me sitting there.

OP posts:
SunbathingDragon · 12/09/2020 18:29

@Baternburg

Yes he was there first but he could have easily moved to another seat and let me sit next to baby in buggy, rather than take baby out and carry him and bags to another seat where I potentially could have fallen over. It seems the same as someone giving their seat up to someone less able to stand than them in my view, common courtesy?
YABU and you didn’t need to take the bags. They could have stayed in the pram as just needed your baby and bottle. It was quiet on the bus so you could have just watched the bags.

Putting your pram where you did wasn’t an issue as nobody else had a need for that space. However, the seats by it aren’t a given whereas maintaining social distancing should be.

I’m trying to visualise where the other seat was that you hadn’t come across before and hadn’t realised was there because seats in buses tend to be in the same locations. If your baby was that desperate for a bottle though, I will assume s/he is very young so perhaps you haven’t needed to use that area of a bus before.

Baternburg · 12/09/2020 18:31

Maybe this isn’t clear. I didn’t sit next to him. My seat was a space away from him. I didn’t encroach on his space. He literally had to stretch over, bum off his seat, to tap me repeatedly asking me to move. There’s no reason I should have asked permission to sit there. He just took offence to me sitting there for some reason.

OP posts:
Baternburg · 12/09/2020 18:32

@SunbathingDragon it’s hard to describe but it’s part of a cushioned wheelchair padding bar thing, so it just looks like part of that. I didn’t realise it folds down into a seat.

OP posts:
User3627290 · 12/09/2020 18:34

He was being an arsehole. You had a buggy, of course you were going to sit in a buggy space. Instead of vastly increasing his exposure by talking to you, touching you and messing around with your seat he could very easily have moved to be further away from the buggy space. Regardless of who was there first / any pointless questions about ‘entitlement’, a nice and normal person would have been sensible and accommodating.

Some of these responses are ridiculous and you should take them with a huge pinch of salt - mumsnet users tend to view taking a buggy on a bus as akin to a hate crime.

Baternburg · 12/09/2020 18:34

@SunbathingDragon I also don’t live in an area where I could have left the bags in the pram

OP posts: