Children having their own seat on a packed train.

[user1493559472]

I am on a packed train. A child who is about 3 years old is sat in their own seat and not on the parents lap, would you ask to sit down and the child sits on parents lap? People were standing.
Thank you

It is very selfish to expect two individuals to be uncomfortable for your benefit.

Yes, they are still small, which is why they can sit on parents' laps.

Have you ignored the 3 replies addressing this?

No they cannot. Stop just parroting incorrect information. Adults can stand much more easily than two people can share one chair!

Well no it doesn't help. Your opinion doesn't trump the rules.

National Rail don’t have any trains.

Better for a young child to be seated than standing as more likely to fall and harder for adults to see. However purely as a numbers thing if at all possible they should go on a parent's knee to free up an extra seat and have less crush in the standing space. Fair enough if the parent can't but I do think its selfish not to let an additional person sit if they can share one seat with their child.

Do you think they can sit on laps in cars too? They did in the 70s

It's not an opinion that it's unsafe though, it's factual.
The safety of a small child, and their parent, isn't less than that of an able bodied adult. I'm sorry you seem to have been brought up in a world where children didn't matter.

It's unsafe, regardless of what some of the entitled folk on here think.

Car travel is different e.g. we have seat belts in cars, but not on trains because safety considerations are different.

It depends where in the UK you are. It's completely where I am once you reach 65 for bus or train. There is also absolutely nothing I can find in the policies or passenger charter for our local rail service that states that under 5s need to sit on a parents lap. It says they may not be allocated a seat but my understanding of that would be that this is because they must be beside the adult accompanying them and due to being unable to travel alone.

I wouldn't ever think to ask for anyone elses seat unless I was really unwell and physically unable to stand. I certainly wouldn't take one off someone simply because i just wanted it.

It's still dangerous to sit a small child on the lap of a much larger person. HTH

I would try to convince my child, but realistically there is no chance my 3yo would agree to seat on my laps. And that's not a battle I would be ready to fight on a train...

This is a change I've noticed in my lifetime: when I was a child we were expected to stand up for an adult - it didn't always happen, but it was expected. No adult would ever have given up their seat for a child, which I have seen and also heard being suggested by parents: 'maybe a nice grown up will give you their seat, darling'. Not this adult!

I wouldn't have said anything in your shoes, OP, but the child should be on the parent's lap yes.

Because their sense of balance is worse. Because they could fall over onto someone and hurt both themselves and the person they fall on. Because they're much smaller than most commuters and are likely to get knocked about (accidentally, of course).

Ultimately anyone in more need of a seat should have one. That includes small children, people with disabilities, pregnant people and elderly people.

Tbh I think it's much better that as a society we are becoming more child-centric. I wouldn't ask someone to give their seat for my ds but on the whole i think it's extremely positive that the fact you are an adult doesn't mean you hold the same power over children as would have been the case in years gone by.

Still do in much of the world

Sense of balance? Mine has been crap for nigh on 50 years, both as a child and adult ( often occurs with hearing issues)

So by that reasoning I should've been give a seat as a child and stand as an adult despite balance no better

Times have changed indeed, we recognise children as equally important nowadays. That doesn't mean we don't discipline them, but rather that we value them too.

And?
We know it's unsafe.

No, I wouldn't.

Small "adults"? Of course not. But they are autonomous people with rights and are full members of society, the same as adults. But some people think children should be treated as extensions of their parents rather than people in their own right. They’re expected to be silent, invisible, or apologetic for existing in public, and their parents should be apologetic for choosing to have them by ensuring that everyone else's convenience comes before their own. Why? I have no idea.

Yes, i would expect them to sit on a parent's lap. That's why under 5s are free on public transport.

No, no, it's not.