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

I wouldn't expect a child to move for me.

Travelling with a small child is stressful enough, without having them wriggling on your lap with someone else squeezed into the seat next to you!

Yes, as have mine. If I’m lucky enough to have DGC I will sit them on my lap so that an adult can sit.

I call that manners and common sense.

Will you ask the child if they're comfortable?
Will you ask the parents if they'd prefer the child to be more or less confortable or even safe?

I still am struggling why it is good manners for a toddler to sit on a lap rather than have their own seat. Why are they not entitled to have a seat of their own?

yes they are small and can sit on a lap but I still don’t understand what that has to do with anything. I can sit on my husband’s lap to free up a space if it was at a premium but no one would expect me to do that.

would you make your 12 year old grandchild get up for an able bodied adult just because they are a child.

Which is against the railway conditions or carriage if they haven't paid

Very old advice, which has just never been updated.

Still in force then

No, it isn't. 🤣

So it’s purely about payment that’s it? If there is any payment, even 10p towards the ticket then there is no issue? It’s nothing to do with space and freeing up a seat for someone else and nothing to do with ‘respect’ for adults?

It's good manners for all of us to help our fellow humans where we can.

Small humans, aged 3, can generally sit on a parent's lap with comparative ease.

The seats around a train table for four could therefore be maximised to seat five or six people in moderate comfort (squashed in a bit, yes), rather than four seated comfortably and two forced to stand.

It's not a case of being entitled. It's a case of trying to be nice to strangers and encouraging your children to do the same.

Is it? I've never seen anyone enforce it.

Depends if booking seats is available. If I reserve a seat and someone tried saying but I was here first, they’d still be moving! If no reservations and the child is there first I’d not expect them to be moved. I’d also jump to offer my seat to someone if they were elderly, pregnant, with kids etc travelling with children is difficult enough as it is

Yes, just as I was expected to. No 12 year old who is well and healthy should be sitting while adults stand.

A 3 year old sitting on my lap frees up a seat for someone else!!! That is surely not hard to understand.

I would have expected my 12yo to stand for an adult. My DC are young adults now and would stand for older adults.

So adults all have to stand for someone older than them?

So a 12 year old who has just played 3 hours of sport and is shattered and exhausted and has just sat down is expected to get up for a 20 year old man who is off out for night out?

Grown humans are perfectly able to stand, unless they have a disability.

No adult who is well and healthy should feel they're somehow owed the 12 year old's seat.

A 3 year old is also entitled to travel comfortably and safely, as is their parent. Surely that's not hard to understand.

Why? I'm a well and healthy adult...I don't think I deserve a seat any more than a 12 year old does. Why would I?

Nobody has to do anything, but generally we like to work on the principle of making everyone's life easier if we can. My 24yo, healthy, strong, has no problems standing. So if there aren't enough seats to go round, he does. My daughter is diabetic, and when her blood sugar is behaving badly, she'd rather sit. You wouldn't be able to tell by looking at her. So my son standing because he can, means that there's more likely to be a seat for someone like his sister, when she can't.

A 3 year is comfortable enough in my lap.

A seat should not be occupied by a small child when an adult needs one.

Thankfully we don't all have to follow your rules.

That’s honestly very lovely of your son but honestly I can’t imagine anyone, after working a 8-10 hour day and is shattered and hungry and desperate to go home but has an hour long tube commute head of them, going I will stand the whole way back so a random stranger can have my seat as they might have an unseen health condition. I am very able bodied and would give my seat up to someone who needs it (including a small child if necessary) but if no one seems to need it more than me I’m taking it and not giving it up!