pregnant communters?

[tyaca]

aggghhhhhhh!

its killing me. i can just about cope with work, but the 2 1/2 round trip is close to finishing me off....think someday someone's going to find me asleep on a platform at clapham junction.....

Can you change your hours? You are entitled to ask for flexible working while pg if the commuting has the potential to affect your health.

Man, in Hong Kong the rush hour trains are a Darwinian melee.

Whenever I spot a pregnant woman, I have to make eye contact with her and motion her over to where I'm sitting. Then we do a swift little move to swap so there's a bum on the seat for all but a microsecond, otherwise someone else will dive in and plonk their arse there. You certainly couldn't stand up and then wait for her to make her way down the carriage, the seat would be long gone to some middle-aged man obstinantly staring off into space.

I really am stunned by the selfishness of communters. How can you look at a pregnant woman without thinking about your own mother carrying you?

or your wife carrying your babies for that matter, ninedragons. that;s truly nuts.

it does seem to be the case that young men are a lot better than older men on public transport. and with women, i think age they are either seat giver-uppers or not, regardless of age.

(this is just an impression i get from MN - the one person who ever gave me a seat was a woman)

when i am showing a bit more, i am going to try to start a week long MN poll to find who who gives up their seat the most. a demographic thing if you will. eg grey suit (male), suit (female), ASBO, tourist, etc etc!!

Well I have just had one of this morning! I too have a 3h commute. Turned up at the station at 6.52 just to find out that my train company is striking. There were only two trains left to london, and there was no way I was going to get in, or if I did I would have stood the whole way being squashed. When I was pgt with DD1 I would have done it, today I just turned back and went home.

I know what you mean about being invisible. When I was expcting DD1, I was huge and people just couldn't see me even with the "baby on board" sign. The few times I was given a seat (and I could count them on my fingers througout my pgy) it was by women. Men just think well teaches you for being pgt, I didn't put you in that state.

there were time when there was a particularly horrid men and I wished I had morning sickness and could puke all over them. Then they couln't have ignored you could they? Unfortunately (for that purpose only) I don't have morning sickness

silverlink, needahand? i had to make a detour to get to ken olympia this morning, but luckily i'd seen a sign last night at a station so i knew in advance

6.52 is an AWFUL start time, good for you for turning back.

my first train this morning was full of people from the cancelled train before. i just sat back and let them all cram on sardine style, an got the next one.

god - sorry, i am a commuting bore! but then i figure i spend full day doing it each week (12 hours plus) - which would make it quite a keen hobby, eg equiv to spending six hours sat AND sunday on an alottment, or being a yoga junkie who's also training for a 10k run!!!!

How did you guess tyaca? yep I agree 6.52 is an awful time to start but I won't even get there otherwise I will start the mother of all rants about my commute, my boss etc.

I am glad I did turn back as otherwise I am sure I would have been stranded in london tonight.

Agree with your comment re leisure. Isn't it sad to think that we are spending our leisure time in a train (and a not very comfy one at that!)

How did you guess tyaca? yep I agree 6.52 is an awful time to start but I won't even get there otherwise I will start the mother of all rants about my commute, my boss etc.

I am glad I did turn back as otherwise I am sure I would have been stranded in london tonight.

Agree with your comment re leisure. Isn't it sad to think that we are spending our leisure time in a train (and a not very comfy one at that!)

sympathies tyaca. You may have seen me waddling through Clapham Junction this week. I am 20 weeks, but look huge and feel very uncomfortable, and have had to stand on trains. I have asked once to sit down and it was ok, but generally don't dare. I have also sat in First Class, but not been asked to produce my ticket yet. I think I would refuse to pay up tbh.

My boss has also said that I can get a later train in in the morning which is helpful. In the evening though, all trains are packed from about 4-7pm.

I do sometimes think that I might pull the emergency cord and stop the train just so I get a seat

pollyanna i shall look out for you amd smile at all pg women at clapham junction.

so if you ever see a woman with frizzy hair and boots that look like they're made out of a jumper grinning your way on platforms 2/13/15/17 (i get around!!) then don't be scared....

hi tyaca - luckily I've had an obvious bump for ages. Get on the victoria line from finsbury pk to victoria every day. Short but brutal.

Anyway I reckon about 90% of the time it's women. Firstly I think cause women are more likely to notice that you look a bit fat and then think you might be pregnant, because women look and pay attention to how people look more. Whereas men categorise women's body shapes in less subtle ways. Skinny. Nice tits. Fat. And also cause men are just more "dur". (Can't really think of a better way to articulate this).

Think if I was a man and a women offered her seat before me I'd feel quite ashamed and offer mine instead. That's never happened.

To be fair to all commuters once I am in my seat I don't look up again and an elephant could be standing in front of me and I wouldn't notice.

Right that's my ramblings for the end of the day. Have a nice weekend.

tyaca i'll see you on platform 13!

I'm the cross looking one with my head in a trashy magazine! (I worked at home today - it was bliss )

Wow I can't believe how rude people can be when commuting. I hated it when I wasn't pregnant and used to yell at people. Yes, I was the mad Scottish woman screaming at people on Oxford Circus tube station every morning when the people getting on the train wouldn't let us lot getting off the train, off!

Now I am in Amsterdam and cycle to work - it kills me and I have already been run down by a car once! Even yesterday when looking rather pregnant (18+4 weeks) not one bastard gave up their seat for me on the packed tram and I had to stand for the whole 20 minute journey. I was fuming!

I can't stand it. I take the piccadilly or victoria line every day. Am now 36 weeks pg, and still don't usually get a seat - although to be fair I did 3 times last week (that's 3 times out of 10 journeys).

It feels like as soon as you enter the carriage everyone thinks oh ffs pg bird - pretend to be asleep!

Like the thread name - I do feel like a munter at the moment - so that does make me a communter rather than a commuter!

When is was pregnant with DS i found it was generally men who gave me up their seats . I used to do picadilly and then central line to work. Trying to get on at russell square in rush hour was a nightmare tho i have to admit sometimes i prefered to stand by the door so i could get some air when it was esp busy and hot.
Plus i used totravel with a guy from work who made sure i got a seat. A couple of times when no one offered he would say(very loudly) 'you must find it very tiring having to stand in your condition', it ususally worked

Stood all the way to work today. Now get an overground train into Victoria and then get on the Victoria Line that this morning had been shut for 15minuts. It is hell. I feel incredibly homicidal right now! I HATE HATE HATE commuters. Why can't they just glance up from papers and books? RARRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!

So sorry to hear you had a bad morning CL. I know exactly how you feel, but finally today someone offered me a seat- I almost cried!

Rage when I don't get offered a seat, floods of tears when I do!

Been there, done that. Hated it, but thankfully was able to get a seat on my train every day. If i had to take the tube however, that was a completely different story!!!

So glad i'm on mat leave now and enjoying being out of the rat race for a good few months!!

ClaphamLauren - I sympathise - it's horrible when it's really crowded. When I've been in a similar situation, I have actually asked for a seat once or twice (always asked a middle-aged man, never a woman) and they've always jumped up straightaway. I think that sometimes you have to be a little more bolshy than normal - only a few oddballs would ever refuse to get up, I would have thought.

AHHHH! this isnt even a preg rant, just a commuting one . indulge me fellow communters....!

today, worked in a dif location - my commute should have been under an hour to get home. BUT spend 50min on a v cold platform with no info at all about why the last three trains hadn't come... except for the following announcement after forty min:

"this is a message for customers on platform 3. we apologise, there has been a delay"!!!

then, ten min later, we were advised to take the tube which had appeared on another platform. sprint to said tube, even tho' the detour will add an hour to my journey. lo and behold, just as tube - with me in it - starts moving, i can see MY train appear on the other platform -- total communt time today: 2hrs 15min

i won't even start on the guy who wouldnt stand up to let me out of train this morning til the very last moment. he was rolling a ciggarette. when i said "excuse me" for the second time, he said in a v shitty voice "you've got time"....

AGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHh

OMG tyaca - I would have hit him!

I fell on a tram this week after dropping my ticket and when i bent to pick it up, the bloody tram moved off and I went flying. Only one wee foreign man came to help me. He was lovely but I was fuming at the other idiots who just stared at me.

This is why I have started driving to work - I am guaranteed a comfy seat, lots of fresh air and there's no hanging about.
Admittedly I don't start until 2pm but the extra costs in congestion charge and parking are well worth it to avoid the hell that is London Underground.

ty for the sympathy Daisynova. this morning was hell again. whole of train netweork in south london seems to have failed and stuck on a freezing cold platform for best part of 45min this morning/ grrrrrrr

also, have now finished work, but cause of strikes, next train not til twenty to eight so just faffing around WHEN I COULD BE AT HOME. ON SOFA. WITH RUG ON ME.

i really dont want to continue my commute when i get pregnant..cant even begin to imagine victoria line at evening rush hour for the 20 mins i have to be on it then my busy train to herts!

starts to seriously consider new job!

i would always give up my seat to a pg woman, i can only hope the favour will be returned to me when my time comes!

x

Really sympathise. Have done two pregnancies on the Victoria line and people are absolute pigs. In my experience it was Eastern European men who always gave up their seats, and women who looked in their 20s who pretended not to see me. And buses are definitely the worst - I have never been offered a seat on a bus. I started to leave home very early to avoid the worse crowds and so I could leave work earlier, and I also became very assertive - 'could someone give me their seat please' worked if said loud enough, although there was often a bit of shuffling and crafty glances to check to see if anyone else was doing it first. One time a lovely woman gave me her seat and had a conversation with me in a very loud voice all about how disgraceful it was that I was standing and how it shouldn't happen, bless her. Once I gave up my seat to a guy on crutches - it is pretty unbelievable how selfish Londoners can be.