A woman has said she refused to give up her bus seat for an elderly passenger when she was travelling with her daughter, as they deserved a seat too – and people agree with her
If you use public transport regularly, you’ll know that at certain times of the day it can be impossible to get a seat on the bus, meaning you have to stand up for the length of your journey. It’s also common courtesy in most circumstances that if you do have a seat, you offer to give it up for someone who needs it more than you.
This is especially true if you’re sitting in the priority seats at the front of the bus. But one woman has announced she recently refused to give up her seat for an elderly passenger, and while that would usually be frowned upon, people have told her she actually did the right thing.
In a post on Reddit, the woman shared that she was travelling on the bus with her daughter, her pregnant sister, and her nephew. Her daughter was two years old at the time and was able to walk, while her nephew was in a pushchair.
As they had a pushchair, the family decided to sit in the fold-down seats at the front of the bus. The woman stood up and held onto the stroller, while her sister sat down with her daughter on her lap.
A few stops later, an elderly woman got on the bus and demanded that the family move so that she could sit down. The woman, however, put her foot down and told her no. She indicated there were plenty of free seats on the bus so there was no need for them to move, and as her sister was pregnant, they felt they deserved the seats they were occupying.
Warning: The below Reddit post contains strong language.
She wrote: “An old woman came on, walked up to my sister and daughter and told my sister to move. This wasn’t a full bus; lots of double seats were empty, and the one behind my sister was empty. But the woman wanted this one.
“My sister’s pretty non-confrontational, so I said sorry, but no. She’s heavily pregnant and has my young daughter. The seat behind was free. Not good enough [for the woman], she wanted that one. More people were coming on, and the seats behind got taken, so she said my sister HAD to move now. Again, I said no.”
The woman claimed the bus then began to move from the stop, but there were still plenty of seats available. Although the elderly woman again tried to get the family to move, the woman told her she wouldn’t risk the health of her sister or her sister’s unborn child by getting them to move seats while the bus was in motion.
Eventually, the elderly passenger found a free seat and got off the bus just two stops later.
Commenters on the post were largely on the woman’s side. Many said that while they would happily give up their seat for someone in need in most cases, they would find it “cheeky” of someone to demand it when there were other seats free – especially if the person already sat down also needed a priority seat.
One person said: “Getting up on the bus to make someone older sit in that place is kindness, not a must. Especially if the woman who sits first is a pregnant woman with another child in a space for people who can’t move freely.
“This is why they are a little bigger, with something to help get up. If you are old but you can move, you can sit everywhere, and you don’t need that space.”
Another added: “The fact that she demanded instead of asking immediately put her into the 150% wrong category.”
A third wrote: “I once got up at the London tube to let a heavily pregnant lady sit, and before I could even say a word to her, a young girl sat down. The pregnant lady was wearing a ‘baby on board’ sign and told me she wore it so people wouldn’t push her… Crazy.”