It is a very well known courtesy to give priority of the seats on the train, especially when it’s an elderly, woman with kids, disabled person or pregnant lady. Even more so if it’s sardine-packed.
However, some people are ignorant or just plain oblivious to their surroundings that it makes your jaw drop.
In a recent Facebook post by a pregnant lady, she complains of her unfortunate encounter with a young male on the train who did not bother to move and offer his seat to her.
Her post writes:
“I’m currently 8 months pregnant. I was so tired from work and boarded the train and hoping to get a seat in the train. There’s this guy who was sitting on the reserved seat and I was standing right in front of him. He looked and ignored me and act as if he didn’t see me with his hao lian(proud face) and continue looking at his phone and lastly he falls asleep.
There’s one 50-60 years old malay uncle who’s seated at the reserved seat right opposite look at him and was so pissed off, he decided to offer me his seat instead. I’m really sad to see this kinda thing happen in our society.
Please help share and create awareness!”
It’s pretty sad to hear that an elderly man had to give up his seat instead while this young man didn’t do anything at all!
Many shared her pain of facing ignorant people like him, where a young adult would sit comfortably in the supposed reserved seat while the elderly or pregnant woman would have to stand. Even if the seat was not a reserved seat, many argued that it should be common courtesy to offer the seat anyway.
While there are people who understood her pain, others gave the man the benefit of the doubt that he was too pre-occupied with his phone (which is a whole other issue by itself), and he didn’t mean to purposely ignore her. They suggested that she should’ve asked for the seat from him if she really needed it badly.
So what do you think? Should the pregnant lady ask for a seat from the man or should he have been more aware of his surrounding and be courteous?
