Should he have given up his seat?
A man who refused to give up his seat on a busy train so that a pregnant woman could sit down is being ridiculed online for his stubbornness.
The man in question shared the story of his train ‘altercation’ on a Reddit forum called ‘Am I The Asshole’.
The post has received over 1300 comments, most of which describe the poster as the ‘asshole’ in the story and say that he should be ‘ashamed’ of himself.
He begins by saying “this happened just last night, and my family completely lost their minds at me about it. So here I am.
“I take the bus to and from work (car got totaled about a month ago, still waiting on insurance to reimburse me so I can get a new one),” he continued.
“This means limited seating. At my job, I’m literally on my feet all day, and I work 10 hour shifts.
“It sucks but the pay is good, so I can deal, but after a long day, my feet are sore AF. I genuinely cherish the time I spend sitting on the bus ride home, knowing I have to walk another 15-20 minutes to my house from the bus stop. Which means more time on my feet.
Man refuses to give up seat for pregnant woman because ‘he works long hours’
The man continued: “So last night I’m on the bus, and a very heavily pregnant lady gets on. She looks around for a seat, only to find there are no available ones left.
“I’m the closest to her, so she starts giving me the imploring eyes. I had my headphones on and tried to pretend I couldn’t see her, but once she started talking to me it became inevitable.
“I wasn’t rude or anything, I just told her no, I’ve had a long day and my feet are sore. I don’t want to give up my seat. She started crying about how she’s a pregnant single mom, and I told her I’m sorry, but that was her personal choice and she can’t expect other people to accommodate her life choices.
“We live in a state where birth control and abortions are free, so I don’t know why this should be my problem. It’s not my fault she decided to have a baby when she can’t afford a car.
“After going back and forth for a bit, an old man finally shouted that I’m a ‘worthless punk’ and offered his seat to the lady. He started ranting and raving about the ‘damn millennials’ and I just looked the other way and pretended I didn’t hear it.
“As they were trading seats, the bus driver had to slam the brakes for whatever reason, and the pregnant lady and the old man both fell. They started yelling at me, calling me all sorts of nasty names, but I just looked the other way and ignored it.
“When I got home and told my sister, she flipped the f**k out and went crying to our parents, who also chewed my ass out. But I was tired and had a long day, and I don’t know why we need to keep perpetuating the idea that breeding somehow means your entitled to people’s seats. I’m tired, too, we’re all tired in this pandemic. Am I the asshole, though?”
The top comment on the thread, with over 5000 votes reads: “Did you know that being heavily pregnant really alters your balance, let alone the tired thing?
“No – you didn’t ask her to be pregnant, but you can, as an able-bodied otherwise healthy person just choose to be nice. By being a selfhsh grumpy bugger a heavily pregnant person and an old person fell over. Bringing up the contraception/abortion/’breeding’ angle too really makes you an ass.
“I bet you’re a real ‘nice guy’.”
Another user said they were almost on the side of the man if it wasn’t for his rudeness and arrogance.
They commented: “Yeah I was kind of on his side except for all of the other s**t he decided to say lol.
“I participated in a chronic pain campaign a little while ago and mostly think that “no” should be an acceptable answer when refusing to give up a seat. It was out of line for that pregnant woman to continue badgering that one guy and for the old dude to jump in super late thinking he was going to be a hero or some shit.
“But lol “her choice to get pregnant”, “our state allows abortions”, brah, it doesn’t even follow the logic of the situation, he’s literally just being an AH at that point.”
One other person was relentless in their criticism of the man who refused to give up his seat.
They wrote: “You’re the asshole. For starters, it sounds like you were sitting in the seats up front that are there for ah hem pregnant women and elderly people.
“You are complaining about “having sore feet” when her feet probably were hurting worse than yours. Trust me. Hers were hurting worse than yours.
“Another thing is the way you’re talking about her is nasty. You’re implying that she should have either not gotten pregnant or had an abortion which is ridiculous as F**K. You’re also implying that she’s too poor to be a mother just because she’s taking the bus.
“Also the elderly man and pregnant lady could have gotten really hurt all because you decided not to be a decent person and give up your seat to someone who needed it a lot more than you. The elderly man could have gotten very hurt and the mother could have….I don’t know….LOST HER CHILD??? The way you’re talking and acting about the entire situation is ridiculous. You should be entirely ashamed of yourself.”
There you have it.
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