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Giving up your seat?

  • 30-05-2013 07:43AM
    #1
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 11,129 ✭✭✭✭Oranage2


    So on public transport we often give up our seats, usually to the disabled, pregnant, elderly or someone with a small child.

    It got me thinking, how old does a person have to be before you give up your seat, also how young does the child have to be before you give up your seat?

    I had recently a mother with a 10-12 year old kid look at me as if I should give up the seat, I gave her a I don't think so look, far too old to need a seat.

    I think 60ish for an elderly person and maybe a kid of 6 or under id give up my seat.

    What about yourselves after hours.


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Comments

  • Closed Accounts Posts: 1,732 ✭✭✭Toby Take a Bow


    Oranage2 wrote: »
    It got me thinking, how old does a person have to be before you give up your seat, also how young does the child have to be before you give up your seat?

    Over 65 (or frail looking) and if the kid can walk, it stands.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 10,562 ✭✭✭✭Sunnyisland


    If I see a person any person struggling while standing I would offer my seat.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 4,705 ✭✭✭Balmed Out


    I find the kid thing very funny, when I was a child you would be forced by youre mother to stand to let any adult sit.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 12,045 ✭✭✭✭gramar


    Oranage2 wrote: »
    I think 60ish for an elderly person and maybe a kid of 6 or under id give up my seat.

    60 isn't elderly and kids grow up so fast now that 6 year olds are the new teenagers.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 41,021 ✭✭✭✭Xavi6


    The "is she pregnant or just fat" one is where it gets tricky :o


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  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 12,945 ✭✭✭✭Skerries




  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 3,012 ✭✭✭BizzyC


    The is she/isn't she pregnant is always a problem.

    At least here in London some women wear "baby on board" pins so that other tube users know, dont get that back home.

    Kids can stand, if there's nothing wrong with their legs the parents can give up their seats if they want, I'm keeping mine.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,398 ✭✭✭whatdoicare


    I'm heavily pregnant and noone has ever given up a seat for me - a woman yesterday insisted on smoking on me at the bus stop before pushing me out of the way to get onto the bus in case I managed to get that last seat but alas, it wasn't to be. :(
    In case anyone asks the "could you have been mistaken for a fat girl etc etc" I was in fact wearing a t-shirt at the time with the word "preggers" on it in large pink letters - I made a point of wearing it for a pregnant girl meet up with friends that day and I was also laden down with bags from mothercare.

    On a lighter note - my husband happened to be the bus driver that day and I got to sit on the secret fold out seat - yay!:P


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 17,730 ✭✭✭✭corktina


    being a gentleman of the old school (stop sniggering) and not far off 60 I'd give up my seat to anyone who looks like they need it more than me. Kids?no, they can sit on Mum's lap (and I can't).

    It's a bit of a minefield...some Ladies would be offended if they thought you thought they were old and doddery


  • Moderators, Education Moderators Posts: 26,409 Mod ✭✭✭✭Peregrine


    Depends on if they need it.

    I'd get up for anyone who looks like they can't stand or have a child with them that's small enough.

    There is no threshold that they have to reach for me to give up my seat, I don't ask their age and refuse to get up if they're 64 or say your kid is a few days too old for me to get up.


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  • Moderators, Technology & Internet Moderators Posts: 4,622 Mod ✭✭✭✭Mr. G


    Xavi6 wrote: »
    The "is she pregnant or just fat" one is where it gets tricky :o

    I would still give up the seat. She could have problems going down the isle... :eek:

    I give it up for elderly people but I rarely ever have to.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 36 jennnn


    Only this week, I was in a hospital waiting room with five seats. I was sitting along with two couples- both ladies heavily pregnant. Another pregnant couple arrived- neither man offered the woman their seat, so I did. :rolleyes: They didn't seem to give a cr@p that I was a patient too. Lazy idiots!


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 18,299 ✭✭✭✭The Backwards Man


    This is why I never sit down.. Far less chance of offending anybody.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 12,089 ✭✭✭✭P. Breathnach


    A while ago I was standing on a crowded bus, and I noticed an attractive young woman looking at me as if she was appraising me. It was an ego boost that at my age young women might still consider me interesting.

    Then she stood up, smiled, and offered me her seat. Clearly she had been appraising my state of decrepitude, and I qualified as decrepit in her eyes.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 12,318 ✭✭✭✭Menas


    It is one of those feel good things, giving up your seat for someone who looks like they need it. Pregnant women, someone with an infant, elderly etc.

    When my own Mrs was pregnant I honestly could not believe that she rarely got a seat on the rush hour luas. But that is human nature I suppose.

    On the same subject, it does amaze me that some people will sit there with their bags or whatever on the seat beside them whilst others are standing on a bus or train.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 17,730 ✭✭✭✭corktina


    A while ago I was standing on a crowded bus, and I noticed an attractive young woman looking at me as if she was appraising me. It was an ego boost that at my age young women might still consider me interesting.

    Then she stood up, smiled, and offered me her seat. Clearly she had been appraising my state of decrepitude, and I qualified as decrepit in her eyes.

    choker eh!:(

    I always think I'm young-looking and virile until I see a photo of me and have to remind myself that the camera adds 10 pounds...


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 6,568 ✭✭✭candy-gal1


    Very elderly and frail etc and anyone on crutches etc then yes Il give up my seat if there are none left, but for kids I wouldnt, never really heard of giving up your seat for a child over the age of a toddler.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 13,925 ✭✭✭✭anncoates


    Late 60s upwards. Depends more on how physically able they look too. No use in offering it to somebody in their 60s who is in good shape and offending them.

    I'd always give my seat to somebody with a small child or a pile of shopping as well.

    Some of the stuff you see on beggars belief. On the Luas: obviously heavily pregnant woman standing beside me a while back in clear view of a load of seated people all pretending not to notice her.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 329 ✭✭duchalla


    My wife is pregnant, had a scan at CUMH yesterday, (everythings goin grand :-)). Anyway, we were in early so got a seat handy enough. As the morning wore on it got busier. Anyway being the gent that I am, I offered my seat to a heavily prengnant woman, when none were available, who gratefully accepted it. I was amazed to see 8 other men sitting down in the waiting area despite pregnant women standing around waiting for a seat!
    These fellas piss me off. They're obiviously there with their wives or girlfriends, so they know the score, they wouldnt like their partners standing while the lads are all sitting down playing with ther phones. Fair enough if there were other seats available, but the place was chocabloc!!
    An older nurse just happened to be walking past, saw the situation, (pregnant women standing, the lads sitting), she left a roar out of her, "Jesus, Mary & Joseph, would all the men please get up and give their seats to the poor pregnant women". 8 men got up and moved sheepishly away. Cue a few smug looks from me at anyone of them who happend to look up as they past me. The 8 seats were taken by pregnant women in seconds. Some fellas havent a clue....


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 655 ✭✭✭HurtLocker


    Yah if they are are frail or pregnant I may... just may... move my bag off the seat next to me :pac:


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  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 11,178 ✭✭✭✭NothingMan


    I will always offer my seat to an elderly person who looks like they would appreciate it or someone on crutches or a pregnant woman. I've often done this from the inside seat with the person on the outside not even flinching. I've even offered my seat to one half of an elderly couple and the young guy next to me not budging for the other half.

    One thing is older people, usually men, who are of an age that I would offer my seat but are satanding straighter and seem in better health than most. I tend to not offer them my seat as I feel it would be insulting to their health.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 25,005 ✭✭✭✭Toto Wolfcastle


    duchalla wrote: »
    My wife is pregnant, had a scan at CUMH yesterday, (everythings goin grand :-)). Anyway, we were in early so got a seat handy enough. As the morning wore on it got busier. Anyway being the gent that I am, I offered my seat to a heavily prengnant woman, when none were available, who gratefully accepted it. I was amazed to see 8 other men sitting down in the waiting area despite pregnant women standing around waiting for a seat!
    These fellas piss me off. They're obiviously there with their wives or girlfriends, so they know the score, they wouldnt like their partners standing while the lads are all sitting down playing with ther phones. Fair enough if there were other seats available, but the place was chocabloc!!
    An older nurse just happened to be walking past, saw the situation, (pregnant women standing, the lads sitting), she left a roar out of her, "Jesus, Mary & Joseph, would all the men please get up and give their seats to the poor pregnant women". 8 men got up and moved sheepishly away. Cue a few smug looks from me at anyone of them who happend to look up as they past me. The 8 seats were taken by pregnant women in seconds. Some fellas havent a clue....

    Any of those men could have issues that mean they need to sit down though. She should have asked all the men who didn't need a seat to get up. My husband is waiting to be old enough for 2 knee replacements at the moment and if I was heavily pregnant in a packed waiting room then I'd be standing and he'd be sitting and no amount of screaming and shouting would make a difference. Obviously those who take a seat over someone who clearly needs it is an arse but it's not always obvious.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 1,881 ✭✭✭JohnMarston


    An old person who struggles to walk or clearly looks like they need to sit down, a semi-heavy to heavily pregnant woman or a parent with an infant gets my seat

    If you are clearly walking and standing without difficulty, then i would consider it an insult to them to offer them a seat if they didnt need it


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 3,750 ✭✭✭iDave


    The Big 3, Elderly, Disabled and Pregnant.
    Stilettos are your own problem


  • Posts: 6,645 ✭✭✭ Julius Sparse Crown


    Would generally give up my seat to anyone who looked like they needed it more than me, but I have back problems myself, so find it very painful to stand more than a few minutes. Not sure where I stand (no pun intended :rolleyes:) on pregnant women. Had one bark at me a while back to let her have the seat we were both going for - there were other seats. I didn't really appreciate the sense of entitlement - she chose to get pregnant, I didn't choose to have crippling back pain. Perhaps as well as 'Baby on Board' badges, they should do 'Sciatica' badges and the like.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 23,646 ✭✭✭✭qo2cj1dsne8y4k


    Generally if someone looks like standing would be too much for them, frail looking.
    Unless the child was a baby, I wouldn't give the seat tbh. If the child can walk and talk then it's able to stand.

    I once had a woman with a young one on the luas ask me to let the child sit down. The child was about 8. I said no.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 11,264 ✭✭✭✭jester77


    In the modern PC age I don't want to come across as ageist or sexist, so out of fear I don't give up my seat.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 329 ✭✭duchalla


    Any of those men could have issues that mean they need to sit down though. She should have asked all the men who didn't need a seat to get up. My husband is waiting to be old enough for 2 knee replacements at the moment and if I was heavily pregnant in a packed waiting room then I'd be standing and he'd be sitting and no amount of screaming and shouting would make a difference. Obviously those who take a seat over someone who clearly needs it is an arse but it's not always obvious.

    Fair enough, but any of these guys didnt seem to have any ailment, they all hopped up fairly sharpish.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 5,987 ✭✭✭Legs.Eleven


    I live in a city with an old population and I spend a lot of time travelling on public transport daily. I'm up and down like a yo-yo because of this. Old men here can get a bit stroppy when you offer them the seat as they'd be old-fashioned thinking that a woman shouldn't offer a seat to a man. I've had a few old man bite my head off on occasion, which was gas...

    Anyone who looks like they're struggling at all I offer the seat. Kids can feck off tbh unless they're very young and can't balance themselves. I've seen people here offer kids seats before older people! Ehhhhh....

    People who pretend they can't see someone struggling boil my piss and I usually give them the stink eye and shame them into getting up. :)


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  • Moderators, Music Moderators Posts: 2,162 Mod ✭✭✭✭Oink


    People who pretend they can't see someone struggling boil my piss and I usually give them the stink eye and shame them into getting up. :)

    Yeah that's too subtle for me. If there's an old lady standing and a young'un sitting, I ask them nicely and firmly to offer their seat. If they don't hear because of their headphones I ask even more nicely and more firmly. It's worked so far.


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