A man asks if he made a mistake by refusing to give his bus seat to a pregnant woman
We support moms without reservation; the hardworking women of the globe who care for their children and nurture them to be positive members of society deserve all of the love and kindness that the world has to give. This is not the case in today’s Reddit article, which is about a man who refused to give up his bus seat to a pregnant woman.
Story
A suspended Reddit user asked whether he was wrong for not offering his bus seat to a pregnant woman on Reddit’s AITA (Am I the A**hole?) section. His tale is as follows:
“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), and right now on public transit you have to social distance. 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.”
“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 a** 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. AITA, though?”
The reactions
We can all see where this is heading. The entire Reddit community reacted angrily to his behavior and chastised him. YTA stands for “You’re the A**hole” in this context. Here are a few of the most interesting comments:
banjo_fandango commented:
“Yeah – YTA”
“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…”
“I bet you’re a real ‘nice guy’.”
riyuzqki said:
“YTA, you didn’t show common courtesy by giving up your seat to someone who needs it much more. As in, if you fall during transit you might get a bruise, if she fell during transit, she might lose her child. Not to mention that no matter how tired you are she’s more likely to have an accident while standing during transit than you.”
tmss16 taught him basic manners:
“YTA. No one normal uses the word ‘breeding’ to describe someone who is pregnant. Please tell me you’re a troll.”
This post has 1.4k comments, which you can read on Reddit here.
