Public transport - NO seat offerings anymore?

[Bathsheba]

I don't drive so catch PT daily, usually at leasy 2/3 times. When I was pregnant I'd say I was offered a seat about 80% of the time. But the 20% of the times I was ignored really annoyed me... I usually asked for a seat in a neutral/polite manner and was always given it without fuss.

Once, on a tram, it was packed with school kids and even their bags made it hard for people to stand in the aisles. I was heavily pregnant and the only person to offer me a seat was a little old lady. Well I cracked it! I gave the school boys a lecture and they immediately smartened up their act. I made sure the little old lady kept her seat too.

Another thing that bothers me is reading comments in the paper (usually from single young men) who claim that pregnant women are pregnant by choice so then they should stand... I guess this is opposed to old people and disabled people who they figure have no choice. Pfft. This should be tattoed onto their foreheads as a warning to all women to avoid getting pregnant to them! What losers!

Anyhow, I'm fairly passionate about PT etiquette but I have to say that these days you do need to have the ability to speak up and voice your needs (Being polite is also the best strategy). That is just the nature of our competitive society. I know it's not ideal but that's life. Maybe see it as practice in speaking up for the rights of your child, because that's effectively what you are doing when you ask for a seat.

Rory also had a good point about many people being worried that they might offend the woman if they offer her a seat and she turns out to be only pudgy.

It's a shame that old fashioned idea of offering ALL women a seat still doesn't prevail. Call me an anti-feminist but think of all the women suffering menstrual cramping and the early symptoms of pregnancy such as morning sickness that would benefit if men still abided by those old fashioned rules of offering all women of childbearing age a seat.