A pregnant woman has been left feeling like an “entitled brat” and given “dirty” looks after declining to move bus seats for an elderly lady.
The 26-year-old woman made the revelation on Reddit’s Am I The A**hole forum, in which people ask other users to judge whether they were in the wrong or not.
She set the scene, explaining how she had finished an 8-hour workday and was taking the bus home which was about a 2-hour journey.
The woman continued: “I had about 4-5 slightly heavy bags with me and didn’t feel safe trying to get up the stairs with them especially since I’m 18 weeks pregnant, so I sat on the seat downstairs.”
Around halfway through the journey, she explained, the bus was quite full and an elderly lady with a stick got on the bus.
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The woman continued, writing: “She asked me to move. She wasn’t even polite when she asked and honestly I thought she meant move over so she could sit next to me.
“So I moved my bags and started to scoot over, when she said ‘No, no I meant can you find another seat, this seat is reserved for disabled people. You are clearly not disabled. There are plenty of seats upstairs.’”
The woman confirmed that the seat she was sitting on was not reserved for the disabled, but the ones in front of her were and there was a spare seat available.
The woman said she replied to the elderly lady, saying: “Sorry, I really don’t feel safe going up the stairs with all these bags, I don’t mind you sitting next to me though, we both have our masks on.”
The elderly lady’s response was less than kind, as she called the woman names and insisted she wanted a double seat to herself.
She replied: “I don’t want to sit next to anybody, I don’t feel safe. So move your lazy fat behind and give the seat to someone who needs it.”
While she said she hates people using it as an excuse, the woman revealed she was pregnant and didn’t feel safe going up the stairs.
She told the elderly woman: “Lady, I am pregnant, I am not going up those stairs with these bags and risking a fall. If you really want a seat to yourself ask someone else to move.”
At the point, the woman explained a man offered the elderly woman his seat and went upstairs, but not before giving the young woman a “dirty look”.
The pregnant woman claimed the elderly lady spent the next quarter of an hour openly bitching about her with other elderly bus passengers, saying things like, “kids these days have no respect for their elders or people with disabilities” and saying how they wouldn’t have spoken to someone like when they were that age.
The young woman was left feeling like an “entitled brat” but other Redditors rushed to her defence.
One person wrote: “NTA [Not The A**hole]. You should’ve pointed out where the disabled seats were. Also, f**k older people who think their age entitles them to respect...they’re usually the ones lacking manners.”
Another agreed, commenting: “NTA - you are 18 weeks pregnant and you were making the right decision to keep you and baby safe. Old people can be so entitled and annoying!”
Someone else said: “NTA. Not in a million years. A) you were pregnant and had bags, too risky B) they weren’t even the disabled seats! C) she was rude D) she wanted the whole seat, not you to just move up E) she insulted you
Any of these on their own would be enough for me to say NTA.”