I heard that Irish Rail are adding a new initiative to their service to make travel more comfortable for pregnant women. Maybe they’ve already done it but anyway, it’s their belief, that expectant mothers should be treated differently to other passengers, so they’re introducing a badge for pregnant women. A ‘Baby on Board’ badge.
They want to alert customers to pregnant passengers and hopefully, that will encourage others to offer up their seat for them. It would also help to avoid the awkwardness often felt by some pregnant women in having to ask for a seat. I think it’s a good idea, but it’s sad reflection on modern society that we need it in the first place.
I’m not completely surprised by this development though, because lack of manners is a huge issue these days. I have commented on this in the past and I think it’s a shame how we have left our manners slide.
The way people speak, or don’t speak, to shop assistants, waiters, bar staff and the like, leaves a lot to be desired. Nobody seems to say please or thank you anymore. Customers regularly conduct their business in complete silence and often leave without saying a single word to the assistant behind the counter. Consideration for others has also disappeared.
I went to a pharmacy recently and I saw a lady driving into one of the mother and child spaces outside. She jumped out of her car and toddled off to a supermarket nearby. She certainly didn’t have a child with her and she didn’t go into the pharmacy, so why did she park there? She did it because she felt like it.
It didn’t bother her that she might be making life more difficult for someone with children who needed to go to the chemist. It suited her and to hell with everyone else. Another guy pulled up in a small car and abandoned it. You couldn’t call it parking because the front of the car was in one space and the rear end was in another. It wasn’t much bigger than a supermarket trolley, but he still managed to take up two spaces.
I was standing at the express check-out in a supermarket and there was a woman in front of me with two large baskets of groceries. While she was unloading the contents on the counter, she remembered something else she needed and went off to get it.
I had a newspaper and a loaf of bread, so I expected her to tell me to go ahead but that didn’t happen. She had enough items to fill a small trailer, but she didn’t care. She suited herself and the rest of us waited.
At another supermarket I visit, it’s common to find cars abandoned at the fuel pumps. The drivers get their petrol and then go inside to do their shopping. This ties up the pumps for others, but they couldn’t care less. The staff regularly make announcements advising drivers to park elsewhere once they get their fuel, but they may as well be talking to the fish fingers.
This kind of behaviour is not life threatening and maybe it’s not very important to a lot of people. But it demonstrates a growing lack of consideration for others and it is an indication that some people are just totally consumed with themselves.
There was a time when it was normal to open doors for people and to give up a seat for an elderly person or a pregnant woman. They didn’t need a “Baby on Board” badge. These days, the pregnant lady could deliver the baby and raise it to maturity before being offered a chance to sit down.
In the old days, gentlemen escorted their partner on their left arm and walked on the outside of the footpath to protect her from the dust, mud and sewage that could splash up from passing horse carriages. Nowadays they’d use her as a shield.
Women wore long dresses then and they had to use both hands to keep them off the dirty ground, so the gentlemen opened doors for them. The gentleman also pulled out a chair for a lady and always offered their seat if there were none available.
Now it’s every man and woman for themselves but some people are fighting back.
A guy went into a coffee shop in Paris one day and took a seat. He worked as an information security consultant, so he was well used to modern technology. He was sitting there, minding his own business, but there was a group of people sitting next to him and they were being loud and obnoxious.
They were annoying everyone else in the place and it was obvious that they didn’t care. They refused to quieten down even when staff asked them to. He could see that the waiters were really stressed but there wasn’t much they could do without putting their jobs on the line.
This group was discussing a new company they were starting up. When they started shouting and high-fiving themselves about the perfect name they had come up with for the business, he heard it and it gave him an idea.
While they were celebrating and congratulating each other, he went online, and he quietly bought the domain name. This meant that when they would eventually get around to registering their new company and setting up their website, they would be in for a shock. Their new name wouldn’t be available because he now owned it.
He wanted to teach them a lesson about how being rude to staff, being overly loud in public spaces and not having respect for others might have negative consequences.
I love that guy and I thank him on behalf of the rest of us.