Just when we think that the world is becoming a better place and people are being nice to each other - in general - something or the other drags us back to square one. This breastfeeding mother was forced to stand in a packed train in London. Not one soul budged to give her a seat for half an hour.
32-year-old Hitchens was travelling with her six-month-old son, Charlie lashed out on Instagram, miffed by how people had behaved.
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On my way home from London on a packed commuter train and this is what I faced. What has the world come to that a mother has to stand up on a moving train breast feeding a wriggling and writhing 6 month old, 20lb baby?! The point here isn't just that I found it difficult because I was nursing (although that was bloody difficult!), but that not one person offered a mother carrying a small child a seat for around half an hour, or 3 stops! I could have asked, but I didn't. I felt silly. I shouldn't have to ask. Maybe some people didn't see. I know for a fact some did; they made eye contact and actually smiled at me. I was thinking stop smiling and offer me your seat please! One lady looked up from her book and immediately offered me her seat, another lady then sat in it and when the lovely lady said 'Oh excuse me I actually gave up my seat so this lady with a baby could sit down' the sitting lady shrugged, plugged her earphones in and closed her eyes! I like to think that she needed that seat more than me, perhaps she was newly pregnant and in that early exhaustion period, perhaps she was knackered after a day at work, perhaps she was ill. Or perhaps she was just a twat. I hope not. I can somewhat understand not offering your seat to someone elderly; perhaps they might be offended you think they look old! I can understand not offering your seat to someone you suspect might be pregnant; maybe it's just their time of the month or perhaps they are just naturaly curvy and they aren't pregnant; perhaps you worry you might offend them. I cannot get my head around not offering a parent with a child a seat. Next time you see someone with a child on a train - if you're able bodied and fit and healthy please offer your seat to them!
A post shared by Hitchens' Kitchen BLW Club (@baby_led_weaning_club) on Sep 4, 2018 at 12:54pm PDT
She wrote, "What has the world come to that a mother has to stand up on a moving train breast feeding a wriggling and writhing 6 month old, 20lb baby?"
"Maybe some people didn't see. I know for a fact some did; they made eye contact and actually smiled at me. I was thinking stop smiling and offer me your seat please!"
What's worse is that just as a co-passenger offered her a seat, another person came on swiftly and occupied it.
"I cannot get my head around not offering a parent with a child a seat," wrote an angry Ms Hitchens. Can you blame her?
