This shouldn’t need to be said, but based upon recent experience, it apparently needs to be said:
If you’re a healthy adult sitting on a bus or subway, and there a small child in your vicinity who does not have a seat, stand up and offer your seat to the kid.
How any adult can sit and watch a small child cling to a pole or to his parent’s leg as a bus or train lurches around a bend is beyond me.
Last night I watched a teenage girl offer her seat to Charlie while a bunch of grown-ass men and women remained comfortably seated around us.
I was furious. Elysha was apoplectic.
I’m also inclined to offer my seat to a woman in these situations, but I also know that doing so implies that she needs a seat more than I do, which is almost always a sexist thing to think. After all, I’ve been arguing for years that women should be eligible for the military draft based upon my sincere belief that they are just as capable as men, yet something inside me always wants to offer my seat to a lady.
I avoid this internal struggle but always standing. My default position on any bus or train is to stand unless there is an empty seat after leaving the station.
If you’re a young, healthy adult, maybe you could adopt a similar default position.
But at the very least, make sure all the small children have seats. Otherwise Elysha and I will spend the entire trip attempting to publicly shame you by repeatedly telling our children – in voices slightly louder than necessary – to “Hold on tight!” and “Be careful” and “We know this is hard, but we’ll be there soon!”
The best part:
We did this both simultaneously and absent any planning. Our instincts – and hatred for these grown-ass seated adults – was the same.
