Fox News
LIFESTYLE
Published February 25, 2023 12:08pm EST
Man in wheelchair on bus refuses to move for mother and young daughter
Standoff between mom and man in wheelchair results in Reddit post and over 2,500 comments
By Maureen Mackey
A Reddit writer has shared a stressful and upsetting situation involving commuter travel and her young daughter.
A woman who described herself as a 32-year-old female wrote on the platform that she and her five-year-old daughter boarded a commuter bus "at a busy stop."
The woman, who did not share her location, added that once they were on the bus, she saw that "there were no empty seats available, except for one [seat] near a person using a wheelchair" — a person whom she described as a 40-year-old male.
The mother went on, "I asked the person if [he] could move [his] wheelchair to another spot so that my daughter and I could sit together, but the person declined."
The man in the wheelchair, she went on, said he needed the space for his "mobility device."
The mother wrote, "I was taken aback and frustrated by this response."
She told the man that her daughter "was very young and needed to sit next to me for safety reasons" — yet still the person "refused to move."
The woman's friend told her that she was "being insensitive and ableist" for her request that a man in a wheelchair move a bit so that she and her young daughter could sit together on the bus.
The woman shared that she "ended up having to stand for the entire ride with my daughter in tow, which was uncomfortable and tiring for both of us."
The mother wrote that when she told a friend about the incident, her friend told her she was "being insensitive and ableist."
The woman's friend, the original Reddit poster continued, told her "that the person in the wheelchair had a right to the space" he needed — and "that it was unfair of me" to ask the man in the wheelchair to move a bit to accommodate her.
The mother continued, "Now, I'm questioning whether or not I was in the wrong for asking the person to move."
She asked the Reddit community about it — and for their thoughts on whether she was wrong "for asking a disabled person to move seats on the bus for my child."
To date, the woman's post has received 2,500 comments.
It's also been voted on nearly 4,000 times. (It has since been locked for further comments, according to Reddit.)
Wrote one commenter in a post on Reddit that many others "upvoted," "Imagine being so entitled that you genuinely think standing up on your perfectly good, working legs is so awful and tiring that you ask someone who is physically unable to stand to get out of your way."
Wrote another person in the same vein, "The 5-year-old could have just stood."
"Why couldn't he have moved a bit to help out a woman and her young child?"
This same commenter added, "Seriously, when did 5-year-olds become so fragile that they can't stand for a bus trip."
The person added, "Parenting like this damages children. They are being taught that they are pathetic."
In reply to that comment, another person wrote, "It's about safety. Children can easily fall in buses because they can't reach the places to hold onto, since those are made for adults."
Still another Reddit commenter wrote on Saturday morning, "I used to take the bus a lot. Mothers with kids are the most entitled bus users [that] exist."
"You were frustrated at the response because you’re so accustomed to getting your way."
Wrote yet another commenter who apparently was fed up with the mother who posted the original story, "One can only hope [that the original poster] comes to realize how lucky she is she can even stand and walk without any trouble at all, and that the next time there are no seats on the bus, she would just suck it up for a few minutes of the ride."
Said another person, "Your kid can sit on your lap or you can ask someone else to move."
Said still another person, "Just because you have a child doesn’t automatically give you priority over others. If the bus is too crowded, take a cab. Otherwise, you’re going to have to deal with the downside of public transportation."
Added this person, "You were frustrated at the response because you’re so accustomed to getting your way. I, too, have a child the same age. Plan better," this person added bluntly.
But a New York father of four and grandfather of two had a very different take.
He told Fox News Digital his opinion of the post related to travel etiquette: "The man in the wheelchair already had a seat. Why couldn't he have moved a bit to help out a woman and her young child?"
He added, "This doesn't make sense to me."
Maureen Mackey is managing editor of lifestyle for Fox News Digital.
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