Riding Metro while pregnant: offering and getting a seat

confuzzled dude wrote:Last week I wrote about riding Metro while pregnant and how few able-bodied people would give up their seats to those who need to take a load off.

Let me caution, as one of our readers pointed out – you might want to be careful in how you offer a seat. Don’t assume someone is pregnant. As one rider, nunyo555, shared:
"Overheard a man standing demanding that a seated woman give up her seat to a pregnant woman. The seated woman refused. The man got loud and insistent. Finally the “pregnant” woman announced in a flat tone, “I’m not pregnant.” Dead silence. Seems like guessing who is pregnant can prove problematic."

One reader suggested wearing a pin as pregnant subway riders in London do that says, “Baby on Board.”
We took the question of how to politely offer your Metro seat to someone who appears to be pregnant, disabled or elderly to the expert – Dear Prudence, a.k.a. Emily Yoffe.
Her advice – paraphrasing Dave Barry, is to avoid remarking that a woman is pregnant “even if she has the head of her offspring coming out from between her legs,” she said.
“It is better to err on the side of being generous,” she said. “If you offer your seat – politely – to a pregnant woman, elderly person or someone using a cane that person could abruptly say, ‘No, I don’t need it.’”
They could be rude in their response but you still did the right thing, she said. Offering your seat to someone who may need it, she said, is about “just being a decent person.”

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/dr-gridlock/wp/2014/04/15/riding-metro-while-pregnant-some-advice-on-offering-and-getting-a-seat/

Kris wrote:

confuzzled dude wrote:>>>Yeah, let the preggos hang on to the footboard, like we did in India

indophile wrote:

Kris wrote:

confuzzled dude wrote:>>>Yeah, let the preggos hang on to the footboard, like we did in India

May not work here. Even when there's nothing in the doorway you keep getting this annoying message - "doors closing...... doors closing ...... doors closing......." and the train wouldn't move an inch.

Seva Lamberdar wrote:The problem in the above story is that a third party (a man standing near a "pregnant" woman) started arguing with the seated woman, while even getting loud and rude with her, to vacate her seat for the "pregnant" woman.  He was out of line.
It was basically up to the seated woman to offer her seat on her own to the "pregnant" woman, especially if the latter really needed the seat or had asked for the seat from the former.

confuzzled dude wrote:Last week I wrote about riding Metro while pregnant and how few able-bodied people would give up their seats to those who need to take a load off.

Let me caution, as one of our readers pointed out – you might want to be careful in how you offer a seat. Don’t assume someone is pregnant. As one rider, nunyo555, shared:
"Overheard a man standing demanding that a seated woman give up her seat to a pregnant woman. The seated woman refused. The man got loud and insistent. Finally the “pregnant” woman announced in a flat tone, “I’m not pregnant.” Dead silence. Seems like guessing who is pregnant can prove problematic."

One reader suggested wearing a pin as pregnant subway riders in London do that says, “Baby on Board.”
We took the question of how to politely offer your Metro seat to someone who appears to be pregnant, disabled or elderly to the expert – Dear Prudence, a.k.a. Emily Yoffe.
Her advice – paraphrasing Dave Barry, is to avoid remarking that a woman is pregnant “even if she has the head of her offspring coming out from between her legs,” she said.
“It is better to err on the side of being generous,” she said. “If you offer your seat – politely – to a pregnant woman, elderly person or someone using a cane that person could abruptly say, ‘No, I don’t need it.’”
They could be rude in their response but you still did the right thing, she said. Offering your seat to someone who may need it, she said, is about “just being a decent person.”

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/dr-gridlock/wp/2014/04/15/riding-metro-while-pregnant-some-advice-on-offering-and-getting-a-seat/