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The anti-children sentiment on Reddit makes me uncomfortable
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Anonymous
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And I'm not even a parent. I'm sorry to drag shit from another forum on here, but am I insane for being shocked by the lack of sympathy people on that forum have toward parents and parents to be?
So, first scenario: Parent has a toddler with a congenital heart defect and is upset with a smoker in her non-smoking apartment building. She contemplates leaving a note complaining to the smoker about how he/she is affecting their toddler, and it's passive aggressive. Apparently the person is going to be evicted, so she won and leaving a note now seems unadvisable. But so many people in the comments are defending the smoker, saying that it's on her as a parent to protect her child and her child's health issues aren't anyone else's issues, she needs to move into a house since you can't control your neighbors' behavior, etc. The note is unnecessary but I feel like we shouldn't tolerate people who smoke near children with health issues? https://www.reddit.com/r/Apartmentliving/comments/1nlmi1e/feedback_on_this_note_before_i_leave_it_on_their/ Second scenario: A pregnant lady has no where to sit and enjoy some ice cream she picked up at the mall. The post has now been deleted, but another outlet copied and pasted it before it was: Here's the original post: "I am currently 8 months pregnant, and because of that, I often get quite tired when I stand or walk for long periods of time. Yesterday afternoon, I was craving ice cream, so I drove to a nearby shopping center to visit my favorite ice cream shop. Unfortunately, the place was quite crowded, and all of the tables surrounding the shop, as well as some nearby sofas were taken. Because of that, after getting my ice cream, I decided to sit on one of two massage chairs that were close, and eat it there. Once I started eating the snack, I got approached by a couple that was in their late teens, or perhaps early twenties. They asked me to get off the chair, since I wasn't getting a massage, and they wanted to receive one together, which I refused to do. In return, I offered to leave once I finished eating, or if they found me a different place to sit, since I could not stand for more than a few minutes at a time, and had a relatively large dessert that I wanted to finish. Upon hearing that, the girl was not happy. She told me to stop acting as if I was ill, that just because I was pregnant, the world did not revolve around me, and because I was not paying for a massage, I had no right to sit on the chair. She then asked her partner to get a security guard, and a few moments later, he came with an employee. The guard took my side, and asked the couple to either take turns using the second massage chair, or wait for me to finish eating, which upset the girl quite a bit. She accused me of being selfish and preventing the owner of the chairs from earning money, and left with her partner. Upon telling this story to my younger sister, she told me that I should have gone to the ice cream stand when the shopping center was less crowded, if I wasn't able to eat while standing. However, my older sister believes that I had every right to sit on the massage chair if all the other spots were taken, and the couple was being unreasonable. Because of that, I'm not sure if I am the a**hole in this situation." Everyone is tearing her up in the comments, calling her selfish, etc. https://www.reddit.com/r/AmItheAsshole/comments/110lliy/aita_for_not_getting_up_from_a_massage_chair_when/ I say let the damn pregnant lady enjoy her ice cream! Why do I have such a fundamentally different view of things compared to Redditors? Am I the insane, selfish one? |
Anonymous
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I am split. Scenario 1: The Smoker is in the wrong for smoking in a specifically non smoking building. They should go outside for a smoke. Scenario 2: The pregnant woman is in the wrong for blocking a massage chair from being used for its intended purpose of giving massages. She should have found another spot to eat her ice cream. |
Anonymous
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I agree that there is a split. The smoker in the first scenario is in the wrong and is being punished by eviction for breaking the rules. I am also sensitive to smoke and would report someone who was smoking in an area designated as non-smoking. That is not a parenting isssue.
In the second scenario, the ice cream eater is in the wrong. If she couldn’t find a seat, I understand sitting in the massage chair, but the minute that someone wanted to use it for its intended purpose and pay the owner the machine to use it, she needed to move. It was mildly wrong to use the space of a business and not pay, but once someone else wanted to pay, it’s even more wrong. Why didn’t she just pay herself and turn on the massage chair? Then, she would have been in the right and the legitimate user of the business. |
Anonymous
| The way people in this country treat pregnant women is horrible. The couple should never have asked or found her a table first and offered to carry all her stuff over to another place she could sit. Or they could’ve shopped for a bit and come back to the chairs. Ridiculous they got a mall employee involved — good on that employee. |
Anonymous
| Why didn’t the pregnant lady eat in her car? She was going to get ice-cream, not dialysis. If she had been in a subway car, I would’ve sided with her. |
Anonymous
| Both ladies are in the wrong and it has nothing to do with kids or parenting. But the smoker was also wrong. |
Anonymous
Unbelievable. She’s just pregnant. |
Anonymous
| Scenario one, the smoker was wrong. Scenario 2, the pregnant lady was wrong although the teens were unnecessarily rude about it it sounds like. She should have stood to eat and waited form someone to offer her their chair or table (when I was pregnant, people almost always offered me a place to sit when I was standing, even though if you scroll through Reddit you’d never believe it). And if no one did I’d have sat in my car. I may have sat in a massage chair but I’d have gotten up when someone wanted to use the chair for its purpose. However, if my teen told me this story from his perspective, I’d have been mortified that he tried to force a pregnant woman up so he could get a stupid chair massage. So I guess no one behaved very well. |
Anonymous
| Many women late in pregnancy have limitations for how long they should be on their feet. Be kind. |
Anonymous
| The owner of the massage chairs would have loses business due to the pregnant lady’s insistence on sitting in the chair, and that’s wrong. I had terrible sciatica and low ligament pain with my second pregnancy, to the extent that people routinely asked me if I was okay as I hobbled to the metro to and from work, but I wouldn’t have sat in the massage chair, unless it was for just a moment, to catch my breath. But I agree with PP that if those were my teens, I would’ve been mortified by their behavior. |
Anonymous
| *lost business ^^ |
Anonymous
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Those are completely different scenarios. Assuming both that the building was non-smoking and that the neighbor was smoking in the unit, then of course the neighbor was wrong.
The pregnant woman eating ice cream was clearly wrong for taking the massage chair and refusing to get up. It's already questionable to sit in them without paying, particularly since it sounds like there was only two of them, but she certainly had an obligation to get up once asked. |
Anonymous
I was just going to say this. |
Anonymous
| I long for OP’s life where she has to hunt down anonymous stories on Reddit to get worked up about. |
Anonymous
Agree. If there are no spots to eat ice cream and she can’t stand, she can sit in her car |