Here's what it's all about, and a sampling of the responses:
Move over, 'Baby on Board'
Concerned about the lack of consideration showed to its pregnant travelers, the London Underground recently launched the "Baby on Board" initiative to offer support to pregnant women who feel awkward about asking fellow passengers to give up their seats. Pregnant woman can obtain a "Baby on Board" badge, which when displayed will help other travelers identify those in need of a seat. What do you think: effective or silly?
Posted by Chapman at March 23, 2006 12:20 PM---------------------------------------------
Comments
Maybe some public service announcements or teaching in the schools on common courtesy would go further. If you are afraid to ask to sit, you may be afraid to wear such a thing anyway.
Posted by: KI at March 23, 2006 12:34 PM--------------------------------------------
So, you can't descriminate against a pregnant woman in hiring, but she gets preferential treatment on the Tubes?
You want equal treatment? Equal opportunity? "Equal pay for equal work?"
Stand there on your two equal feet.
Pregnancy doesn't per se make it dangerous or even difficult for one to stand. Maybe I could ride the Tubes with a sign saying "I have poor circulation in my legs" and people would get up for me.
Posted by: ispeakspanish at March 23, 2006 12:43 PM--------------------------------------------
When did "Equal pay for equal work" mean that common courtesy and human compassion were no longer to be expected? Perhaps we should mandate stickers that say "Jerk on board" so the rest of us know what were getting into when we meet them on the street or in the Tube.
Posted by: CharismaticPuritan at March 23, 2006 01:11 PM--------------------------------------------
Well fellas if you had a bona fide condition that required preferential seating, as a woman I would happily offer my seat to you.
As someone who has been pregnant before, I can tell you that it can be very uncomfortable standing especially in the last trimester of a pregnancy. I was most grateful to those men who stood and graciously offered me their seats.
I thought this was called kindness and courtesy. I had no idea it had anything to do with equality.
Posted by: Kali at March 23, 2006 01:15 PM--------------------------------------------
I work in NYC, and very seldom do you see a pregnant woman standing. Once, in 15 years of commuting I saw an older woman shame a young man into giving up his seat for a pregnant lady.
Londoners have even better public manners, so I doubt they need signs.
Posted by: DAN at March 23, 2006 01:35 PM--------------------------------------------
I got the feeling that the problem is not that Londoners are rude and not inclined to offer their seats to pregnant women but that women who are not obviously pregnant yet may be reluctant to ask for someone’s seat. I mean if you can’t count on the British to be polite who can you count on? Also heaven help the poor man who assumes a woman is pregnant and makes a mistake.
Posted by: kBells at March 23, 2006 02:07 PM--------------------------------------------
ispeakspanish, I feel sorry for you. We're talking about common courtesy here - you know, treating people the way you would like to be treated if the situation were reversed.
So, when you need a cane to get around, (and it's really only a matter of time), I truly do hope that people extend to you the decency that you decline to extend to them.
I'm sorry that your chosen profession requires you to work on your feet all day, as it clearly has turned you into a misogynistic misanthropic creep.
Posted by: DAN at March 23, 2006 03:50 PM--------------------------------------------
You can't make people courteous. If she's standing there, great with child, and he's hogging a seat, he's not going to give it up because she has a pregnancy button. Guys like that don't care about other people or they'd not be sitting on a crowded subway unless they had some hidden medical problem
And that's, maybe, what we need a button for. Somebody with a medical problem that doesn't show may need a seat on the subway and be taken for a jerk mistakenly because so many people really are jerks.
Posted by: Christina at March 23, 2006 04:32 PM--------------------------------------------
The height for me in seeing the insensitiviy of people in not coming to the aid of those in distress was when I was several months pregnant with my second child and got a flat tire on the way to my OB appointment. My oldest son was in the VW bug. I was out there on the side of the road jacking up my car, changing my tire, and not one person stopped to help a poor pregnant woman.
Posted by: Patti Hobbs at March 23, 2006 06:12 PM
At least they're trying to help us out. I took many a bus ride, standing, obviously pregnant, with able bodied men sitting nearby.
However, if they're not going to offer you a seat without a sign, they're not going to offer you one with a sign, either.
Posted by: Monika at March 23, 2006 12:23 PM--------------------------------------------