Death of courtesy? Mum forced to breastfeed on train floor after no-one gave up seat

While it has been common courtesy for decades to willingly give up a seat on public transport for elderly, disabled or pregnant passengers, could that once honoured and proud tradition be dying out? And with it, society’s manners as a whole?

A mother in the UK has revealed the moment she was forced to breastfeed her one-year-old baby son Chester on a train floor after no-one in the packed-out carriage offered to give up their seat for her.

Appearing on UK TV show This Morning, Sophie Molineux, 22, shared a photo on air of the moment she had to sit down on the floor, with her pram in front of her, so her baby could have his feed – claiming no-one in the carriage, even the people who walked past and saw her struggling, offered their seat to her.

“I got on the train and it was full, so we didn’t really have much of a choice at all,” she told the presenters on the show, to which host Rochelle Humes expressed shock that there were people walking past and noticing her, but still doing nothing.

“Have we lost our manners? I’m confused at how that even happens… and not even another mother offered you a seat,” she said, while co-presenter Davina McCall added: “I can’t believe that.”

Sophie confirmed that several people made eye contact with her but added: “It had gone past the point… I’d got on the train, they hadn’t offered me the seat, I was then on the floor breastfeeding.”

The mother has since explained in a Facebook post that she initially shared her experience to see how other people felt about it, asking whether they themselves would have given up their seat. She insisted she didn’t want to brand anyone “selfish”, but instead wanted to see which way the debate turned on the issue.

22-year-old mother Sophie was shocked and upset earlier this week when she was forced to breastfeed her child on the floor of a train after no one gave up their seat

Since the incident Sophie is now urging people to have more awareness and sympathy towards those breastfeeding pic.twitter.com/0bcE0vJ95d

— This Morning (@thismorning) August 23, 2019

It got a mixed reaction online with some people backing Sophie up and insisting it was out of order. While one person wrote on Twitter: “I would have offered and insisted my seat, think its disgusting and yes people have their heads in their phones but don’t tell me no one saw her on the floor. Manners cost nothing, I truly believe you give good it will come back to you. It’s called being a decent human being.”

Another added: “This is terrible. I was always told by my parents ALWAYS give up your seat for the elderly, pregnant or mums carrying babies,” and one even shared her own shocking experience on a train ride, writing: “5 people standing by the doors in a train carriage wouldn’t help me lift my pram into the carriage 2 weeks ago. I asked for help and 3 said no, 2 didn’t look up from their phones. The train left without me and my baby.”

However several others claimed, having paid a large amount of money for a train seat, they shouldn’t have to give it up. One person wrote on Twitter: “If I paid over £100 for a seat I would not give it up,” while another added: “They were taking a family trip. Plan ahead and get there earlier next time for a better seat!”

It comes after an Australian columnist Katy Hall claimed “we’ve misplaced some of our manners” earlier this year, insisting while most people were raised to say ‘the magic word’ whenever someone did something nice or considerate for them, more advanced versions of these formalities, such as birthday cards and house warming gifts, “seem to have died a slow and silent death”.

Writing for The Daily Telegraph, she claimed: “Birthday cards have been replaced with text messages; house warming gifts fail to make it out of the homewares stores in which they are so impeccably displayed; flowers and wine aren’t in hand when people come around for dinner, and tupperware containers filled with something freshly baked are no longer tucked under an arm when we go to visit someone.”

So what happened to our manners? As lives have gotten busier, have we declared ourselves in too much of a rush to take a few seconds out to do something kind? Perhaps it’s down to technology becoming our primary mode of communication and the human interaction – which manners are a large part of – becoming redundant.

Or perhaps it comes down to education and society as a whole; we’re focused on casual lifestyles with less formal occasions. We’re focused on teaching our children how to be smart and intelligent but not the great pillars of society as we once focused on with equal importance.