Young woman gets yelled at for taking up two seats on crowded bus; 'feels attacked.'
Ugh, social interactions. They can be so tricky to navigate.
throwaway5848387 was shocked and embarassed after getting scolded on the bus so she asked Reddit:
'AITA (am I the a-hole) for taking up 2 seats on a bus?'
I ride the bus because I can't afford a car, insurance, gas, etc. I'm 19F and live in the US. For context.
A couple days ago I was on a bus that wasn't that busy. Not empty, but there were multiple unused seats and no one had to stand. I had just gone shopping and had heavy bags that were hard to carry and hardly fit in front of my legs.
So I sat in one seat and placed my bags on the seat next to me, essentially taking up 2 seats on my own. Since it wasn't crowded when I got on I didn't see an issue and like I said the bags were super heavy and hurt to carry so I wanted to set them down.
Sounds fair and no one was on the bus.
The bus ride was kind of long and as it went on more and more people got on the bus. It eventually got pretty crowded to the point where some people had to stand up.
I didn't ever move my bag or offer the seat to someone. In my experience most people don't want to sit next to strangers anyway and a lot of the time people will end up standing instead of sitting in an empty seat next to someone they don't know. Also no one said anything to me.
At the last stop (ended at the bus station where pretty much everyone was getting off) someone passive aggressively told me 'you could have moved your bag and not been inconsiderate and rude. Everyone wants to sit not just you.' Or something along those lines. I didn't really respond because I didn't know what to say.
Whoops.
The person who said that never asked me to move my stuff, and if they did I probably would have. So I don't understand how I was being rude? They could have asked during the ride instead of insulting me after it was already done. Busses are also generally first come first serve so I think my behavior was normal. AITA (am I the a-hole)?
Let's see what Reddit had to say:
Background-Lab-4896 said:
YTA (you're the a-hole). You don't wait for someone to 'ASK' you to do the right thing.
TheBearyPotter wrote:
So you made an entire bus full of people hella uncomfortable just so you wouldn’t have to experience any? The entitlement is outlandish
JsCTmav took issue:
YTA (you're the a-hole) and you know it. It's fine to have your stuff on the seat when the bus is empty, but you can use basic courtesy when people are standing without a seat available. You're even worse for your comment that if they asked you 'probably' would have moved your things. PROBABLY??? Get over yourself.
kiyakiya104 thought OP should see things from the other side:
YTA. I would have asked you to move the bag- but not everyone is comfortable with that situation with a stranger. What if they asked you and you said no? It would create an awkward situation for them. Not everyone wants to risk an awkward situation with a stranger in a confined space like a bus. You shouldn't expect someone to have to ask you.