Couple Piles Luggage Around Wheelchair-Bound Teen — Call Her 'Privileged' For Using Train's Disabled Person Space
Her parents asked them to exit the space for her own safety.
CameraCraft | Shutterstock A Reddit user has posted to the subreddit 'r/entitledparents,' a space where people can share their stories about ways in which their parents think "that because they have kids they are entitled to everything."
Posting to the subreddit, a woman, 18, explained that she has a heart condition and hip condition. She has to use a wheelchair to get around, and she can only walk for short distances at a time before she starts getting tired or her hips start hurting.
Before the pandemic had started, the woman and her parents had traveled by train for any hospital visits, which were usually for regular check-ups.
"I was sitting in the disabled space [on the train], in my wheelchair, which had a small table and lots of space so I could get out easily," the young woman wrote in her Reddit post.
Her parents had been sitting in the seats next to her, reading magazines and playing games on their phones. She had plugged her headphones into her laptop to start watching a movie.
"This was when the entitled parents came in, with a [ton] of luggage and a pushchair in tow," she continued.
The couple started filling up the space around the woman and her own parents, carrying all of their luggage and using up the space around the woman.
Since she has social anxiety, the woman didn't know what to say or do and worried that if she did try to speak up, she would come across as rude.
"Thankfully my mum piped up and very politely said: 'excuse me, that’s a wheelchair space, please don’t put your luggage there, my daughter won’t be able to get out to use the WC or if there’s an emergency."
The mother then complained that "the bays are full," which wasn't true, according to the woman, who pointed out that there was an empty luggage bay close to them that she could've used.
The young woman's mother explained that "this isn't a luggage space, it's for a disabled person."
"The entitled parents, of course, ignored my mum, took their toddler out of the pushchair, and then proceeded to stuff the pushchair behind my wheelchair!" she added.
That's when the woman's father stepped in, reiterating what her mother had said earlier, which was when the entitled mother turned and snapped, "Well we have a small child in a pushchair, that’s the same thing! We should be entitled to put our pushchair there!”
“We booked this space in advance, specially, we have paid for it. You’ve paid for your seats, and we’ve paid for this space!” the entitled mother continued.
The woman's father replied, saying, "Imagine how you would feel if I came along and dumped my luggage by your seats.”
"They continued to argue with my parents, until finally, the train manager arrived and it turned out that they hadn’t actually reserved seats at all, so they were asked to sit in the fold-down seats in the corridor, with their luggage and pushchair," the woman wrote.
Though, the situation didn't end there.
Once the parents moved to the other side of the partition door, they were still in view and earshot of the young woman and her parents and spent the next hour and a half taking jabs at them.
"[They were] complaining about how disabled people are “privileged” and how we get everything we want, like “luxury” spaces on trains and close parking spaces," the woman concluded.
Most people who commented on the young woman's Reddit post were in agreement that the entitled parents were acting out of line.
"Geez, I'm sorry you had to go through that. I'm glad those entitled parents got kicked to their actual seats at least," one user commented.
Another user commented, "I can't believe this! I mean, they've got a frickin kid! Just pick up your wheelchair and move elsewhere!!"
One commenter even joked, "We're only in it for the parking spaces and queue jumping you know."
Ultimately, the poster explained that she quickly moved on from the incident, adding that she simply "rolled [her] eyes" at their comments.
Nia Tipton is a writer living in Brooklyn. She covers pop culture, social justice issues, and trending topics. Follow her on Instagram.