Pregnant Woman On Subway Wonders Why No Passengers Offer Her Their Seat—Until She Looks Around & Realizes Why
It won't hurt you to look up every once in a while.
Jayakri | Shutterstock It's pretty much an unspoken rule of public transportation that if you see a pregnant woman, an elderly person, or anyone who would probably be better off sitting, you should offer them your seat.
Well, one pregnant woman was ignored by fellow passengers on the subway and wondered why until she looked around.
TikTok creator Mona (@mona.mali) stood pregnant in the middle of a subway car with no one offering their seats because they were all looking down on their phones with no awareness of the world around them.
No one offered a pregnant woman a seat on the subway because they were all too busy on their phones.
Mona shared a video of herself standing in a subway car with her visible baby bump and then showed the passengers surrounding her. They each had their eyes glued to their phones, not even noticing that they were being recorded.
One man, in particular, was sitting in the priority seat, which is specifically for pregnant women, as indicated by the sign right above his head. But he neither paid the sign nor Mona any attention as he was completely enthralled by his phone screen.
"Say hello to our society," Mona captioned her video. "Next time, I'll show my belly in your face!"
The comment section displayed a disturbing lack of empathy for the pregnant woman.
"Next time get a baby daddy that has a car," one commenter said.
"How is that their problem?" another commenter asked.
Many truly didn't see the problem with a pregnant woman standing, while passengers could've easily given up their seats.
How have people become so okay with showing disrespect towards others? Or maybe they always have, and we're just seeing more of it because of social media. Luckily other commenters came to her defense.
"Why is society becoming so selfish? No one does anything just out of kindness anymore?" a commenter questioned.
"Priority seat or not, I'd get up for any pregnant woman," another said. "Shame they just overlooked you."
We should all be more aware of our surroundings and practice kindness.
Who's to say whether these people were purposely ignoring this woman or just too engrossed with their phones to notice? But neither of these are ideal situations.
Frankly, it's probably a little bit of both. A survey found that only 60% of people believe a pregnant woman should have priority seating on public transportation, and three in 10 adults said there's no need to even offer a pregnant woman a seat on the subway unless she's visibly showing!
That's disheartening, to say the least, especially since there was designated pregnant person seating in the subway car Mona was in.
Yes, it's easy to be distracted by your phone, especially if you have headphones on, but looking up once in a while to check your surroundings won't hurt anyone — it might actually help, as seen in this situation.
Also, being more kind to others is probably easier than you think. Giving up your seat for a pregnant woman, holding the door open for others, or even just smiling are all small things that can help make our world a better place.
Sahlah Syeda is a writer for YourTango who covers entertainment, news, and human interest topics.