Sometimes people have no manners

Just before the summer I was shopping for underwear in a local store. The underwear and children’s departments are on the lower ground floor, so you go down on an escalator.

As I walked in I noticed this woman looking at clothes while her young children climbed all over the alarm sensor pillars at the door. I idly wondered if it was dangerous to be spending so much time so near these sensors as I seem to remember they emit radiation.

When I went down the escalator I saw her behind me, talking on her phone while her kids (about 4 and 6 years old) frolicked on the escalator. I bit my tongue.

They then ran screaming around the children’s section while the woman browsed the underwear and I didn’t see where they went to, until I heard screaming. One of the children had been riding the escalator alone, and his torn rubber wellington boot had become stuck in the side tread on the escalator. LUCKILY a sales associate was nearby and managed to stop the escalator just in time. The mother was furious about the ‘dangerous escalator’ being in use and was going to ‘take this further’. No thought about perhaps keeping her children with her at all times.

As I left a short while later I heard one of the escalator repairmen saying that he was always upset by call-outs like this because people never realise how badly it could have ended, and he has children of his own.

I am probably getting old and grumpy but it never ceases to amaze me how people behave when they are out in public. Customers delaying queues at a cash register while finishing up a phone conversation. Parents letting their children wreak absolute havoc on toy departments but not putting anything back. People putting their dirty muddy shoes on underground seats. Speaking loudly for ages on their phones, as if they were alone. Watching movies loudly on the bus. Leaving litter behind them when they leave. Changing diapers on restaurant tables or cutting their nails on public transport. Getting blind drunk and acting like assholes on planes. Having phone conversations in a movie theatre. Using an e-scooter and then leaving it in the middle of the street, where wheelchair users, the visually impaired and elderly often can’t get around them. The list is endless.

I don’t mind people having short phone conversations on public transport, putting their makeup on or breastfeeding in public, or children just being children. I think the idea of e-scooters is great. But there are always a few users of everything that just don’t know how to behave, and spoil things for everyone else.  But sometimes there are things you should stick to doing at home, or at least where no one can see you.

What do you think?