MONEY MORAL DILEMMA. Would you give up a £50 train seat for a pregnant woman?

skintchick

Tiger_greeneyes wrote: »

According to the advice given on this website www.departures-arrivals.com/airport-by-train.htm it's actually you that's wrong.

Two inches down from the top of the page, on the left hand side, it clearly states:

You missed the point. Booking is done in advance by definition, therefore one does not 'pre' book, one simply books, in the same way that one warns, not 'pre' warns. A booking or warning after the event would be pretty pointless, after all.

It's a pedantic language point. some of us really do care about these things.

Tiger_greeneyes

smk77 wrote: »

We didn't actually disagree. You made a good post but in response to a comment that I made that looked as though I had been making bad assumptions about people with disabilities.

You assumed I was commenting to make you look bad for making assumptions IYSWIM. That really wasn't my intention and I apologise if you read it that way. Have a :beer:

Tiger_greeneyes

skintchick wrote: »

You missed the point. Booking is done in advance by definition, therefore one does not 'pre' book, one simply books, in the same way that one warns, not 'pre' warns. a booking or warning after the vent would be pretty pointless, after all.

I didn't miss the point. If a company tells you you can pre-book your tickets through them, then you can do exactly that, pre-book your tickets.

skintchick

Tiger_greeneyes wrote: »

Hi Skintchick - ltns, I hope you're doing well?

I don't think anyone is necessarily demoting the horrors that go on in pregnancy rather than questioning the lady's choices. She chose to have a child, chose to not pay the extra to either book her seat in advance or upgrade to a seat in first class knowing full well she was travelling on a bank holiday and there were no seats available as everyone else had had the sense to pre-book.

All of these things she could have done for herself to ensure her own comfort. If the journey is that important to her that it means she's going to be standing for 5 hours (unless someone who has made the effort to arrange their own journey gives up their seat) then it's her own responsibility to make that decision.

Why anyone would consider standing for 5 hours on a train journey would be that much more important than their unborn child I'll never know

I'm all for helping other people when I can (and I have, many times - as the original question states) but frankly if is silly enough to not make any effort whatsoever to help themselves, in principle I fail to see why her decisions as a grown woman should be automatically expected to be everyone elses responsibility.

I usually lurk on the preggie thread these days - preggies brain means I can;t offer much in the way of sensible debate anywhere else!

I do see your point, but think of this way - the woman may have made a stupid decision (and we don;t know all the details) but the BABY hasn;t, and it's the baby that could suffer. We owe it to the baby to help the mum make better choices for it, and if she has gone on a busy train, then the least we can do is give her a seat so that the baby doesn;t suffer her decision.

aliasojo

skintchick wrote: »

You missed the point. Booking is done in advance by definition, therefore one does not 'pre' book, one simply books, in the same way that one warns, not 'pre' warns. a booking or warning after the vent would be pretty pointless, after all.

I dont agree that the point has been missed at all. Some posters were queried upon their use of this term and it has now been pointed out that regardless of opinion on literal or correct or incorrect use...the fact is, this term is commonly used by various companies in RL so perhaps it would be worth querying with those who use it in a more formal way than a few people on a chat forum?

smk77

Tiger_greeneyes wrote: »

I'm all for helping other people when I can (and I have, many times - as the original question states) but frankly if is silly enough to not make any effort whatsoever to help themselves, in principle I fail to see why her decisions as a grown woman should be automatically expected to be everyone elses responsibility.

I'm not going to disagree but...I don't think that anyone who is pregnant expects anything from anyone else. I think in this situation, even knowing that the women hasn't done everything right it I'd give her the benefit of the doubt. If she did expect someone to give up their seat then she doesn't deserve one!

Anyway, for all you know she could be standing there, kicking herself and thinking "how stupid am I for not planning ahead and booking a seat".

I only ever get the train for 2 stops and there are always plenty of seats. I'm not in the habit of booking a seat. Perhaps this women is the same and isn't used to travelling long distance? Or when she has in the past there has always been free seats but forgot about the bank holiday as all she has been thinking for 9 months is babies! :rotfl:

skintchick

Tiger_greeneyes wrote: »

I didn't miss the point. If a company tells you you can pre-book your tickets through them, then you can do exactly that, pre-book your tickets.

But what we're saying is that the use of the phrase 'pre-book' is incorrect. No-one is saying you cannot book your tickets, but we are being language pedants and saying that you cannot 'pre' book because to book MEANS you do it in advance of the journey so it is a tautology to say that you 'pre' book.

So yes, you did miss the point, but that will be because it is off topic and only we language pedants care about these things!

skintchick

aliasojo wrote: »

I dont agree that the point has been missed at all. Some posters were queried upon their use of this term and it has now been pointed out that regardless of opinion on literal or correct or incorrect use...the fact is, this term is commonly used by various companies in RL so perhaps it would be worth querying with those who use it in a more formal way than a few people on a chat forum?

I was only clarifying that they had misread the post explaining why you cannot, in the strict linguistic sense, pre-book.

And I thought it was we language pedants who needed to get a life

Tiger_greeneyes

skintchick wrote: »

I usually lurk on the preggie thread these days - preggies brain means I can;t offer much in the way of sensible debate anywhere else!

I do see your point, but think of this way - the woman may have made a stupid decision (and we don;t know all the details) but the BABY hasn;t, and it's the baby that could suffer. We owe it to the baby to help the mum make better choices for it, and if she has gone on a busy train, then the least we can do is give her a seat so that the baby doesn;t suffer her decision.

I agree with you Skintchick (not about the pregnancy brain lol, you've made a sensible point :rotfl:) but as it's a hypothetical question we're debating, there's not actually a real baby involved and I'm simply discussing the principle of the matter.

The woman could still upgrade herself to first class if she really wants to help herself, either that or decide her child is more important than standing up for a 5 hour journey. We are assuming she's pregnant, not pregnant and suffering from advanced torpor

doogal.mail

I'm confused, why is it particularly relevant that you've paid £50? It sounds as if we're saying "I paid £50 to have a reserved seat, why should I give it up." But surely she's paid just as much, probably more.

After all, booking in advance generally saves you money,and In my experience booking your seats doesn't cost any extra, or am I I wrong?

So she's paid more money, is pregnant, and still has to stand up? Of course she should have booked, I wish she had, but she gets my seat any way. She's pregnant. Some things just take priority.