i went away this weekend to see my parents and brother. he lives at the opposite side of the country, so i don’t get to see him too often and thought as he was visiting my parents, i’d go there too and sorta meet him halfway.

it’s a three and a half hour train journey for me so i headed off to the station straight from work on friday. after a long, hard and pretty crappy day at work, i thought i’d utilize the quiet carriage. to sit in one of these carriages i give up a few of my rights. like the right to use a walkman or a mobile phone. basically anything that makes any kind of noise that people may find irritating or disturbing. this is where i have a problem with this ‘quiet carriage’ idea… they allow kids in there… now this may sound a little harsh, but hear me out. if i’m not allowed to make a phone call, even if i put my phone on silent and try to speak quietly, then i think people should be made to keep their kids quiet too… and if they can’t keep the little horrors under control, they should be asked to sit in another carriage. there’s even a family carriage available… use it for god’s sake! surely a bunch of kids shouting, screaming and climbing all over the seats is far more disturbing than someone speaking quietly on a mobile phone? evidently not…

i reckon if i have to give up some of my rights to use a quiet carriage, then families should give up their right to have kids… actually that’s a bit a harsh and probably wouldn’t work, but i think they should be made to use the family car, or any of the other fifteen available carriages for all i care, but not the quiet carriage!

the woman sat in the seat across the aisle from me had three young children with her. she was obviously one of these new age mothers who believes in calmly talking to her kids when they’ve done wrong. now i don’t think parents should be bawling at their kids every five minutes, but these kids were climbing over the backs of seats, balancing on the arm rests and shouting at each other at the top of their voices. all the time the mother was quietly saying ‘please sit down’ or ‘do you think that is appropriate behaviour?’ i’m all for talking to your kids in a measured and sensible way, but these little sods obviously realised that they could get away with murder and didn’t give much of a shit if it was appropriate behaviour or not. the kids wear the trousers in that family…

one little moment of comic relief though… as one of these little demons was bouncing up and down on a chair, he lost his footing and vanished head first between the seats. it was pretty funny watching his legs thrashing around as he tried to worm his way back out. that certainly got the mother’s attention anyway. is it wrong for me to find that funny? actually i don’t care if it is wrong… it cheered me up a treat! :o)

posted by the fifth at  22:37 -