Shamed! Mum takes revenge on commuters who made her stand
WHEN her baby needed breastfeeding as she stood on a packed train, Bryony Esther naturally hoped a fellow passenger would give up their seat.
She was astonished when they refused and says she had to stand in an area surrounded by bicycles and suitcases while she fed her 15month-old daughter.
Miss Esther, 32, who was also travelling with her five-year-old daughter to visit her son in hospital, says she spent ten minutes struggling to maintain her balance. She was so annoyed that she took a photograph of the scene and posted it on Facebook to shame those she claims would not give up their seat for her.
She wrote: ‘Having to stand on a train while breastfeeding my baby thanks to a lovely bunch of charmers giving more priority to their suitcases and rolling joints!! It stinks. Plus the cyclist, with the fancy bike that keeps rolling into me, sat in the disabled seat. Please share cos I’d love it if their mothers, girlfriends and wives get to see how they behave.
‘I did ask the guy in the cap and even sat my daughter down briefly (before the baby woke) and he told me the seat was taken.’
The post had been shared more than 26,000 times by last night, with many supporting the mother of three. Stuart Tebbatt wrote: ‘Wow, people nowadays have no manners at all.’
Nicola Hutton added: ‘There are too many cyclists taking the spaces for prams and not giving seats to mums or expectant women. It makes my blood boil.’ Asked whether other commuters realised she was breastfeeding, Miss Esther said they ‘1,000 per cent knew’ but added: ‘I really didn’t want to make a fuss in front of my five-year-old.’
Miss Esther, from Leigh-on-Sea, Essex, was travelling on a c2c service to London on Saturday afternoon to see her sick son at Great Ormond Street Hospital. She says she was previously denied a seat making the same journey when she was eight months pregnant.
A c2c spokesman said: ‘We welcome breastfeeding on all c2c trains and would hope our customers would be considerate and give up their seat when requested.’