Sarah_Jayne

So, I am on the train into central London to go out for a meal to celebrate a friends birthday. It is a 6pm train so it is really packed. Two families with young kids get on. One sits in one groups of chairs and their kids are maybe six and three. They are lively but under control. The other family brings their stroller with a very big looking kid for a stroller but I am guessing also aroung 3ish through the crowded aisles being sure to ram into people's legs (never once saying sorry) and sits down on the seats across the aisle from the other family.

With in a minute or so into their journey the woman in the second family has a call on her mobile. I have no idea what the call was about but her reply was a steam of swear words the most common being 'fuck'. She is saying these very loudly. Her son starts to cry and she hangs up the phone, looks at him directly and shouts 'for fuck sake Jason!'.

Now the other family with young kids are getting a bit uncomfortable at this point. You can tell they don't really want to say something but they also don't want their kids exposed to that extended a period of extreme swearing (much less at a child). So, the mother of the first family very calmly asks the second mother if she would please not swear in front of her kids.

Now the polite thing to do would have been to have said sorry and stopped swearing. Instead, the swearing mom shouted 'fuck off and mind your own buisness.' Not only is this uncalled for but she showed up the mother in front of her child which is an extra level of rudness in my book.

The first parents got off at the next stop which was probably best for them at that stage.

In that one 15 minute episode there were so many examples of what is wrong with modern society. They all essentially boil down to manners. Talking loudly on your phone in public - manners. Swearing loudly in public - manners. Swearing at your young child at all let alone in public - manners and bad parenting. Yelling back at someone who calmly asked you not to be vulgar in front of their kids - manners.

It has nothing to do with politcal views, if you are religious, your wealth, your social standing or any other socio-economic reasons. Having decent manners and being polite surely has to be something that all can agree should be vauled.