Why riding the subway sucks (sometimes) - Part 3

August 15, 2007 - It has been awhile since I've blogged! I think it's because I really don't have that much to say these days. Work has been super busy and by the time I get home, I'm usually too tired to sit in front of the computer and type. Anyway, thought I would be blog about this though: yet another interesting subway-riding story!

Well actually, let me change that - it really wasn't that interesting, but I think my reaction surprised me. I was on my way home from work - it was around 7 p.m. - and at Union Station, a mother and her four kids came onto the train. The kids, under normal circumstances, can be classified as cute. But when you're exhausted from work and you just want to go home and ride in the train in peace, 4 overly active kids (all under the age of 10) cannot be considered the fun. The kids started SCREAMING at one another on the train while the mother just sat there and smiled. They then started climbing all over their seats (this poor man who was sitting beside one of the kids had to put up with their constant climbing up and down). What annoyed me the most, besides how the loudness and how their mother thinks this kind of behaviour is okay in a public place, was when they REPEATED the name of each subway stop about a hundred names very very loudly. Then they started questioning their mother why the stops were named as so. My favourite was the explanation for Summerhill - it's a hill and it's always summer there! Summerhill!!

Like I said, the normal regular Felix would have thought it was adorable - the grumpy Felix at the end of the day wanted to slap those kids. I was even THIS close to telling the mother off. I don't care that they are all less than 10 years old, but this kind of behaviour - the screaming, the climbing, the shouting - is not acceptable in a public place. Parents need to take more responsibility in making sure that their kids act appropriately. In the situation here, a simple "kids, use your indoor voice" would have been sufficient. But nooooo, she sat there while the kids screamed all the way through Union to Eglinton.

Another reason why riding the subway sucks - sometimes.