People Beg Us To Acknowledge Their "Am I The Jerk" Stories

"So I (20) was on the bus, sitting next to my friend (20) and we were going to uni and it's basically a 45-minute ride (so basically the whole way of the bus route).

Not long after we got onto the bus, a group of kids (probably in kindergarten, so about 6 years old) came in with their teacher. There were about 10-ish kids at the back of the bus, where we were, and there were more in the front part of the bus. An older woman was standing right in front of us and she looked at me and said 'Why don't you give your seat to the kids, are you not ashamed?' I just looked at her and ignored her basically, cuz the kids were fine in my opinion. Like they were jumping, laughing, and yelling, as kids do, and I didn't think I needed to give up my seat for 1 child to sit out of 10 of them. It just didn't make sense to me.

A few minutes later, a guy standing near us said to me 'Are you pretending to be deaf?

This woman told you something.' and was basically pretty rude to me. I asked my friend if she wanted us to give up our seats, and she said no, so I ignored the guy as well.

I did feel kinda bad since two people were pretty rude to me about something like that, but I really didn't think I should give them up my seat.

If I had seen that they couldn't hold onto the bus railing and were basically falling over, I would gladly get up and give them my seat.

Also, they were riding for about 10-15 minutes, while being pretty active (like jumping and pushing each other).

Was I supposed to just give up my seat or was I right to not give it up?"

Another User Comments:

"NTJ - I know kindergarteners, they would not have sat. Standing was likely the better and more fun for their choice as long as they all had something to hold on to.

If the teacher had approached you and explained that they couldn’t stand for safety reasons or disabilities then you should have moved but a bunch of healthy kids are fine to stand." Sweetsmyle

Another User Comments:

"NTJ. It would have been one thing if the teacher had approached you and said something like, 'Johnny hurt his leg.

May he have your seat?' Then you would have been obliged to give it up. As an adult, you are NOT obliged to take orders from random adults. If you still live with your parents, you should listen to them. You should also listen to employers and teachers. The only strange adults you should listen to would be people like doctors or police officers. Feel free to ignore older busybodies who believe younger people have to obey them simply because of their greater age." Architeuthis81