Worst Parents Ever

Jan 12th.

I am sitting by the rear door of the bus, alone in a row of three seats that face the door. The bus isn't crowded but it is running low on empty seats. A mother, late twenties early thirties at most, gets on with her maybe eight year old daughter. They are both pushing strollers. The mother with a child around a year old and the daughter with a child less than four.

Typically when I give a seat up for someone I have to decide the proper manner to do so, I can: empty the seat before they get there, sitting in the seat offer the seat as they arrive, or stand up and offer the seat offer it to the person. Now you should know that the likely hood of a person accepting the seat changes based on both the type of offer and their personality and I enjoy trying to match the right offer to the person after knowing them for just a glance. The main issue with just leaving the seat before the deserving person gets to it is often someone else will steal the seat in the constant shuffle of seats that occurs on the bus. The shuffle kind of reminds me of electrons in the valance shell of an atom. However the advantage is since the person doesn't know you gave up your seat they don't feel guilty taking it.
But I digress...

The mother comes down the aisle first. She has groceries and sets the bags down in the middle seat of the three. She parks the stroller in front of the middle seat and plops herself down next to her groceries. All of the seats are now taken or blocked. The little girl pushes the stroller down the aisle and stands in front of the door. She cannot sit down because her mother has blocked the only available seats and she can't leave the stroller unattended. I am livid. The child in the little girl's stroller starts to fuss.

At this point I notice a man walking down the aisle he has just finished paying for the bus ride. He walks up to the child who is fussing and smacks her without saying a word. Then he proceeds to threaten the young child, "I am already tired of your shit." I think to myself, yeah that's going to work asshole. The man has a brown paper bag with a forty in it. At this point I am completely astounded by their parenting. He goes and sits somewhere back down the aisle away from his "family."

The mother also starts yelling at the child who was fussing. The child calms as if comforted by the anger. As the bus starts and stops the eight year old struggles to stay on her feet and control the stroller, her parents don't notice. All this time the seat next to the groceries remains empty.