In 1971 I was 8 months pregnant and was stood on a tram in Düsseldorf. I felt faint, I tapped the nearest person to me and then passed out. When I came round I was on the floor and people were stepping over me to get on and off. Not one person offered me assistance, and this was 42 years ago. Nothing has changed.
When my daughter lived in Prague a couple of years ago, she was amazed at the almost unwritten law that on the stations etc, if a man saw a woman struggling with a pram or buggy - they immediately came and carried it up or down the stairs.
Another place that I fainted was in the Blue Mosque in Instanbul. Several local men came rushing up to me clutching glasses of water. They were very concerned and considerate. Maybe they thought I was praying!
When Mic offered to help a young Mum struggling with a buggy getting on a plane she gave him the baby. The look on his face. I took the baby and he went back and took the buggy.
Sherr I love it when children are polite and I always say thank you. I worry that people are not grateful and that the children in turn will think it is not worth doing.
I cricked my ankle and fell over (sober in daylight)
and the lady behind pulled her buggy over me
and Trooper Rigby's killing - in the video - there is a blood drenched man shouting and someone pulls her pram past him - anxious to get home and have a cup of tea I suppose.
but that is life.....
however I have scraped a 'fainter' off a pub floor
I felt really stupid when I came back and the publican's wife said,
No one helped her besides you because she does it every week
and thinks we dont know....
I was in hospital for a genie op, needed the loo, tried to get across the ward, collapsed in a heap through pain, ward orderly actually stepped over me and said, I told you it would hurt!!
When I worked in London I got up to offer my seat to a very pregnant lady on the tube. A pinstriped 'gentleman' tried to take the seat until I offered to Glasgow kiss him, he then desisted.............
Where live gentlemen still open doors for ladies, usher them onto buses first and offer up seats to females (pregnant or not). We smile and say thank you.
A year or so ago, a doctor wrote to The Times about courtesy. When he was a student he was getting of a train when he noticed an old lady with a heavy suitcase. They got off together and he took the case and lugged it to the taxi rank for her. When the taxi pulled up he lugged into the cab, whereupon the old lady said "Thank you, young man, but that's not my suitcase"