I had to let a few days elapse before I wrote this, as I was so angry at the time it happened I couldn't sit still long enough to type.
I was travelling by train from Salisbury to London with my two young children aged 4 and 1, plus all the usual paraphernalia of buggies and bags. On boarding the train I was relieved and delighted to find two seats right inside the carriage door. My younger son was tired and irritable and overdue a nap so I tried to settle him but to no avail. At that moment the man with the snack trolley came into the carriage, saw us, pointed to a sign indicating that this was a 'quiet zone' and said that we would have to move, presumably because my baby was crying. I looked at the sign, which I hadn't noticed before, saw a reference to no mobile phones or personal stereos but nothing about no children being permitted in the carriage. Further down the carriage, several people were blathering into their mobiles and he said nothing to them. I was taken aback, to say the least.
I complained to another employee who entered the carriage shortly afterwards and, to be fair, he was very apologetic and said that of course I didn't have to move as he could see it would not be easy for me.
What is it with the British and children? We were all babies once. How on earth are you supposed to stop a baby crying? Only in Britain…
