It is natural to have a strong reaction to an occurrence and then think back and analyze it. Such was the case for one pregnant woman who wondered if, perhaps, hormones got in the way of her social graces. She decided to ask her sisters for advice. When their poll came back divided, she turned to the internet and Reddit.
She asked the site to weigh in on if she was in the wrong for sitting in a massage chair but not using it for its intended purpose. She instead sat there to eat her ice cream treat and refused to get out of it for a couple who wanted the massage. She asked if she should have reacted differently.
The whole story ...
The woman tells her story in more detail on the site: “I am currently 8 months pregnant, and because of that, I often get quite tired when I stand or walk for long periods of time. Yesterday afternoon, I was craving ice cream, so I drove to a nearby shopping center to visit my favorite ice cream shop. Unfortunately, the place was quite crowded, and all of the tables surrounding the shop, as well as some nearby sofas were taken. Because of that, after getting my ice cream, I decided to sit on one of two massage chairs that were close, and eat it there.”
We all scream for ice cream.
This woman was so excited for her ice cream that she might have forgotten to be polite. “Once I started eating the snack, I got approached by a couple that was in their late teens, or perhaps early twenties,” she continued. “They asked me to get off the chair, since I wasn't getting a massage, and they wanted to receive such a service together, which I refused to do. In return, I offered to leave once I finished eating, or if they found me a different place to sit, since I could not stand for more than a few minutes at a time, and had a relatively large dessert that I wanted to finish.”
Mall security got involved.
“Upon hearing that, the girl was not happy,” the original poster (OP) explained. “She told me to stop acting as if I was ill, that just because I was pregnant, the world did not revolve around me, and because I was not paying for a massage, I had no right to sit on the chair. She then asked her partner to get a security guard, and a few moments later, he came with such an employee. The guard took my side, and asked the couple to either take turns using the second massage chair, or wait for me to finish eating, which upset the girl quite a bit. She accused me of being selfish and preventing the owner of the chairs from earning money, and left with her partner.”
Her sisters weighed in.
Once the ice cream was eaten, this woman began to ponder her actions. She consulted her sisters but received conflicting advice: “Upon telling this story to my younger sister, she told me that I should have went to the ice cream stand when the shopping center was less crowded, if I wasn't able to eat while standing, however, my older sister believes that I had every right to sit on the massage chair if all the other spots were taken, and the couple was being unreasonable. Because of that, I'm not sure if I am the [expletive] in this situation.”
Pregnant does not always equal right.
Most users agreed that in this situation the pregnant woman was wrong. They believe her pregnancy does not give her free rein to hinder someone else’s business.
One user advised, “So, let me put this situation in another context. The massage chairs are a business. Someone installed those with the goal of making money from people paying to use the massage function. Would you take your ice cream from one store and go sit at the tables of another restaurant and refuse to vacate when someone else wants to use that table to eat at that restaurant? That's what you did here.”
It's OK to give up your seat as a pregnant woman.
“The purpose of the massage chairs is for people to get massages, not to provide extra seating to patrons for another business,” chimed in another user. “It was fine to use the chairs while they were not being used, but as soon as someone wanted to use the chairs for their intended purpose you should have gotten up.”
Users offer helpful advice.
Another user offered some other solutions for if this ever happens again: “Sit in your car and eat. Sit on a curb. Kindly and non-confrontationally ask one of the tables with an empty seat if you can sit there.” All of these sound like solid suggestions.
A couple commenters dissent.
Not everyone completely agreed that the pregnant woman was in the wrong. There were a couple of outliers who dissented. One of them wrote, “It’s a massage chair in a public shopping centre. Who cares. People are getting way too worked up on here.”
OP has a change of heart.
Ultimately, though, even the original poster agreed she was in the wrong. She edited her post to add, “This really blew up, and now that I think about this situation, I can see that I am, indeed, in the wrong. Next time a similar situation happens, I will order the ice cream in an edible bowl, and eat it in my car, instead of taking up sitting spots that are owned by other businesses.” It is nice to see someone own their mistakes and commit to changing their actions.
