Kate Hackett
I don’t think anyone would object to the fact that pregnancy can be really hard on a woman’s body. It’s exhausting to grow an entirely new human being inside your uterus! But whether that’s an excuse to behave selfishly or not… well.
Let’s leave that up to Reddit’s AITA as they tackle u/golden_eyed_cat‘s story.
OP is very, very pregnant and gets very tired easily. The other day, she was out for a walk and needed to sit down. There were no available seats except in a little massage stand.
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.
She started eating her ice cream on the massage chairs and a couple came by to get a massage. OP said no (…?)
Once I started eating the snack, I got approached by a couple that was in their late teens, or perhaps early twenties. 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.
OP offered to leave once she was done or if they found somewhere else for her to sit, but wouldn’t just… leave.
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.
The couple was not happy that someone not paying for a service was taking up the space. They got a security guard.
Upon hearing that, the girl was not happy. 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 didn’t remove OP and told the couple to use the other chair (how? together? what?) and the couple left annoyed.
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.
OP’s younger sister sided with the couple but her older sister said that OP was fine. So— was she the a-hole?
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 asshole in this situation.
Reddit weighed in and said yep.
One user wrote, “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. YTA.”
Another user wrote in, “YTA. Those chairs are for earning money. You don’t park in a diy car wash to get out of the sunlight. Go eat in your car or take it home.”
OP took the verdict in stride.
Edit: 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.
