Where is your manners?

Have you ever wondered where has the manners of today youngsters gone to? I think I have the answer. Maybe the following incident that I saw on a peak hour MRT train ride will help to illustrate the point.

It was on Friday evening, at the time where most people were heading home from work, on a crowded MRT train. As usual, it was very packed and all seats were taken. Then a small rowdy boy, with his mother and grandfather boarded the train. In came the boy saying loudly in chinese, "mum, there is no seat available and these people all pretend to sleep!"

Instead of reprimanding the boy for being rude, she repeated the same remark and agreed with his son, "Yeah lor, forget it, you will not find a seat for your grandfather, because every one is pretending to sleep."

I just could not believe what I have heard. So rude of them to make such remarks and I could not believe that this is how the mother is teaching her son. I came from a very strict upbringing where even during meal time, we have to greet the elders and ask them to eat first before we can start. I held fast to such tradition and I would insist my kids to behave the same way. It is a kind of basic respect to your elders.

Anyway the episode did not end here. One lady apparently awoke by this commotion, opened her eyes and saw the poor old man standing, stood up and let him sit. But that rude small boy, around 3-4 years old, rushed to the seat and insisted that he wanted the seat, pushing his grandfather away. As he pushed his grandfather away, he almost sat on the young chap on the next seat. Awoke by this, the young man saw the poor old man and too offered his seat to the old man.

What was really sickening, was that the mother just verbally told off her son, "Son, this seat is meant for old people, you should not take the seat." She merely said this twice to the son and did nothing... absolutely nothing. Not only that, the son just looked away from his mother and pretended not to hear anything, and even pretended to sleep by closing his eyes.

Unfortunately I do not have the courage, otherwise I would have made the comments "nowadays youngsters has no proper manners, no 家教 (meaning no proper upbringing)".

I fear for the future of this mother, as I dun think her son will treat her well when she's in old age. Haiz.....