First, please correct your child. It's a lake, not an ocean.
Second, although you know it's the Quiet Zone and you told your three, all under-seven-year-olds it's a Quiet Zone, how about you be quiet yourself? Listening to you hiss, "Shhhhhh!" every five seconds was more bloody annoying than listening to your four-year-old scream out, "Are we on a twainnnnnn? Is this a twainnnnn?"
And as always, the novelty wore off at around Ajax... this is when it's time to take the kids downstairs. Seriously. Just move.
Thanks.
I must admit every Go train ride I took as a child, (annual CNE and Ontario Place excurtions), I absolutely had to be on the top level. Although I probably didn't travel till after 9am and returned before 5pm. Fond memories indeed.
ReplyDeleteWe did too but my mom was ready with a slap if we even thought about screaming, climbing on the seats, or running in the aisle. My mom used to take us into Pickering every year before the start of school because she loved shopping at the Pickering Town Centre
ReplyDeleteI encountered a family (two parents, one very young little boy) who were travelling, for some reasons, on my 6:10 am train from Oshawa to Union last week. Naturally, the little guy wanted to sit upstairs but, I'm guessing, were quickly apprised of the Quiet Zone restriction. This seems to have happened on another car, since I met them as they boarded car after car, increasingly disappointed to find that the QZ is in effect on the upper floor of EVERY car. I confirmed this for them and the father looked dismayed, noting that his son was so hoping to sit upstairs. As far as I know, they settled for the mid-level portion of the car. In other words, they sat somewhere other than the QZ (rather than try to enforce a near-silence that is difficult for many adults on an excited 2 year old.
ReplyDeleteI would note that the mid-level section is not so terribly quiet most of the time, and if people in the QZ sit close to the stairs on either side, in my opinion they're taking their chances - yet another reason why I find the entire thing to be utterly ridiculous.
I just want parents to stop shushing their children... just stop. There is no Quiet Zone with kids. Let's be realistic, here, right?
ReplyDeleteBy all means, sit upstairs. Just keep the shushing to yourself. It's ridiculous. Stop trying to prove you can "parent". We get that they are kids. NO ONE IS EXPECTING THEM TO BE QUIET.
ummmm Im expecting them to be quiet in the QZ!! I don't care how old they are .
ReplyDeleteMaybe it's because I don't have kids, but I totally expect children to be quiet if they are sitting in the QZ, and if they can't be quiet, the parents should take them downstairs or travel outside rush hour. For some of us, the train ride is the only 'downtime' we get in a day.
ReplyDeleteI do agree though, that the "shhhh" is more obnoxious than the child. There was a mother and her (maybe 3 year old?) daughter on the train tonight, and they sat upstairs. The mother seemed shocked when the QZ announcment came on, but didn't do anything about moving. Instead just hissed at her daughter to "shut up" and "be quiet" for 30 minutes until the kid finally fell asleep. All the while the mothers eyes never left her phone screen. I felt bad for the kid :(