SINGAPORE: A young Singaporean has taken to social media to speak out against “entitled aunties and uncles who bully him” during his daily MRT rides simply because he is in school uniform.
Posting on the SGexams forum on Thursday (Nov 13), the student said he’s unsure if he’s just “unlucky” or if this has become a regular pattern, but he keeps encountering adults who seem to believe “it’s okay to pick on you just ‘cause you’re in school uniform.”
He recalled that on one occasion, he was quietly leaning against the glass panel beside the priority seat with his bag placed between his legs. Despite the bag not blocking anyone, two older commuters suddenly started scolding him, insisting his bag was “too close” to their seat. “Excuse me? It’s between my legs; it’s nowhere near you?” he wrote, still in disbelief.
Even on an almost empty train, he said that when he and a friend were talking softly, an aunty seated opposite them suddenly snapped at them for “having no manners,” even though she had been speaking loudly herself just moments earlier.
He added that the worst encounters happen when boarding the train. “When aunties are fighting to rush onto the train, I can be standing right at the door because I reached much earlier, and some aunty/uncle with a trolley will squeeze past; and when I don’t give way because I didn’t even see them coming, they glare at me and tsk??”
According to him, adults seem especially bold when they spot a student in uniform. “They love to play the ‘you dare to tarnish your school’s image’ card or threaten to ‘write in to your school.’”
Feeling fed up, he ended his post half-joking, half-serious: “Maybe I just have to stop taking MRT in school uniform…”
“Counterattack with the ‘Do you know who my daddy is?’”
In the comments, many Singaporean Redditors jumped in to say they totally understood what the student was going through. Quite a few even shared their own encounters with aunties and uncles who seemed determined to make life difficult for anyone in a school uniform.
One user talked about a moment that left him completely stunned. “There was one time I boarded the bus to Pioneer MRT. As I alighted from the bus, an old uncle pushed me from behind. I turned back and got a glance at the old uncle; he suddenly scolded vulgarities at me. I didn’t engage with him. Instead, I ignored him and walked away. Some old people can be stubborn.”
Another Redditor shared, “Bro, this auntie yelled at me for not noticing her standing in front of me for ‘10 minutes’ when I was literally just sitting on a ledge. Like bro, if you wanted the seat so badly, you could just ask, right? You expect me to read your mind?”
He added that the auntie even took a photo of his school uniform and threatened to report him. “I wasn’t even the only youth sitting down. She just targeted me because I was wearing uniform. Must be sad being that miserable.”
A third commenter said he also had to deal with an unreasonably angry aunty. “I feel you, man. I had an experience where some auntie shouted at me for being stupid when I wanted to board the bus because I apparently was ‘blocking her way’—because she chose to alight at the front. I was so angry but I didn’t say anything since I was in uniform.”
Not all comments were serious, though. Some people came up with humorous or clever ways to handle these situations. One user suggested, “Talk back nicely. Or go overboard a little, like threaten to call the police for harassment.”
Another quipped, “Counterattack with the ‘Do you know who my daddy is?’ and flex that Rolex for real.”
In other news, a Singaporean employee has allegedly been terminated after refusing to work on Saturdays.
The individual took to the r/askSingapore Reddit forum to seek advice from fellow users. In his post, he explained that he was employed in a full-time office role, working the standard hours of Monday to Friday, 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Recently, however, his employer requested that he begin working on Saturdays as well—from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.—to take on tasks that he said were “completely unrelated” to his current job scope. In return, the company offered him a mere 5% pay increase.
