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Advice for reaction to using a buggy with a 8yr old

Flutterby81

Hi

Our son has autism and hypermobility and suspected arthritis. He can only walk a short distance before his legs, feet and hips hurt. My parents kindly bought us a mcclaren major elite as we were hestitant to have a wheelchair as he only needs it to have a rest and not all the time.

We went into Chester this morning for breakfast and took the buggy for the first time there as we wanted to go to a couple of shops afterwards and we knew he wouldn’t be able to walk that far and my husband can’t keep carrying him.  Anyway the reactions we got from him sitting in the buggy were unbelievable, I really wasn’t prepared for it. I have put a sticker on it saying about disability but obviously no one saw that or didn’t care. He is tall for his age so it must look a bit ‘different ‘ but even still. 

My husband just said to ignore them and I know I need to harden up and not be so sensitive. 

Does anyone have any advice or what I could say to these idiots? We had prepped him where we were going and he had coped really but whilst we were walking through the precinct with him in the buggy even our son asked why people were staring. Should we have just gone for the wheelchair?

  • Hi there, I’m really sorry to hear that you had to put up with a bunch of completely insensitive idiots this morning! It’s none of their business if your son needs to use a buggy! I would say that your husband’s advice to ignore them is probably the best option as you are sadly not going to be able to educate every idiot that you have to walk past. However, that’s easier said than done. I get the staring thing in a slightly different way with my youngest who’s just turned two, she has various developmental delay and she stims by shaking her head from side to side, repeatedly for long periods of time. I often notice people staring at her when we’re out, I manage to ignore them despite being tempted to say something. One of these days though someone’s going to stare when I’m in a bad mood and I’m going to end up blowing up at them!

  • Hi,

    I'm sorry you went through this people are narrow minded to say the least!, what you choose to do is entirely up to you but I would think people would not give him a second glance if it was a wheelchair or at least not to the degree that you got with him in a pushchair.

    Ultimately you need to do what you feel is best for you and your son on one hand a pushchair is probably easier to handle but will draw unwanted attention where as most people will accept a wheelchair at least until they see him walking. 

    Personally I would hold my head high and ignore the ignorant morons. 

    Have you spoken to your son about it? He may have a preference, also be cautious on the weight limits for prams both my 6 and 8 year old daughters are very slim built and they exceed the recommended weight for my sons pushchair