Be it brutal, be it honest, be it true

[laurasweetou]

As you all know, I am in Ireland visiting a c-5 quad and doing well, so he has a five year old daughter (in-vitro). He has a lot of spare chairs about the house and grounds and she likes to play in them quite a bit. I talked this over with another dev, a very intelegent, knowageable on the subject, good friend dev, and she said it's totally normal for her to do this. I completly trust her and have every confindece, that's not the deal. I want more feedback, all I can get. She will pretend and say her legs are broken or they just stopped working, never that she broke her neck like daddy. I'm at such a loss, you've no idea.

Edited to add: If you dont feel comfortable saying your six pence, PM me

[E]

Why do you want feedback? Why the concern? If she is whatever you think she is, she is... if not, then she's not. Not much you can do.

I think it's regular play, though, quite honestly.

[Deleted]

Its simple curiosity and the fact that the biggest hero in her life is in this chair with wheels. You ever see a Truck Driver's kid NOT play on and in his or her Dad's big truck? I knew how to load a tractor trailer when I was 11. Same thing.

Plus come on...a chair with wheels? Its fun.

[Ouch]

I wouldn't look too deeply into it. From your description it looks like child's play, albeit with different toys that most have avalible to them.

Just as children want to 'play doctor', or whatever else they may imagine, it seems to me her make-believe here is just imagination, an emulation of what she sees around her. My younger brother would play about with my chair when both of us were younger as a part of his way of playing 'make-believe'. Instead of 'play doctor', it became 'play wheeler', because that was something that was avalible and something he witnessed commonly as a child.

[Deleted]

I have yet to meet a kid that isn't interested in my chair and want to play with it. What's the big deal?

[mrjefffurz]

as the others have said,,,nuttin to worry about, laura...my daughter was born 7 months after i got hurt,,,i was the primary caretaker for the 1st 5 years,,and once i actually had a spare chair she loved to push around in it,,,,the thing i was never able to understand was that this was forbidden by her mother,,,she could only play in my spare chair when her mother was gone,,,

[Enid]

My younger sister will still do that if she knows there's a wheelchair available to play with. She's 17. And at the same time she freaks out if amputees are ever mentioned, to the point that she's told us repeatedly that if we ever lose a limb she'll refuse to see us.

I honestly don't think there's anything to worry about.

[BA]

I am absolutely certain that this is totally normal behavior and I can only ditto what Mellow said. She is emulating her hero. Nothing to worry about. But so what if she had early dev tendencies anyway? Would that be troublesome for you? I would think that if my daughter ended up being a dev, at least I'd be able to talk with her about it and understand.

Not to worry Laura, at that age ALL kids work their feeling through via play. Play is their job. My kid is obsessed with cats, particularly Garfield. We happen to have a big, fat black cat and she had some issues of jealousy when we first got him. I do NOT think for one moment that she is going to end up with a sexual cat fetish.

[laurasweetou]

Just cusrious friends. AB lmfao

[yoell]

Who cares. People use my chair all the time. It really is a non-issue!!!!

[matisse]

Playing with the chairs seems normal, but pretending her legs are broken does seem a little odd to me. My 3 and 5 yr olds have sometimes mimicked behavior of mine that is unique to my disability, but only until they realized it wasn't necessary. Neither has ever pretended to have my disability.

[Claire]

FWIW, I'm with most of the other comments out there...it's normal for kids to be interested in chairs. My kids love to play with mine, even. The odds of a child of someone with a disability having BIID would be absolutely astronomical. I *seriously* doubt you have anything to worry about. But if somehow, against all odds, it actually did happen, Eric is right. Not much you can do.

[laurasweetou]

Thank you ;D A tip for you, be ware of shiny brown liquids in pretty glasses called Guiness...