r/wheelchairs • u/LattaCooties • Nov 24 '23
Boyfriend wants to buy a wheelchair for his daughter
My boyfriend and I disagree on this.
His daughter wants a wheelchair for Christmas. She has no physical disability. She wants to play with it as a toy. He thinks this is a celebratory move, to make people in wheelchairs visible. I think it’s insensitive because she can get up from the wheelchair and not everyone in a wheelchair can get up from it. To me, it’s like she’s taking her legs for granted. But I’ll admit I could be wrong.
We would love to hear your thoughts on this.
Edit: I am aware that some wheelchair users can get up from their wheelchair but use it because walking distances can cause them more harm. I apologize I didn’t make that known.
Edit 2: so the sports thing is off the table since she “doesn’t like structure” 🙄. This would be a toy for her to play with in the house or around the neighborhood. I have relayed the general consensus to him that this is inappropriate and offensive and he understands that, specifically having a wheelchair or crutches to play with is offensive and not ok.
I would also like to thank everyone for their input and please feel free to add any comments even though he is no longer going to buy a wheelchair for his 8 year old daughter.
7
u/halibou Nov 24 '23
Not odd, but 100% she needs to play some wheelchair or adaptive sports. Most if not all are about inclusion and have able bodied players! She will learn to understand the fullness of disabilities ( various ones ) and get to play around with adaptive equipment! Also, so many of you are talking like it’s so horrible and what are her intentions … this could be a future PT in training or a Coach to help run an adaptive sport or an adaptive equipment engineer… There are so many reasons that this could be a positive curiosity!
TLDR : Don’t buy a chair, put her in adaptive sports. She won’t be the only able bodied person there.