I haven’t shown you Mikey’s latest form of transport.
Mikey can walk, run and jump. But not for long. If I take Mikey out for a walk to the shop (a five minute walk if you’re slow) I will inevitably be carrying him on my shoulders by the time we reach Tesco. Which isn’t a tremendous help when you were hoping to be able to carry shopping home.
He’s five, he’s feisty and unpredictable. So because Mikey gets tired quickly and isn’t safe when we’re out and about we had been using a pushchair (saving me from getting giant weight-lifter shoulders).
When his feet began dragging on the ground and the pushchair became too heavy to steer we realised we’d need something bigger and more robust. I was expecting a larger sized buggy. We got this:
Mikey likes it (check out that “love myself” face!), it’s hard-wearing, easy to push, it has him sat nice and high and it’s not babyish.
But it’s a wheelchair!!
Imagine the scene. Mikey has been pushed to the park in his chair and then starts buckaroo-ing when we stop. We unclip the lap belt and he jumps out of the chair and runs away.
Is anyone else whispering “benefit cheats” under their breath?!!
Is anyone else reminded of Lou and Andy?!!
It makes me laugh. Mikey is excessively active. He doesn’t know how to hold back and pace himself. He’s all or nothing. The wheelchair is there for the nothing.
So think of me when I’m pushing Mikey round feeling like a fraud when people are extra smiley and kind to us.
P.S. He’s worked out how to switch off the breaks and wheel himself around. They might as well have given him a tank.
hee hee. I’ve just laughed out loud at this…. bless you. And your poor house!
Alice – brilliant blog post. So happy for you guys AND Mikey – this will really help him enjoy the ‘all’ bits of life and rest in the ‘nothing’ moments, removes stress and strain from you and have a good impact all round. Love the honesty and the joy in this post. You are doing an outstanding job at ‘non-standard’ parenting and raising the standard of parenting for us all.
Ha Ha the look on Mikey’s face says it all!! It looks fab!!!