My nephew has a dilemna. He wants to go trick or treating for Halloween.
But he can't walk far enough to do it without a wheelchair.
When the other kids see him in a wheelchair only some of the time, they don't understand that he can't walk long distances and they ask him alot of questions and challenge him about it.
So he told my sister he doesn't think he wants to do Halloween. She replied "No candy?" Even that didn't change his mind - at first.
Let's just say he's mulling over his options.
I offered to go along in my wheelchair dressed as ET, but my older nephew just rolled his eyes at me. I figured if I dressed up like that, it would give the kids more to talk about than a wheelchair.
Of course the real answer to this situation is doing some handicapped awareness with the other kids. After all, they're just curious and asking questions because they don't understand. It would be alot more comfortable for everyone to do some educating and explaining about CP than to have this be an issue to this extent. We'll have to work on that.
In the meantime, I'm going to go figure out another costume. ET sounded good...
7 comments:
I hope your nephew finds the courage to go out. It's really sad when the physical limitations a person has to endure generate a situation where the person limits himself in order to avoid the unpleasantness and just tedium of dealing with the incapacities of others.
Is there a way to dress up the wheelchair, hot-rod style, so that it can be part of the costume instead of the source of conversation? If you could rig some light that comes from underneath the seat, space-ship style. I saw a car once that somehow had a purple light that shone out from underneath: the effect was quite impressive. Maybe auto stores sell that stuff? (I don't own a car, so I don't know...)w
Poke around online for some wheelchair costuming ideas--if the chair is part of the costume, that's the immediate answer to why he's using it, right? I want to blog about disability and Halloween sometime in the next few days, I think...stay tuned.
Thank you both for taking the time to give your great suggestions. I appreciate it - it's a very different experience for him (as a kid) in a wheelchair and I'm not familiar with some of the information. I'll take a look around and we'll have some fun with it as a project!
A few wheelchair costume ideas:
Anything that has a box design. I saw a really cute costume - a kid dressed as a table that was set for dinner. The box had a tablecloth across it and dishes and candles attached.
Going as one or two dice is also a possibility with a box.
As others said, the chair and/or box could be made into a vehicle of some kind - a racecar, truck, tank, spaceship, etc.
A present - birthday, Christmas or other holiday
Another one - a king on a throne.
I bet if you do a google search you'll come up with some more ideas.
Good luck!
Janet
Sounds like they've come up with the perfect solution. By including the wheelchair in the costume, it becomes a logical part which does not need to be explained.
I'm sure he'll get excited about trick or treating when he has a neat costume to wear.
These are great ideas! Thanks so much. I told my sis about your ideas and she thought it was a great idea- so will let you know what we come up with!
I also remember that a few years back Exceptional Parent magazine had some costume ideas that incorporated wheelchairs.
Janet
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