Why are people not courteous anymore? Did their parents not teach them having manners is actually a good thing? I never realized just how insensitive and discourteous people were until I had my daughter. She is three now. She is also handicapped and unable to walk, talk, or even hold her own head up. So, I need a wheelchair to transport her in.
About a year ago I was in Target. I had picked up some clothes and went to the dressing room. The teenage attendant counts the clothes and tells me I cant bring my stroller in the dressing room. I explained to her my child was handicapped and that the stroller was actually a pediatric wheelchair. She said I would have to leave it outside the dressing room. Of course, I can not try on clothes and hold a two year old handicapped child in my arms Her reply was to leave my child with her and she would watch her. I felt my blood boiling. What made her suitable to watch anyone's kid, but especially my handicapped child. What would she do if my child chocked, had a seizure, someone knocked her wheelchair over, etc….? What would stop her from walking off to attend a customer and leaving my child alone to be kidnapped or harmed? I was livid and speaking to the manager only made it worse. He reiterated what the attendant told me and gave me a 1-800 number to call. Of course, the 1-800 number led to some guy telling me it would never happen again and Target was a handicapped friendly store. He didn't even say he was sorry for my trouble, wasted trip, or anything.
Instead of going back to Target I decide to go to Old Navy and purchase the outfits I wanted. I pick out what I want and head to the dressing room. There is only one handicapped stall and it is occupied. So, I wait and wait. I am patient for twenty minutes because I can only imagine how difficult it is for a handicapped person to try on clothes. Then, I see two kids run out of the handicapped dressing room and a mother stick her head out to yell directions on where to find another size at. All three of them were perfectly capable of going in a regular stall. Yet, they were given the only handicapped stall. Sure it may have been a little uncomfortable for her to take two kids in a regular stall, but she could and I cant. The attendants explanation was that the stall was for moms too. I said well if it is for moms then it is not a handicapped stall, now is it? I argued a moment and requested the manager. The manager simply told me to wait my turn. When I got home I called Old Navy and I must say… they apologized and sent me a ten dollar gift card. They told me that Old Navy's policy was to allow mothers to use the stall only if a handicapped person doesn't need it and if a handicapped person needs it…they are to move whoever is in the stall to another stall. This rule seems stupid to me, but at least they are trying, right?
I thought back to these stories because today I had an all together different encounter with stupidity and rudeness. I went to the grocery store and parked in the handicapped parking space. When I returned I found a huge Avalanche parked beside me in the blue striped spot they stripe off so that a wheelchair can get up next to the car parked in the handicapped spot. It is a hundred degrees, my arms are full, and I cant get the door open to put my daughter in the car. Livid, yes! I had a hell of a time getting my child in her car seat from the other side of the car. I begin writing the thoughtful owner of the Avalanche a note, but my anger grew with each word. I called the police to report him. Of course, the dispatcher said all the cars were busy and asked why I didn't go back inside the store and ask the manager to ask the person to move the car. I told him he obviously doesn't have a handicapped child. It is all I can do to push her and drag all my items out to the car once. Plus, I don't have an hour to stand in the sun with a heat intolerant child waiting for some idiot to come move his monstrosity of a vehicle. The dispatcher called the store and that's all. Whoever, the driver was will continue to park in no parking zones, handicapped spaces, and anywhere else he pleases…..because the police are too busy to worry with handicapped parking spaces.
These are just a few of the inconsiderate, rude, and stupid, things I have faced concerning my handicapped child. Every time I go in a store and begin looking at something someone will of course come up and want to look at something on the top shelf above my child's wheelchair. Come on! She is in a wheelchair and can not stop something from bashing her skull in if it slips out of your hands or falls off the shelf. When I come to a door, I have to push her to the side, open the door, step to the side, and then push her forward. I can not tell you how many times someone comes up behind me and not only fails to offer to hold the door, but breezes in while I am holding it open.
I would like to encourage you all to be more considerate of everyone around you. Put yourself in the position of others before you act. Yeah, that handicapped parking spot is really close to the door and its raining, but think about how wet someone in a wheelchair will get moving at a forth of your speed from a parking spot on the back side of hell.
