When you have children with special needs you quickly discover that going places is not as straight forward for your family as it might be for your friends. In our case we have to check for latex safety. We can't always make everything safe but we do our best to be prepared by giving the boys profilactic allergy medication, always having epipens and benadryl as well as a latex safe blood pressure cuff in case (heaven forbid) something should go wrong. Next, we have to determine who will need a wheelchair. Every day is different when it comes to what the boys are physically able to do. If we need wheelchairs, then we need to determine if the powerchairs are the best choice or can we get away with transport chairs. If both boys need powerchairs then we need to book mobility at least 48 hours ahead. We also need to determine how accessible our destination is. At this point we haven't even gotten out the door and I'm already tired.
It can get overwhelming but when it works everyone wins. This week we went to the Royal Ontario Museum. We turned the outing into a mini vacation by booking a night at the Holiday Inn. This meant that the boys could rest after travelling so that the next day they were better able to cope with the rigors of a whole day out and about. We had tickets for the Terracotta Warriors exhibit at 10:00 and then spent the rest of the day exploring other galleries. We had never before managed more than a few hours at ROM!
The one surprise was the Mc Donald's on Bloor Street near the museum. Although the restaurant itself was accessible and latex safe (I'll deal with latex and restaurants in a seperate post another day) the washrooms were not accessible. Thankfully the boys were able to manage.
At the end of the day, we were all tired but had a wonderful trip and learned a lot about a period of history that we were as familiar with.
No comments:
Post a Comment