DS2 nearly caused an accident

[elliejjtiny]

Somebody please come and thell me their DC has done worse!

I have DS1 (nearly 7) a bit quirky and hypermobile but experts have declared him to be NT, DS2 (5) has Ehlers Danlos syndrome, sensory issues, uses a wheelchair and is prone to meltdowns when tired, DS3 (2) hypermobile and not walking outside yet. I'm also 31 weeks pregnant (unplanned before my sanity is questioned again!). School is 1.5 miles away so we get the bus, which although costs a fortune is almost door to door. I usually push the buggy and DS1 pushes the wheelchair. Sometimes DS2 goes in the wheelchair and sometimes not but we have to take it with us because DS2 does the whole sit on the floor and scream thing when he gets tired and it's so much easier to put him in the wheelchair and get home quick.

Today I picked the older 2 up from school as usual. DS2 wanted to push the wheelchair, I say fine, DS1 not happy. We wait while 3 buses go past with either no wheelchair space or someone already in it. Finally get on a bus and get off again 50 yards from our house. Walking home and DS2 suddenly lets go of the wheelchair. Path is slightly tilted so wheelchair rolls out into busy road, then stops. Car brakes and (understandably) driver presses down on the horn. DS2 starts screaming. I'm panicking that he's going to go out into the road while also aware that I need to get the wheelchair. I tell DS1 to hold on to DS2 and not let him move and I quickly grab the wheelchair. DS1 takes the wheelchair, I take DS2 (who is still screaming) in one hand and push the buggy with the other. Get home and consider never leaving the house with DS2 again.

The paed, OT and physio are always saying that I should make him walk as much as he can but I'm tempted to ignore them and use the wheelchair all the time. Thankfully nobody was hurt but the cars on the road could have easily have crashed into each other and DS2 could have easily run into the road in panic if DS1 and I hadn't kept hold of him. I'm also tempted to get one of those buggy clip things and a buggy the same size as the wheelchair so I can push them both and stuff the expense.

Would wheelchair services chip in towards this? I've heard the mountain buggy twin is also good.

The council should give a disability bus pass for ds2, if you apply, and with young dc, most areas also let a parent travel free.

Thanks everyone. I was really proud of DS1, who despite being only 22 months older, kept hold of DS2 for the couple of minutes it took to retrieve the wheelchair. He also brought me an ice lolly when we got home. Took me ages to stop shaking, I thought we were going to end up with a mangled wheelchair at the very least. DS2 was only 5 a week ago so I'm still waiting for his bus pass to be sorted (DLA ran out the day before his 5th birthday so we had to wait for the renewal to be sorted before I could apply for the bus pass. In our area you can only travel free as a carer if the disabled person is over 16 because apparantly under 16's would travel with a parent anyway .

Not sure if wheelchair services would pay for some of the cost of a double SN buggy. When DS3 was born they offered us an enormous one that wouldn't fit on the bus, wouldn't fit in our car and we'd have to pay £800 towards it. There's no way DS2 would agree to go in a buggy now anyway, he's had too many "baby" comments . I was thinking of something similar to this but it was £15 on kiddicare. I'd need a different buggy for DS3 though as my 3 wheeler wouldn't work with it and a sling for DC4. Just trying to persuade DH that it's a good idea. He has AS and finds it difficult to understand that taking the children out is a lot harder on public transport than in the car (he drives and I don't).

Buggypod on the w/c?

Or subsidised driving lessons

In fact, if ds3 is over 15kg, they should give you a single mac major, as normal buggies are mostly only safety tested to that point.