I don't even work there, but I ruined a christmas..

[katzklaw]

yeah.. i know someone in the "looks healthy but has occasional mobility issues" category myself. real nice kid in his early 20s... strong as a horse, too... but for some reason he has an issue with his legs, and he sometimes needs to walk with a cane... i've heard the horror stories of how many times people have given him crap about using a cane to look cool or hipster or whatever, when he really does honestly need it. people sometimes... i swear. *shakes head*

[Mr Hero]

The lady is a hypocrite. She thought you looked healthy, but were actually fine. She demanded you get up so her daughter, who looked healthy could ride.

[Anoia]

but I ruined a christmas

Good.

My mom (80% disability with walking disablity) was once harrassed out of her seat on a bus just days after she got out of the hospital after her heart-attack. That POS who did so thought she was younger than her and therefore she had more rights to the seat (my mom's in her 70ies), even after a neighbour who knew my mom told her how old she was. Too bad I wasn't there, I would have unleashed hell on her.

[Sapphire Silk]

I've dealt with people thinking I didn't "really need" a motorized cart because I didn't look disabled at the time. Once was when I had a cast on my leg due to a very bad ACL tear and it being winter, I wore XXXL mens black jogging pants on OVER the cast to stay warm. Another time was after getting surgery on said knee during the summer, I had to wear a leg brace for 3 weeks - I'd wear it with leggings and a long skirt and got told off multiple times that "being fat isn't a disability" (yeah I'm a few pounds overweight but not in the too fat to walk category!). Fortunately lifting my skirt high enough to show the brace was *usually* enough to get them to shut up.

Ugh. I hear you, Delta. 18 months ago I had to have surgery on my foot. I was in a walking boot for six weeks, on crutches for the first four of that. Since the surgery was scheduled, I had a handicapped placard for my car. I would use the crutches to get into the store, leave them at customer service and use a cart to do my shopping. The stores around here are good about helping customers with mobility issues get their purchases to the car, and the carts back to the store.

Six months later I broke the same foot. Back in the walking boot I went, only the hangtag for my car was expired. I had Evil Empryss's in my car (she had both a hang tag and a plate on her car), but I didn't dare use it. In spite of the boot and the crutches, I was terrified someone would challenge me if I used handicapped parking without her.

You can't tell about disability just by looking. If there were no carts when I needed one there were no carts. Just that simple. It would never occur to me to think of demanding one from someone because they didn't "look" disabled to me.

I recently sent an LTE to the local news paper about the issue of using carts with respect. Don't know if it will make a difference but at least I tried.

[Eisa]

^That is why, when I go out to the store these days, I end up using the store wheelchair if it's available, because a) I can't figure out the motorized carts very well anyway and b) at least then, I'm less likely to get the "but you don't LOOK disabled!" Which I can be like "yes, well, you try easily bringing forearm crutches on a moped in winter, asshole." Although yesterday, since I went to the store in the morning for once, I didn't use the store wheelchair out of embarrassment...and ended up paying for it with shit-tons of pain. Not the most brilliant of plans.

Anyway. The little girl in the OP might have needed it for later or something, but in that case, her mother should have calmly informed you of that, Mytical, and not pitched a fit and demanded you get out of it, what a rude bitch.

[Lace Neil Singer]

I too want to know what you said, but whatever it was, I bet that mother deserved to hear it.

Nearly a decade ago, I had a bad accident (or an "on purpose" as I called it, given that it was entirely the fault of the car driver) when a guy in a car tried to overtake my motorbike and instead, crashed into me. I escaped with a broken hand and two broken ribs; however, I was off work for three months cuz my hand was broken so badly. I had nothing to show that I was not one hundred percent and as a result, had a bitch yell at me on a bus cuz I refused to get up so that she could sit down. I looked her in the eye and coldly explained that my broken hand and broken ribs trumped her laziness as regards the right to a seat, namely as she could use her hands to hold on to the strap and I couldn't, plus a fall due to not hanging on could result in a rib going into my lung. She didn't have an answer for that, but she did stop yelling at me.

[Amanita]

Mytical, you did NOTHING wrong by swearing at that nasty old bitch. Entitled cows like her need and richly deserve to be taken down a peg or two.

You know why they keep pulling that entitled crap? Because they keep getting away with it, and nobody has the nerve to call them on their bullshit. Maybe if more people did what you do and stood up to these sorry excuses for people, we wouldn't have so many problems with entitle-whores doing what they want.

[RootedPhoenix]

yeah.. i know someone in the "looks healthy but has occasional mobility issues" category myself. real nice kid in his early 20s... strong as a horse, too... but for some reason he has an issue with his legs, and he sometimes needs to walk with a cane... i've heard the horror stories of how many times people have given him crap about using a cane to look cool or hipster or whatever, when he really does honestly need it. people sometimes... i swear. *shakes head*

I've had folks try to convince me I don't need my walking stick. I don't feel like going to the ER because I broke myself after a dizzy spell...or after my legs straight up stopped working...just so they can feel that they know all.

Also, ARGH. That lady. *rubs temples* !!! grrrr!!!