Waterslides 🖕🏽

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There are joyful days… and then there are these days...There are days that make me sweat — like right now, at almost 3am, when I have to be up at 8am to go to Outback Splash.

That’s the problem...Outback Splash.

Slides.
Fun.
Queues.

And the fucking waterslides that aren’t wheelchair accessible😞

Panic has settled in like it always does before places like this. My brain has been running strategy after strategy on loop — how we might get Kaedyn down just the wide, smaller blue slide. Just once! One time to feel like he can be like every other kid in the park.

The alternative is telling him no...and I don't like how that makes him feel.

Kaedyn is cognitively sound. He understands exactly what’s happening. He understands what he’s missing and there is something uniquely cruel about watching your child fully understand why they’re being left out!

Last time? My body said “lol no”
That last time we went, I had a whole plan.
I printed plans, extra hands organised. And then — TMI warning — my body absolutely betrayed me.
I got my period four days early. That was it. Plan dead, I was sidelined.

Accessibility isn’t just about ramps and chairs — it’s about the reality that carers are human, and everything is unpredictable, and every part has to line up perfectly for disabled kids to maybe, possibly, get one turn.

So naturally… Ive spiralled and Googled

“Ramp accessible waterslides”
“Wheelchair accessible water slides”
“Adaptive water slides Australia”
“Surely this exists???”
Spoiler alert: it doesn’t!
Not here, not really anywhere. Not in any meaningful way.
And naturally, something in me has snapped.

Enter my villain origin story...
So now I’m waging war on my local council.
Because if it doesn’t exist, then maybe it should.
I’m pitching an accessible, ramp-to-the-top waterslide at Whiteman Park, designed to complement Pia’s Place — but water-based. Inclusive. Fun. Slightly adrenaline-fuelled.

Here’s the thing people don’t get...
Disabled kids don’t just need “calm” play.
They need thrills, they need speed!
They need joy that doesn’t feel watered down and patronising...Kaedyn doesn’t want to watch!!
He wants to DO.

When it comes to Kaedyn? I will absolutely be your worst nightmare... I don't take no for an answer, same mum who got him to the Eras Tour TWICE!

This lack-of-waterslide bullshit has scratched an itch in me and now I can’t unfeel it.
It’s not just about the slide, It’s about every time he’s told 'not this time.' Well when is his time KAREN!?

He understands why...
And every time that exclusion lasts longer than the day itself... It takes on a life of its own.

And I’m tired of explaining to my child why the world keeps building fun without him in mind.

So… yeah😭Wish me luck on my new project 🤦🏽‍♀️

Sleep would be nice, change would be better.

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