✅ My Sister's Problem

83. Planet Baby

Somehow, I still thought that Mum was joking. There was no way they'd take me out in public dressed like a baby, would they? And when we were on the road, with nursery rhymes coming out of the speaker beside me, I thought that they would leave me in the car. Letting other people see me like this might disturb someone; it wasn't acceptable to have an older child dressed like a baby. The little skirt she'd put me in would barely cover my diaper, and I couldn't bear for anyone to see me like that.

But then we pulled up in the huge parking lot around Planet Baby, and after a few minutes of banging and cursing from the back of the car, Mum was coming up to my door with a giant stroller. I told myself that it was really some kind of wheelchair; a mobility aid designed for somebody with a disability that made it harder for them to walk. It was just a seat with wheels, and there was nothing particularly childish about that. Except for the fact that it was bright pink, of course, and had a plastic tray that she could lock across my lap; giving a space to put things down as well as keeping me in the seat.

It was a stroller. I could deny it all I wanted, but as soon as I saw myself reflected in the glass-and-chrome frontage of one of the other stores in the retail part, there was no denying that I looked like a baby. I was bigger than most babies; but still a lot shorter than Mum. And with the styling of that stroller, sitting down surrounded by people who were standing, it would be possible for passers by to assume I was an actual toddler. Or maybe not a toddler, maybe just a young kid who wasn't well behaved enough to walk around on her own. People wouldn't think it was weird or creepy; they would just see me as a baby, or a late developer.

And then we were at the doors, and I realised that the store itself might make it easier. Planet Baby used to be a furniture superstore, and although they'd been set up to let you buy stuff for delivery, they still had the outsize automatic doors that would let some customers out with a full size closet in their cart, or a whole set of kitchen cabinets. Everything was built to a larger scale than usual, which was one of the things that had enchanted us when we were younger. It felt like the ceilings were higher, the aisles were wider, and just a little like we were walking into the land of giants. And after the huge warehouse-like building was taken over by Planet Baby, they'd capitalised on this by building giant replicas of some of their baby furniture. The whole 'toys' section was inside a giant playpen, designed so that parents could see what the playpen furniture would look like from their kids' point of view; and there were labels attached to each of the scaled-up items indicating where a regular version of the same product could be bought.

The decor messed with your sense of scale. So many things weren't the usual size that it was hard to judge how big anything actually was. And I was dressed like a baby, in a stroller that was a bit too large for me, so it would be easy for anyone glancing from a distance to think I was an actual baby.

"We're not going to get in trouble, are we?" Lindy whispered as we got closer to the door, leaning close to Mum and glancing at the families with real babies heading for the door from all directions. "I mean, Sally's..."

"She's just a little baby," Mum answered. "She can't help it. And remember, there's the 'babies of all sizes' display next to customer service. They make a point of having all the baby stuff in larger sizes than the common brands do, so that they can cater to kids who are a little larger than most babies. They know that some kids develop faster physically than mentally, and they make a big point of not discriminating. There might even be a couple of other babies of Sally's age here; nobody's going to look twice."

I was still nervous, but I was starting to realise that she was right. There were kids who had some kind of developmental disability, and still needed baby products well past the age where most people would think it was weird. And Planet Baby made a big point that they would provide baby products to anyone who needed them, regardless of chronological age. It was something I'd never really thought about before, although I'd read all the information boards when I was at the age where reading everything in sight is an irresistible urge. And I knew that it was a really progressive move for the store to support everyone; but it frustrated me now when I realised that it meant I couldn't use it to get out of this shopping trip.