A story in Sweden’s Expressen about a 4-year-old boy with Down’s Syndrome (named Texas), who went to IKEA with his parents and three siblings, made me think.

Used to their son not being allowed into supervised play areas (which IKEA has so parents can shop while the children play in a safe environment), Texas’ parents simply assumed they could leave their other three kids in the playroom, but that Texas would have to stay with them as they shopped. However, on this occasion, the 19-year-old IKEA employee who met them at the playroom entrance welcomes Texas with open arms, saying he saw “no problem” with his coming in. The parents were thrilled to see their son be able to play with his siblings instead of being excluded because of his condition. (To me, this story says more about the employee in question than about IKEA as a company.)

Picture from expressen.se

My daughter is the same age as this young boy, and I cannot imagine her being excluded from something as wonderful and innocent as play. The mother posted her experience to Facebook, and, to date, it has 100,000 “Likes” (my translation):

Tribute of the day to IKEA and the young man who stood at the Småland playroom. Fredrik and I went up there and had filled out name-tags for 3 of our 4 kids. It never occurred to us that we could leave Texas there to play with his siblings. I saw how the young man was watching Texas, who was spinning around his siblings like a tornado as they were holding their boxes (with shoes, etc.) on their way through the gate. “This guy needs a box as well…!” “What? Oh, uh…” (I say) “It never occurred to me to leave Texas here,” I tell him. “He has Down’s Syndrome and, well…he’s not sick in any way BUT you could say that he has an extra NAUGHTY-chromosome…” “I can’t see any problem with that at all…” he says, and gives Texas a vest and welcomes him in. So, in marches a very proud and happy Texas. It was a WONDERFUL feeling to see the siblings together in the playroom. NOBODY should need to feel different and excluded. Thank-you to the judgement-free, spontaneous and wonderful guy with long blond locks who stood there at Småland today at 15:30. You made my day.

The mother also wrote a letter to the young man and IKEA (also my translation):

Short and sweet: I just wanted to share the wonderful feeling we got when the boy at the playroom in a confident and self-assured manner welcomed Texas. You could say that it’s experiences of a society that would rather exclude than include in its way of thinking that, unfortunately, leads to us many times to simply avoid getting into these types of situations. As parents of special needs children the fact is that we often have to argue, convince and fight for our child’s right to simply have the same rights as other kids. So, the reason why we have never even had the idea that we could leave Texas there is that I simply don’t have the energy for yet another discussion that might wind up with me leaving frustrated and upset. I unfortunately have experiences of the same place excluding special needs children in wheelchairs who wanted to come and play together with their helper. But now I just want to convey the happiness it gave all of us to get such a warm welcome from this young man. It was just the assured, welcoming tone he used that made it all feel so good. Linda — Mother of 5 (of which 2 are special needs children).

In other words, a story of simple human decency. Much needed.