chairs with arms

Have any of you ever had to go someplace where the waiting seats all had arms and they were for thinner people than us? I have to go to the dentist soon, and I'm dreading it. Every where I go there are seats with arms and my big fat butt just dont fit. GRRRRRRRRRR! Well what did you do if you have experienced this?

That always was a problem for me at 470 !! I'd try to sit clear out on the end so I didn't have to scooch clear in and fit. I remember coming home with bruises on my sides for days because of being squeezed in any at all. I am happy to say at 298 when I go some where I do not have to worry about that any more it is GRAND. That doesn't help you now but I KNOW how you feel.

Sometimes I just deal with it and squeeze in, other times I ask for a different seat - they are providing a service to you, and they should know you can go elsewhere if it isn't satisfactory.  It depends on how I am feeling about myself that day, and also on how long I will have to wait. I've been known, on several occasions to speak with someone privately about how they should consider adding at least one armless chair or a couch or bench to their waiting room for people who have difficulty.  I've even been known to call ahead and ask that something be provided on my appointment day.  It really depends on whether I am in bi+ch mode or not and how much that office's chairs bother me.  I do believe in making people more aware of the needs of larger people, because many people are receptive - after all its good for business, and Americans are getting larger and larger.   If they aren't willing to work with me  or at least be pleasant and understanding about it, they don't deserve my business. 

I'm with Dunny here. I used to avoid places where I knew that the seating might be an issue. But as I've gotten older, I've also gotten bolder.

Just Monday I had a meeting in a room that usually has a folding chair or two that I can use, but this time one of the physical plant guys had "cleaned the extras out" of that conf room. Normally I get places early to make whatever seating adjustments are needed to accommodate my oversize bottom. But Monday I was running late and came in to a situation where I needed to participate immediately. I checked the room, saw the lack, and announced my need - oops, I need a bigger chair. I turned a too-small chair around and leaned on the back sort of like a stool and made a joke about it - "Guss I'll just perch here" which was totally appropriate given the fast moving project we are workin on - LOL. Someone else made THAT joke FOR me!

One of the other meeting participants who was close to the door grabbed me a more butt-friendly chair from another room and everything was fine.

Now I've had to deal with this issue around the same set of 15 people before, so they understood my need and are ALWAYS more than willing to do what they can to accommodate me.

It just took me a long time to feel I could ask for help. I think that for me, so much of my self esteem is damaged by my feelings of shame about my size. So in the interest of not calling attention to myself, I was scared to ask for what I needed. Now I don't care.

Besides - look at all the people that I have educated about this issue!

15 more than before I spoke up!

When I needed an armless chair, I was never shy about asking for it (in as nice a way as possible). If it's some place like the dentist, call ahead of time and ask for an armless chair to be placed in the waiting room for you if you can't go directly into the exam room (the arms on dentist's chairs usually go up and out of the way). Don't feel bad, you are asking for a necessary accomodation. Kix

Boy, do I hear you on this one! This issue almost kept me from going to grad school. The school only had those chairs with the metal arms that stack. But I called ahead and told them I needed accommodation and they said they would make sure there was an armless chair in each room in my program. Problem was, the armless chair was the same style as the others, just no arms. The first day of class someone had taken "my" chair. So as we went around the room making introductions, I had no choice but to bury my shame and announce my need and request. I was greeted with acceptance and my chair. But I ended up having to do this every class I had unless a classmate from a previous class got their ahead of me and booted  an invader from my seat. On my shame filled days, if no one had left me my seat, I would plop on the floor and just say I needed to be able to stretch out my back and legs. That said, my biggest "yeah" moments now come when I find myself fitting in new chairs. Yesterday I dared to sit in a captains chair at the library, and had no problem. It was all I could do not to whoop out loud!!!

College sucks when you are big!  Most of our classrooms still have the desks attached to the seats.  I would have to get a chair and pull it up to one of those desks.  They seem to be switching to small tables with chairs, but I would scout out the classrooms before hand just to make sure I could find a chair to pull up to one of those stupid desks.  It was a constant source of anxiety. 

Yep...I have those days alot. In fact, I switched dentists bc of this. I remember going to my family dentist....who Id been seeing since childhood....well, I got bigger over the yrs and it seemed his chairs got smaller.....well, I wasnt going in regularly anymore and he griped at me one time about it....I told him it was bc the seats were too small.....that ******* (excuse my language) had the nerve to tell me that it wasnt his seats that were the problem......and just stared at my fat body.... well needless to say...he never saw my fat body again...My current dentist chairs are no problem...the waiting room has a nice couch that I always get on...and the exam chairs are wider.. but other places I dont go anymore.....like the movies...i love the movies...but i have to squish into the seat and its so uncomfortable.

It is amazing to me how limiting my life had become because of things like this. I always scout out the chairs to see if there is an armless one. And over Thanksgiving was the first time I had been to the movies in years because I didn't fit in the seats. It was a tight squeeze this time too. I ask now if places have chairs without arms. I always ask to be seated at a table instead of a booth. I make excuses. I hate it when I have the bruises on my thighs from the chairs. Hopefully this is ending for all of us soon.

San Antonio is a fat city - one of the fattest.  This means all of our movie theaters have seats with arms that raise.  I had no idea those even existed until I moved here.  What an idea!  Its also the first place I've ever been where they usually don't make me ask for a table instead of a booth.  This week though, I've sat in three booths.   I went to lunch with a friend and didn't even eat, just sat in the booth grinning hehe.  I look at that tiny space and think, no way, bad idea.  I'm not gonna fit, this is going to be embarrassing.  But then viola, I fit.  I can't believe it!