OMG, you win top post in this thread. Or maybe you should be banished? 
People with casts get out of phys ed class for like a month! I was jealous of my best friend in elementary school when she had a cast because she didn’t have to do phys ed. I was a geeky kid and well and truly sucked at all things athletic (still do), so I hated phys ed.
This post is untouchable.
Kids with casts probably get out of some chores at home, too. Getting out of phys ed and not having to do as many chores- what’s there for a lazy kid like me not to like? Plus, a cast doesn’t interfere with reading, which is what I would generally rather have been doing.
Yeah, me too. Wheelchairs were neat! You could zoom around on them and all. It would be like having your own race car, right? Casts were also neat–I do think it’s a mixture of ‘something different’ and the attention.
I also used to covet those cool MedicAlert bracelets a couple of my friends wore. I had no idea that you had to have diabetes or something to get one. Now my daughter wears one for her severe food allergies, and it’s not nearly as cool as I thought–even though now you can get them in pretty beaded versions.
A few years ago I worked as a vision screening tech for the school system, K through 10. No matter what the age we had kids who would lie on the test in hopes of getting glasses. Or maybe just for the extra attention.
I personally remember purposely hurting myself when I was very young to get attention. I don’t know why. I had a fine family life, but I would actually slam a trunk on my leg hoping to break it. I would never do anything wrong to get negative attention, making sure I always had good grades and kept myself neat, quiet and clean, but I would go to my room on bad days and hit myself with a piece of pipe or tile until I had a bruise on my face, then concoct a tale to get my mother’s attention. I eventually grew out of it, but I think it’s more common than I ever realized and some people never do grow out of it.
Besides the attention, there can also be the idea of being seen as brave and overcoming adversity. It’s like an adventure.
A week or so ago I saw a girl with a purple cast on her arm and thought, “I’d have killed to get to choose a color!” Heck, if I had to have a cast now, I would still be the weirdo wanting a blue one…and I’m 33.
I had major spinal surgery when I was nine and had to wear a body cast for six months (not the kind that went over my legs, thank Og, so I was mobile) and the type of casts they use now had just come in, but only came in white. How boring!
My friend, 32, recently had a cast put on her foot and they gave her a choice of up to three colors to work into it! And they had a cast wall of fame up with creative examples. They even have glow-in-the-dark tape.