[blindkid] When your child realizes she's different....

[Bonnie Lucas]

Hi Stephanie, and everyone else who has written with so many worthwhile 
suggestions!

Most of the time, both intellectually and emotionally, I believe that it is 
respectable to be blind and short. In fact, I am the shortest one in my 
family, all my children are taller, and I sometimes hate that. I am certain 
that everyone of us has more than one characteristic that we would love to 
live without from time to time.
However, blindness is more noticeable than many other characteristics that 
people have, and Kendra has become more aware of it recently. Perhaps a 
group of kids began to talk about something they were watching on television 
or on a computer game. Maybe people began laughing at something that was 
happening aways off and Kendra asked what was going on with little response 
from the group. These kinds of things happen fairly regularly for most of us 
and when it does, we may feel a little left out. At such times, it is 
difficult to think of the many positive things about the characteristic of 
blindness that all of you have so elloquently shared. I think it is 
important to encourage her to talk about her feelings before you remind her 
of the many advantages of blindness which have been mentioned here. As, I 
believe has mentioned, she will revisit these feelings from time to time as 
she grows and this is so normal. We have six people in our family, three of 
whom have eye issues of some sort. Hardly a day goes by when I as a wife and 
mother am not listening to the struggles of another member of my family and 
I assure you, the eye issues to not out weigh the scores of other things 
that come up. I guess all of this is just a part of life.

Please feel free to contact me off list, Stephanie, and we can get our 
families together so Kendra really can have some quality experiences with 
blind adults and and a soon-to-be blind teenager.

Bonnie

  ----- 
From: "Kieszak, Stephanie (CDC/CCEHIP/NCEH)" <sek7 at cdc.gov>
To: <blindkid at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Tuesday, November 18, 2008 11:45 AM
Subject: [blindkid] When your child realizes she's different....


> My 6 year old daughter has recently started talking a lot about being
> blind and about her "acrylic" eyes, as she refers to her prosthetics.
> The other night, she said to me "Mommy, can you get me something so I
> can see with my eyes instead of with my hands?"  I felt like someone had
> plunged a knife into my heart!  For you parents of older kids, was there
> anything you ever said or did that helped when your child seemed to be
> feeling sad or angry about being blind?  I tried reminding her of all
> the other blind people we know who also don't see things with their eyes
> but that didn't seem to help.  Any suggestions would be greatly
> appreciated!
> Stephanie
>
>
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