[blparent] sighted children at convention?

[Julie J]

Hello all!

It's been a while since I've been on this list. It's good to be back.  

My Kiddo is 13 now.  Time flies when you're having fun...or something like that.  *smile*  I know a lot of you have younger children, but I'm hoping there will be someone with some ideas for me.

We had an incident in a store yesterday which really bothered my son.  There were some children in line behind us who were rude on a variety of counts.  The rudeness that really bothered my son was when the kids decided that me being blind was funny and worthy of making fun of me for it.   I ignored them for a couple of reasons.  I really had no clue what to say.  but the mother was standing right there and I have difficulty parenting other people's kids in front of their parents.

I know I probably should have said something, but it is too late for this episode.  I'll come up with something for next time.  What I'm most concerned with is my son.   He was really upset about these kids.

My son is sighted.  He has been around blind people all of his life and sees it as normal.  I am the only blind person in my town or at least the only blind person out and about anyway.    He will be coming with me to the NFB national convention again this summer.  I think it's important for him as much as it is for me, especially now that we aren't around many blind people on a regular basis.

I know he gets lots of questions about what it is like to have a blind mom.  I talk to him about it and try to help the best that I can.  but what I really think he needs is to talk to other sighted children with blind parents who have struggled with similar issues.

Is there any sort of opportunity like this at convention?  If not, are there parents here that would be interested in getting a group together?

thanks!
Julie