[blparent] sighted children at convention?

[Deborah Kent Stein]

Dear Julie,

I started bringing my sighted daughter to conventions when she was ten or 
eleven.  She had never seemed to be troubled about having a blind mom, and 
like your son, had known blind people all her life.  I was really struck, 
then, by the bonding she did at convention with other children of blind 
parents.  There wasn't any sort of formal gathering, but they found each 
other and connected.  I'm not sure how much they talked about their 
experience of having blind parents either, not in any prolonged way, but 
there really seemed to be a sense of sharing.

I vividly remember an incident my daughter described to me one year at 
convention when she was fourteen.  She and a sighted friend, Crystal, got 
into an elevator with their towels and bathing suits, heading up to the 
pool.  A sighted man, not with the convention, got in and immediately 
started talking to the girls.  He said, "I can't wait to check out of here 
and get away from all these people with their dogs and their sticks!"  Janna 
told me proudly that Crystal gave him a hard look and said, "Those are our 
parents."  If she had been alone, it might have been a far more painful 
experience, but because the girls shared it and supported one another, she 
felt empowered.

Debbie

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Julie J" <julielj at windstream.net>
To: "NFBnet Blind Parents Mailing List" <blparent at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Friday, April 02, 2010 8:13 AM
Subject: [blparent] sighted children at convention?


> 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
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