[blparent] sighted children at convention?
Deborah Kent Stein
dkent5817 at att.net
Sat Apr 3 18:03:21 UTC 2010
Dear Julie,
There will be a preteen track at convention this year with activities for
kids 11-14 (not sure that's the correct name for it.) Anyway, there will be
activities scheduled for that age bracket, so your son should be able to
keep busy.
Debbie
----- Original Message -----
From: "Julie J" <julielj at windstream.net>
To: "NFBnet Blind Parents Mailing List" <blparent at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Saturday, April 03, 2010 8:21 AM
Subject: Re: [blparent] sighted children at convention?
> Debbie,
>
> Thank you so much!
> This story meant a lot to me. that sort of experience is exactly what I
> hope for my son.
>
> He'll be old enough to go and do things on his own this year at
> convention. I'll encourage him to go to some of the teen social things.
> Hopefully he will meet some kids and make some friends.
>
> His first year at convention he attended the child care. He met a few
> kids there. then last time he was too old for the child care, but still
> to young to attend the teen things. Eleven is a tough age! *smile*
>
> Is there anyone that has kids in the young teens?
>
> Julie
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Deborah Kent Stein" <dkent5817 at att.net>
> To: "NFBnet Blind Parents Mailing List" <blparent at nfbnet.org>
> Sent: Friday, April 02, 2010 10:41 AM
> Subject: Re: [blparent] sighted children at convention?
>
>
>>
>>
>> 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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>>
>>
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>
>
>
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