[blparent] sighted children at convention?

[Amy Murillo-Hicks]

Hi,

I am so behind on my e-mails, and just saw your post.  My son is 13 as well, 
and I am deciding if I want to bring him along.  I am coming with my work 
with about 13 other students and staff, and trying to determine if there 
will be stuff to do that he will be  interested in while I am there and 
busy.

Jordan has a good grasp on how to handle situations where both adults and 
children behave badley.  Maybe he and your son could share some experiences. 
I'm sure there are some things that he feels that he may not tell me about 
because I'm mom.  It's good to know there will be another 13 year old boy.

Has anyone else brought their kids to convention, and what did they do.  Is 
it OK to send them to hang out with the blind teen activities, how does that 
work out?
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Julie J" <julielj at windstream.net>
To: "NFBnet Blind Parents Mailing List" <blparent at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Friday, April 02, 2010 6:13 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
> _______________________________________________
> blparent mailing list
> blparent at nfbnet.org
> http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/blparent_nfbnet.org
> To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for 
> blparent:
> http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/options/blparent_nfbnet.org/amym2%40cox.net