[blparent] dealing with the public

[Veronica Smith]

Leslie, if it had been me, I would have stood up and faced these well
meaning women.  I would have said, thank you for your concern but Michael
and I spend countless hours together alone and I know exactly what he needs.
Then smile and say thank you for caring.  Then sit back down with your baby
and ignore them.  Make sure though, the next time you see them invite them
to coo over him. You don't want to make enemies. V

-----Original Message-----
From: blparent-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:blparent-bounces at nfbnet.org] On
Behalf Of Leslie Hamric
Sent: Monday, May 24, 2010 3:41 PM
To: 'NFBnet Blind Parents Mailing List'
Subject: [blparent] dealing with the public

Hi group.  I wanted to tell you about a situation that happened yesterday.
My husband and I were at a church doing and he had left me alone with the
baby for a few minutes to go talk with some other people.  Michael started
getting all fussy and crying and I immediately bent down to his carseat and
started rocking it like I normaly do.  Well, besides having this one lady
ask me things like do you want me to hold him, I can try, I love babies, do
you need help rocking him, are you sure ou don't want me to hold him, etc.
etc. I had three or 4 other ladies crowd around him, getting in his face,
look for his pacifier which was right with my hand's reach,  and start
talking to him which made him cry more.  Funny they all left me alone when
my husband came back.  I know these women from choir and although they were
wel intentioned, I felt very uncomfortable.  They indirectly made me feel
like I wasn't doing my job. I kept saying, no thanks, I have it and it still
didn't do any good. I'm wondering how have you all dealt with similar
situations in the past?  My second question is, is there a such thing as
being nice but firm when trying to get well-intentioned folks to back off?
How else could I have handled it besides freezing up and feeling hurt?
Thanks for any input.

Leslie

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