[blparent] Question about parenting with blind children

Sat Dec 31 02:28:25 UTC 2011

I really don't like them, but you can get them in most chocolate shops year
round.  Maybe those are better, but the ones that came in the Brach's box,
were just too sweet for me.

-----Original Message-----
From: blparent-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:blparent-bounces at nfbnet.org] On
Behalf Of Jo Elizabeth Pinto
Sent: Thursday, December 29, 2011 1:26 PM
To: NFBnet Blind Parents Mailing List
Subject: Re: [blparent] Question about parenting with blind children

That's funny about the pine smell.  I thought chocolate-covered cherries wre
only around at Christmas, and I wish I still thought that sometimes because
I love to eat them.

Jo Elizabeth

"How far you go in life depends on you being tender with the young,
compassionate with the aged, sympathetic with the striving, and tolerant of
the weak and the strong.  Because someday in life you will have been all of
these."--George Washington Carver, 1864-1943, American scientist

--------------------------------------------------
From: "Kate McEachern" <kflsouth at gmail.com>
Sent: Thursday, December 29, 2011 1:17 PM
To: "NFBnet Blind Parents Mailing List" <blparent at nfbnet.org>
Subject: Re: [blparent] Question about parenting with blind children

> hi.
>
> I had some sight but still found it helpful to touch things to learn 
> more about the item. My parents were sort of modern for their time so 
> my brother and I didn't have the "don't touch" rule at home. Most of 
> the time for decorating the tree my Mom would bring the ornaments from 
> the basement and open the boxes, then she would give us all an area of 
> the tree that was ours to decorate. We had ornaments that we each 
> liked including my parents so the box or the ornaments we were given were
age appropriate.
>
> I don't know how they got this idea but we loved it and now do the 
> same with our children. I did notice that now that my parents are 
> older the grand kids get the "don't touch just look" rule but I think 
> that's because there just tired of things being broken.
>
> Also, even though I had a lot of vision I hated driving around and 
> looking at Christmas lights they were just too far away and even 
> though I could see the light it drove me nuts to be able to make out 
> that there was more to look at but I couldn't see it.
>
> Yes, my family was the one who would walk on to your well decorated 
> Lon and touch your standing Santa's and rain dear. Also my Mom once 
> told me that when I was like four or three I thought the smell of pine 
> was only around at Christmas and she had to ex plane to me once that 
> the pine tree smell was just from every day trees on the side of the 
> road and not from a Christmas tree farm.
>
> OK, I'm not going to ramble about this any more but that's what my 
> parents did and how I felt about it. Sorry if this makes no sense but I
tried.
>
> Kate
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Bridgit Pollpeter" <bpollpeter at hotmail.com>
> To: <blparent at nfbnet.org>
> Sent: Thursday, December 29, 2011 1:55 PM
> Subject: [blparent] Question about parenting with blind children
>
>
>> Hello,
>>
>> It's been a while, but have been so busy. Hope everyone is having a 
>> wonderful holiday season.
>>
>> So, while decorating the Christmas tree this year with Pen, everyone 
>> kept saying, "Don't touch, just look with your eyes." This seems like 
>> reasonable, sound advice, but then it hit me, a blind child can't 
>> look with their eyes. I've only been blind as an adult so it never 
>> crossed my mind that small things like this would be different with a
blind child.
>>
>> Since this epiphany struck (ha-ha) I've been aware of how often 
>> children are told to not touch, just look. It happened frequently 
>> this season with Pen again as we were shopping with my mom and 
>> sister. I know this list is geared towards blind parents, 
>> nonetheless, I know many of you were blind children, and I'm sure most of
you have answers.
>>
>> How do you allow a child who can't see to experience something like 
>> decorating a tree in a tactile way, but at the same time, steer them 
>> to an understanding that this isn't a toy to be touched and played 
>> with all the time? I'm especially curious about young children who are
blind.
>>
>> Then, as usual, my thoughts went further to include that I think we 
>> can stifle healthy curiosity in any child, blind or sighted, but 
>> limiting what sense they use to experience life. I'm not suggesting 
>> we let kids touch every little thing, but is it really that bad to 
>> allow a child to "touch" say something like Christmas decorations 
>> even if they can see them? Rhetorical question, but have any of you 
>> incorporated nonvisual parenting into a, for lack of a better 
>> expression, more traditional parenting style, A. K. A. sighted 
>> parenting. *I'm simply using these terms to distinguish between things.
>>
>> Anyway, perhaps I'm not being clear, but I'm just curious about this, 
>> and it may be something I can use for my Live Well blog. I'd 
>> appreciate any responses.
>>
>> Sincerely,
>> Bridgit Kuenning-Pollpeter
>> Read my blog at:
>> http://blogs.livewellnebraska.com/author/bpollpeter/
>>
>> "History is not what happened; history is what was written down."
>> The Expected One- Kathleen McGowan
>>
>>
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>
>
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> 

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