[blparent] Keeping young children safe as parentswith a visual impairment

Sat Dec 31 22:39:10 UTC 2011

Hi Debbie,
LOL, I hope she doesn't either... Although, I can just imagine her being
just as appalled as everyone else considering how well she knows us. LOL.
In all seriousness though, I too hope Ryan Knighton does find proper
training and that he can know the joys of being a parent who just happens to
also be Blind.

In Christ, Miranda

-----Original Message-----
From: blparent-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:blparent-bounces at nfbnet.org] On
Behalf Of Deborah Kent Stein
Sent: Saturday, December 31, 2011 5:21 PM
To: NFBnet Blind Parents Mailing List
Subject: Re: [blparent] Keeping young children safe as parentswith a visual
impairment

Dear Steve,

Yes, I heard Ryan Knighton's piece on This American Life, and like you, I
was appalled.  He makes statements such as (I paraphrase here), "My wife
hadn't had a moment to herself in four months, ever since our daughter was
born, except to go to the bathroom.  It was inevitable, since I am blind." 
He also quips about "trying to change a nappy in the dark" and notes several
times that he kept putting the baby carrier on upside down.  He has been
blind for eight or ten years at the time of this writing.  Ira Glass's
comments leading into this piece are equally dismaying, about "What happens
when you are the problem in your neighborhood?"  The only hint that there
might be an alternative to all this ineptitude is when Knighton comments
that he's been blind for X number of years but still isn't very good at it. 
I hope he can get some good training, and I wish he'd stop telling the world
in his sparkling prose (really, he writes beautifully!) that a blind person
is an accident waiting to happen.  And I fervently hope Miranda's caseworker
doesn't listen to NPR!

Knighton's book, C'Mon Dad: Dispatches from a Dad in the Dark, is available
on Bookshare.

Debbie

----- Original Message -----
From: "Steve Jacobson" <steve.jacobson at visi.com>
To: "NFBnet Blind Parents Mailing List" <blparent at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Saturday, December 31, 2011 2:38 PM
Subject: Re: [blparent] Keeping young children safe as parentswith a visual
impairment

> Did anyone here the writing of a blind father featured on the program 
> "This American Life" today?  Apparently, the writer, Ryan Knighton has 
> written a book that one web site says "Ryan Knighton is most recently 
> the author of Cmon Papa: Dispatches from a Dad in the Dark. When you 
> strap a baby to her blind father and send them strolling into traffic, 
> the only good to come of it is a funny and moving book about family, 
> fatherhood and survival."  When I read about him, he sounds like an 
> interesting person, but the piece I heard today which outlines his 
> walk with his four month old baby makes it sound as though it is just 
> luck that he and his baby survived.  Some of this is probably his 
> writing style, and it is captivating, but it just hit me very wrong 
> when I heard it today.  I do not believe that we need to never show 
> potential weaknesses as parents, but I have less sympathy for a blind 
> parent making money by discussing the possibility of a pit bull making 
> his four month daughter a "chew toy" and saying that when he walks in 
> a crowd on a nearby commercial street that he has been knocked over on 
> multiple occasions.  When I heard his writing today, my reaction was 
> "What are you doing walking with your baby with your apparent lack of 
> skills?"
> Keep in mind he has been losing his vision for fifteen years.  This is 
> ironic in that this is precisely what most sighted people think about 
> most of us.  Did anyone else hear this?  I gather he might be a writer 
> who strives not to take society too seriously, and some of his 
> observations are right on target even in this particular selection.  
> For example, he is almost hit by a van, and the driver tells him to be 
> more careful.
> Still, this hit me wrong.likes to
>
> You can read about him at
>
> http://www.ryanknighton.com/vitals.html
>
> Best regards,
>
> Steve Jacobson
>
> On Sat, 31 Dec 2011 12:31:00 -0700, Veronica Smith wrote:
>
>>Miranda, maybe giving the case worker a copy of our emails would make 
>>her or them feel better.  Hearing it from many blind mom's and dads, 
>>maybe that would set her/them at ease.
>
>>-----Original Message-----
>>From: blparent-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:blparent-bounces at nfbnet.org] 
>>On Behalf Of Miranda B.
>>Sent: Friday, December 30, 2011 9:58 PM
>>To: 'NFBnet Blind Parents Mailing List'
>>Subject: Re: [blparent] Keeping young children safe as parents with a 
>>visual impairment
>
>>Hi Jo Elizabeth,
>>Thank you so much for your email! All you are saying is so true, and 
>>we and our caseworker agree! :) The one question I asked our 
>>caseworker during our phone conversation was, "When will enough be 
>>enough?" I then said, "You can not in your right mind tell me that 
>>after a point all of these questions from the state won't be crossing 
>>that very fine line of discrimination."
>>Thanks again, and thanks to everyone who has replied so far for 
>>reminding us that we're not alone and we're not crazy!
>
>>In Christ, Miranda
>>-----Original Message-----
>>From: blparent-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:blparent-bounces at nfbnet.org] 
>>On Behalf Of Jo Elizabeth Pinto
>>Sent: Friday, December 30, 2011 11:46 PM
>>To: NFBnet Blind Parents Mailing List
>>Subject: Re: [blparent] Keeping young children safe as parents with a 
>>visual impairment
>
>>Give the state any information you can find, but Sheila is right.  
>>Like I told my sister when she worried that my baby would put 
>>something in her mouth and choke on it, or get knocked over by the 
>>dog, or some other horrific thing--blind parents don't keep the 
>>emergency rooms open by themselves.  Accidents happen to everybody, 
>>and the best you can possibly do is take every precaution you can 
>>think of, and then maybe try to dream up a few more, and then relax, 
>>know basic first aid, and hope for the best like all other parents do.  
>>I know sighted parents whose children drank cough medicine and had to 
>>go get charcoal in the emergency room, or swallowed coins and had to 
>>go to the hospital and get them fished out.  I've got a friend who had 
>>a neighbor that lost her two-year-old to strangulation because of a 
>>cord on a window blind.  I've got another friend who knows a couple 
>>with a ten-year-old daughter who nearly drowned in a swimming pool 
>>last summer.  None of them were bad parents.  Momentarily inattentive 
>>maybe, but who hasn't been?
>
>>I guess that would be my main stress point for the social workers, is 
>>that you realize as blind parents, you have to be more attentive than 
>>your sighted peers.  You have to know what possible dangers are in the 
>>environment, eliminate the ones you can, and take extra care to put 
>>what shouldn't be reached out of reach.  You have to follow safety 
>>rules rigidly--hold hands in parking lots, cut grapes and hot dogs in 
>>half to minimize the choking risk, etc--because you know you can't 
>>fall back on your vision.
>
>>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: "Sheila Leigland" <sleigland at bresnan.net>
>>Sent: Friday, December 30, 2011 8:51 PM
>>To: "NFBnet Blind Parents Mailing List" <blparent at nfbnet.org>
>>Subject: Re: [blparent] Keeping young children safe as parents with a
>>visualimpairment> I don't know if we did anything differently than 
>>visualimpairment> sighted
>>parents should have been doing accept understand that vision was not 
>>an option to be used.
>>We had baby gates. We had a baby monitor, when we built a deck it was 
>>railed and had a gate on it. We taught him to come when he was called 
>>and that lule was consedered unbreakable. We had a fenced yard in fact 
>>it was six feet high and then people complained that it looked like a 
>>prison. We had a baby gate separating the kitchen and the living room 
>>until our son discovered at the ripe old age of 2 how to unlock it. 
>>Then we were told that he watched us do it surprise surprise he could 
>>see. We tried to keep him from climbing oh welll that only lasted so 
>>long. We held hands when we crossed the street.
>>There is no way to plan for everything and sighted people can't do it 
>>eiter.
>
>>And if they claim that they do they are deceiving themselves as well 
>>as others.
>>>
>>> Sheila Leiglan d
>>>
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> blparent mailing list
>>> blparent at nfbnet.org
>>> http://nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/blparent_nfbnet.org
>>> To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info 
>>> for
>>> blparent:
>>> http://nfbnet.org/mailman/options/blparent_nfbnet.org/jopinto%40msn.
>>> co
>>> m
>>>
>
>>_______________________________________________
>>blparent mailing list
>>blparent at nfbnet.org
>>http://nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/blparent_nfbnet.org
>>To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for
>>blparent:
>>http://nfbnet.org/mailman/options/blparent_nfbnet.org/knownoflove%40gm
>>ail.co
>>m
>
>
>>_______________________________________________
>>blparent mailing list
>>blparent at nfbnet.org
>>http://nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/blparent_nfbnet.org
>>To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for
>>blparent:
>>http://nfbnet.org/mailman/options/blparent_nfbnet.org/madison_tewe%40s
>>pinn.n
>>et
>
>
>>_______________________________________________
>>blparent mailing list
>>blparent at nfbnet.org
>>http://nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/blparent_nfbnet.org
>>To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for
>>blparent:
>>http://nfbnet.org/mailman/options/blparent_nfbnet.org/steve.jacobson%4
>>0visi.com
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> blparent mailing list
> blparent at nfbnet.org
> http://nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/blparent_nfbnet.org
> To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for
> blparent:
> http://nfbnet.org/mailman/options/blparent_nfbnet.org/dkent5817%40att.
> net

_______________________________________________
blparent mailing list
blparent at nfbnet.org
http://nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/blparent_nfbnet.org
To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for
blparent:
http://nfbnet.org/mailman/options/blparent_nfbnet.org/knownoflove%40gmail.co
m