[blparent] stranger contact with your child

[Erin Rumer]

I hear ya on this but we can find comfort in knowing that sighted folks get
this with their kids as well from the public.  My sighted friends tell me
how people take liberties with their kids without asking at it does make me
happy to know that it's not just a blindness related thing.

Congrats on your soon to be baby Jan!  You must be so excited!

Erin

-----Original Message-----
From: blparent-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:blparent-bounces at nfbnet.org] On
Behalf Of jan wright
Sent: Thursday, October 20, 2011 11:26 AM
To: blparent
Subject: [blparent] stranger contact with your child

This is annoying, i'll admit. I was not jealous that they could see my
children's facial expressions and I couldn't.
It is annoying because it is the start of people communicating with your
baby or child without your knowledge and I would caution that you do need to
be a little careful.
Sometimes, people can take liberties with your child.
the thing that annoys me most in this stage is that people don't even give
you a respectful: "Oh,  you have a cute baby, do you mind?" They just assume
that you don't mind. Note: they do some of the same things with my dog and
it bothers me, also. I think that it is just respectful to talk to the adult
first. And, the more I think about it the more i am convinced that it is
just plain rude!
When my children were older, people would give them candy that I did not
want them to have; or toys to play with that were sometimes inappropriate.
They would try to comfort or quiet your child and sometimes they were doing
much more harm than good.
 I hate to be the web blanket in this discussion: but, these are the same
adults who would rather talk to your child or your dog before having a
conversation with you. I always found it strange that after I got my dog
(and my children were teens) I experienced the same reaction from people.
They would say to my children: "You are so sweet," "You are such a good
baby," (and much more annoying comments).
And, now that I have the dog, they want to talk to the dog: "You are such a
good boy." GRRRR! And, I know that I am going to experience more of the same
when I have my baby boy (seven more weeks until the due date).
it is strange, though. It is harder to ward off unwanted behaviors from the
sighted public and also harder to connect with them when we want to. UGGG.

_______________________________________________
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/erinrumer%40gmail.com