[blparent] Parenting and blindness

[Jo Elizabeth Pinto]

Hi Agnes.  I would agree with that statement.  It takes common sense to 
raise a child, not sight."  Plenty of sighted people are sadly lacking in 
common sense, as are some blind people.

There's an example going on outside my house right now.  One of my neighbors 
lets her daughter, who can't be more than four or five, wander around the 
condo complex by herself.  I know the little girl well; I've never even met 
her mom.  My daughter is about the same age as the other girl, but there's 
no way on earth I'll let her go running around the complex without me.  (My 
daughter has been crying and screaming at me as I write this e-mail about 
how she hates me and I'm mean and she won't be my friend anymore because 
Megan's mom lets her go and it's not fair that I don't say yes.)  It's too 
risky.  Now, God forbid, if something happens to that other girl, it will be 
tragic, but it's likely that no one will blame the mother or question her 
parenting skills.  But if something were to happen to my daughter, even 
though I take great care to make sure she's safe, you can bet that somebody 
would come to the quick conclusion that the accident or whatever occurred 
because of my blindness.

Last week at preschool, the teacher asked my boyfriend why my daughter had a 
bruise on her chin.  He directed Sarah to tell the teacher what had 
happened, and she said she was skating in her slippery socks on the kitchen 
floor and she fell.  The teacher asked if Mom or Dad were there when she 
fell, and my daughter said yes, Mom and Dad were right there.  Dad asked my 
daughter how many times we had warned her that she would fall if she kept on 
sliding and twirling on the linoleum with her socks on, and she said a lot. 
That was the end of the discussion, but if I'd been there, I would have 
politely added that all children get bumps and bruises, sometimes when their 
parents are only a few feet away, and children have to learn the hard way 
sometimes after they've been told to stop doing something.

Jo Elizabeth

I am somehow less interested in the weight and convolutions of Einstein's 
brain than in the near certainty that people of equal talent have lived and 
died in cotton fields and sweatshops.--Stephen Jay Gould
-----Original Message----- 
From: Agnes Steinhoff
Sent: Monday, August 13, 2012 4:13 PM
To: Blind Parents Mailing List
Subject: [blparent] Parenting and blindness

It still amazes me that we are living in the year 2012 and have come so far 
with discrimination and yet people still take children away from blind 
parents for whatever reason.  And yet, there are parents out there who do 
drugs and abuse their children.  Everyone is too worried about the blind 
parent.  In my opinion, it takes common sense to raise a child, not sight.
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