[blparent] leaving family to get a dog guide

[Jennifer Jackson]

Actually I have always thought that a couple of the bigger schools should
offer a program once a year where our kids could attend with us. This would
let us work out any travel issues with our children while we have a trainer
there. Obviously some kind of child care arrangement would have to be made
for part of the day so we can focus on our dogs, but this just seems like a
workable plan. Especially for those people who live in a rural area and do
not qualify for in home training.

All that said, I did go for a dog when my oldest was four. I had planned to
hire someone to watch him during the day and make my husband juggle the rest
of the day. As it turned out, my mother found out about 6 weeks before I
left that she was going to laid off right before I would be gone and she
came and stayed at our home with him.

The child who complained regularly about having to walk to school apparently
complained the entire time I was gone about his grandmother driving him to
school. It was a little over half a mile one way to his school. She always
acted like I should appreciate the opportunity to exercise when I complained
about the walk in August. :) I did not ask her why she was not appreciating
that opportunity in October. I also went to one of the two week training
sessions. I think my son would have had a much more difficult time if I had
been gone longer, or if he had not been able to stay in his usual routine. 


Jennifer

-----Original Message-----
From: blparent-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:blparent-bounces at nfbnet.org] On
Behalf Of Erin Rumer
Sent: Wednesday, June 06, 2012 7:49 PM
To: NFB blind parent listserv
Subject: [blparent] leaving family to get a dog guide

Hello list,

 

Thankfully, my current guide is only 4.5 years old and doing well, but I got
to thinking about when it does come time to get a new guide, what will that
mean for my family and particularly my son.  Assuming my guide now works a
nice long life and retires around the age of 10, my son will then be around
6 or 7.  I know that in-home training may be a possibility depending on the
circumstances, but have any of you gone through having to leave young
children with family or friends while off getting a new guide and if so, how
did your kids fair?  Working at GDB for 3.5 years before my son came along
gave me the opportunity to work with lots of folks coming through for a new
dog who have kids at home, but since I rarely got the chance to speak with
the grads after they went home, I never really got the full picture of how
the separation affected the kids, especially if the parent leaving was a
stay-at-home mom or dad.

 

Thanks,

 

Erin

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