[blparent] Taking advantage of parenting classes

Thu Mar 1 16:46:18 UTC 2012

Bridget, we live each day learning and educating.  Each day we step out of
our home, we educate the public of what we can or cannot do as a blind
individual. Each and every time I walk my daughter to the corner, I am
educating others of how I use my cane, how I don't fall into cracks along
the edge of the road or how I know when to cross.  I am educating them on
how I, a blind mom, keeps my child safe.
On the otherhand I am learning each and everytime I take a step, whether it
is in my own home or out in public.  I am learning what to do when the dog
darts  in front of me, I am learning how to solve problems that might arise
during a given minut.  I am learning when I walk out the door.
It is crazy for anyone to say, that educating and learning is not important.

Educating/learning, whether in a classroom, online or experiencing life is
necessary.
Some of the things we learn, should be common sense, but what is that?  An
idea of what should be, some of us, just don't think that way.  We need
someone to put the idea, the flame on the candle to start it burning.
Sorry about that. I just hate when peeps say that we shouldn'tlearn and are
tired of educating others.
V

-----Original Message-----
From: blparent-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:blparent-bounces at nfbnet.org] On
Behalf Of Bridgit Pollpeter
Sent: Wednesday, February 29, 2012 4:17 PM
To: blparent at nfbnet.org
Subject: [blparent] Taking advantage of parenting classes

Rebecca,

I was not referring to Hadley classes but the generic classes many hospitals
and other groups offer. I was not speaking to learning alternative skills
and techniques for non-visual parenting either; I just think it can be
beneficial to learn certain parenting methods and information especially for
new parents. To say a parenting class of any type wouldn't be helpful or is
not necessary seems a bit of a foolish comment. As a new parent, there is
often a lot of questions and not every new parent is equipped with proper
information or have a wide support system in which to turn to. Some
parenting classes can help one prepare and feel more confident. Again, I
speak about any parent, disabled or not. I'm also addressing physical and
mental development information more so than info like changing diapers and
how to feed, though these are good things to learn as well. From my own
experience of raising Penny, and my mom's 15 years of teaching with an
emphasis in child development, I know how helpful certain resources and
methods can be, and yes, they can provide an outline to be referred to in
specific scenarios especially as a child grows into a toddler and older.

As for the Hadley parenting classes, I have no info on them so I can not
speak much to this topic. It seems many have found Hadley's classes to be
helpful, and having a "certificate" to show in case their parenting ability
is questioned, has provided some with a bit more confidence. If I
understand, the main focus of Hadley's classes are to learn how to apply
nonvisual techniques to parenting things as well as simply learning
parenting skills. Personally, I've found developing nonvisual parenting
techniques is more common sense than anything else, and in my experience,
once in a given situation, the problem-solving skills work pretty quickly to
figure things out. For me personally, I've not required classes to learn how
to parent nonvisually; I've figured things out as I go along, and as I said,
I've yet to meet an obstacle that can't be figured out in any given moment.
This doesn't mean I haven't asked friends for advice and suggestions, but
I've not been overly concerned with figuring out how to parent nonvisually.

Again, this does not imply that Hadley classes should not be taken or
offered; like anything else, it's a personal choice, and there is nothing
wrong with taking such classes.

And no one is ever at a point in which they no longer need to learn things.
Not all information out there about parenting is helpful for all, and some
info seems to change a lot, but doing what you can to find tools and
resources that work for you is never a bad thing. Instead of bristling at
the thought of learning things, we should be more open-minded and
investigate if something has anything we can learn and use in our lives.
Knowledge is, after-all, power, grin.

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

Message: 2
Date: Tue, 28 Feb 2012 18:45:28 +0000
From: "Pickrell, Rebecca M (TASC)" <REBECCA.PICKRELL at tasc.com>
To: 'Blind Parents Mailing List' <blparent at nfbnet.org>
Subject: Re: [blparent] Taking advantage of parenting classes
Message-ID: <AAE38548E198F64B8E345439B68CCC7832F8B81B at TSEAMB02>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

Can you explain how a class can prepare you? Bridget mentioned something
about how that the classes didn't prepare her or maybe I misread. In any
event, can you explain how some "basic information" helped you? And, what
value does Hadley have outside itself? I'm being serious, does anybody
outside Hadley or NFB really care? If the classes were good and useful
that's great, but I don't hear anybody outside the blindness community say
"You know, I think I'll take classes at Hadley". Why? And yes, please
explain how a class prepared you for a given senario. You choose both.

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