[blparent] Thanks but I'm done.

[Kate McEachern]

I have been thinking for the last few months about why I originally signed up for this list.  In the beginning it was to get ideas and tips for dealing with everyday situations that can occur when one is a parent and Blind.  I have found over the years that conversations go all over the place, from travel systems one can adapt to homework.  This was fine because this was what I was looking for.  Within those post were off topic post that even when trying to stay out of it, at times resolve would fail and I would find myself stressing over some one issue that had nothing to do with being blind or being a blind parent for that matter.

 

As someone who works with the newly blind on a daily basis, I am trained to see patterns of behavior.  If I am correct a moderator is to do something like this when screening a list, though it has been admitted on this list that the moderator just lets things go, and conversations that have nothing to do with parenting when blind come up.  In the past two months I have found my patients being short with this list.  The subject lines have nothing to do with the topic, or you have a person or a few people who post what looks like a valid e-mail to open it and find a short valid point that they then debunk what they said and state outlandish clames about drugs in medication, how their state is out to get them, how their families are trying to undermined them and so on.  Though some of this can happen, the amount of misfortune that seems to follow the members of this list would almost cause the most skeptic to question if its members are cursed just by pressing the join button.

 

I have gotten much good information from this list but I feel as a person who is in a situation that is not middle class, and as a professional who sees issues come across my desk that would make most issues on this list look like a trip to the mall, that this is not the place to be.  I did some research and found that this is not the only blind parenting list, and there is even a few that have been around over ten years that are still going strong.  I would have to think from what I saw; this had to do with the high level of moderation.  I also notice that moderators on these long lasting list made their decisions by guidelines not their feelings of "I like this person be nice."  As a professional I use to recommend this list but over the last six months I have not recommended it to my clients because I feel it wouldn't answer their questions and could magnify their own insecurities.

 

For those who gave good information thank you.  And if anyone wants to contact me off list my e-mail is below.

 

I wish you all the best.

Respectfully,

Kate.

e-mail; kflsouth at gmail.com