[blparent] Please help me snap out of my pity-party

[Erin Rumer]

Hey Jen,

Don't worry.  We all go through a bit of feeling like this from
time-to-time.  Any-time I talk with my many sighted friends about this kind
of thing I realize that they're going through the same things we are and
it's more an issue of being a little over-tired than it is anything else.
Don't sweat the small stuff is the motto I'm trying to live by as a mother
of a 2 year old because after all it's only water or dirt they're playing in
and we can experience so many awesome things with our kids.  As for the DVDs
or shows on TV just engage with your daughter about what's going on.  Most
shows we can tell what's going on and even when I can't tell what's going on
I'll ask my son and he often times tells me enough in his toddler chat to
tell me what he's seeing.  It's a really cool opportunity to show your child
that they can help you by describing things and they love that.  I also tell
my son how thankful I am for his helping mommy and I don't have to see his
face to know that he's beaming from ear to ear for that.  I don't know if
you get a chance to hang-out with many other moms who are sighted but 99% of
my friends are sighted and it's absolutely amazing to see how they miss
stuff their kids are doing as much as we do if not more sometimes because
they're visually distracted with something.  I can't tell you how many times
I'll hear something going on or about to happen before they see it
happening.  Even when "life" happens I figure that if no one is bleeding,
broken and the house isn't on fire then we're having a great day.

Hope this helps and whenever you're feeling overwhelmed just remember that
someday they'll be teenagers and then there will be real problems to worry
about! LOL

Erin

-----Original Message-----
From: blparent [mailto:blparent-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Jennifer
Bose
Sent: Thursday, October 25, 2012 12:23 PM
To: blparent
Subject: [blparent] Please help me snap out of my pity-party

Hi, parents.

Overall, I tend to think of blindness as just inconvenient. But sometimes,
blindness and parenthood together get me started on thinking of blindness as
a real pain. I guess there are always issues that will present challenges
for anyone, and mine aren't all that big, I realize. But here they are:

My two daughters are three years old and six months old. While I'm paying
attention to my baby and I'm alone with both of them, I find it tough to
track what my three-year-old is doing. If I'm well-rested, this isn't such a
big deal. But if I'm tired, it's more than frustrating. She's very bright
and independent and often surprises me with all the things she can now do on
her own. But there are times when I'll discover that she's playing with
water or glue in a place where she shouldn't, and then I've thought to
myself: Well, if I'd seen her with that water glass, this never would have
happened!

And then, there's this whole world of visual media that I wish I could share
with her. All the picture books, DVDs, coloring books--I feel like they're
off limits to me and that I miss out on all the fun she has going through
them with other people. Not that she should necessarily learn everything
from me, but she and I don't get to engage each other through any of that.

Ugh! I'm making myself really depressed and a little nauseated here. I guess
this is when I should start being grateful for what I have.
Please, have any of you ever felt these frustrations? What do you say to
yourself, or what do you do, to get your positive attitude back?

Thanks for reading this rant. I know it will survive in cyberspace forever.
Oh, well ...

Good times. Starting to laugh already!
Jen

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