[blparent] playgrounds and climbing structures

Wed Sep 19 20:05:53 UTC 2012

Yes Ronit.  It is good of you to stay with your son at his age and wobbly
state right now.  Most of my friends are sighted and they too stay right
there with their kids as they are exploring such structures.  You've got to
just do what works best for you and what you're most comfortable with.  I
like to live by the motto, rather be safe than sorry.  Before you know it
your son will be much more steady on his feet and you'll be able to quickly
hang back as he plays.  Staying close to the structure on the outside is
something I will do with my son for a long time since there's a lot of
things going on and I want to be right there to help my son out if need be.
It truly takes a village to raise a child and I often times end up helping
someone else's child and other parents are helping me in turn.  It's what
really works best and it's nice to know Dawson has some extra eyes and hands
on him and vise-a-versa.  I'd be careful with a cane since that's one less
hand you have to grab your son with and I always worry about tripping my own
kid with it or another child.  Those structures hardly take any time at all
to memorize but if it's pretty dead at the park that day and it really helps
then knock yourself out.  If I use a cane I will use it outside of the
structure to move around the grounds fluidly but I try and keep the cane
vertical as much as possible so kids running around me don't fall over it.
I also move slowly since there are also a lot of over-head obstacles to
watch-out for.  Most of those structures do have drop-offs unless they are
specialized for little tots.  I'm found that a lot of times they have an
area for the little ones and then another area or part of the structure for
the bigger kids.  Naturally, this just makes the little ones interested in
what the bigger kids are doing and they're willing to donate a kidney to get
to where the larger kids are to play and do as they do.  I often times find
that an older child, especially a girl who likes to play mommy will take my
son under her wing so to speak and help him out.  Sometimes the boys that
are several years older than my son will jump in and help him out to play
that big brother role which is really cute.

Have fun at the park.

Erin 

-----Original Message-----
From: blparent-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:blparent-bounces at nfbnet.org] On
Behalf Of Ronit Ovadia Mazzoni
Sent: Tuesday, September 18, 2012 8:01 PM
To: 'Blind Parents Mailing List'
Subject: Re: [blparent] playgrounds and climbing structures

Hi everyone,
Thanks for your responses. I guess I described the structure incurrectly
because there were several places with drop-offs from high locations.
Toddlers were playing on it but maybe it was not meant for toddlers. There
were only rails on certain parts of the structure, not all parts. That is
why I was nervous. My son is cautious, it's true, but he doesn't know when
not to go off a ledge or down a stair. There were many stairs and he doesn't
know how to go down stairs and he doesn't realize that he doesn't know how,
so that was also a worry of mine.

The suggestion of using my telescoping cane folded up is a good idea. I will
try that next time. I also have a leash and have started using it with him
just around our complex. I never thought of using it on the playground or
structures. I will have to try this to see if it would be a good solution, I
wouldn't want the leash part to get tangled while he was playing.

Thanks for your thoughts. I don't feel comfortable just walking alongside
this type of structure with all the openings yet, but maybe as he gets more
stable and older, I will.
Thanks.
Ronit

-----Original Message-----
From: blparent-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:blparent-bounces at nfbnet.org] On
Behalf Of Bernadetta Pracon
Sent: Tuesday, September 18, 2012 6:50 PM
To: blparent at nfbnet.org
Subject: Re: [blparent] playgrounds and climbing structures

Ronit,
Could you possibly walk alongside the structure on one side? If this is a
toddler structure, I can't imagine that it's very tall, nor that it's not
secured with rails on either side, or something similar. It's a tough call
with newly walking toddlers, because though you want them to explore their
environment and have experiences appropriate to their age, you also want to
watch out for their safety.
I think you should stay close by and walk alongside or even around the
structure as your son explores it,  and ask an available person who might be
willing to just keep an eye on him from time to time and let you know if
anything's wrong. Climing up into the structure, while it might help you
feel at ease regarding your son's safety, it will frustrate him, like you
said, and might prohibit him from being able to establish friendships and
connections with other kids at the park. 
Because, as you said, other mothers aren't in the structure with their kids,
so he might feel a little too singled out--the other kids might see that as
well. True, you have to approach things differently, and as a mother of a
small child, I completely understand your apprehension for his safety. But
sometimes, you just have to let things happen. 
Blind or sighted, if parents let their kids explore and play, injuries are
bound to occur. Kids are kids. they have accidents. Yes, you might be
scrutinized more heavily as a blind parent by onlookers and such, but the
kids of sighted parents get into trouble at playgrounds too. 
It's really a question of how much you are willing to let him explore and
how you'll deal with the potential of him getting injured--even slightly.
My uncle took my two year old cousin to a playground a few years ago. 
He's a sighted, responsible parent. She went down a slide just a foot away
from where he stood and her arm happened to be angled a certain way, so that
while she slid down, her arm broke in two places. He wasn't really able to
do anything about preventing it short of not allowing her to go down the
slide, or personally taking her down it. 
Sometimes, we just have to allow our kids a little bit of freedom, even if
they're as small as toddlers. It's important for a child's independents to
be able to explore in a presumed safe setting. I'm not saying we should
allow  or kids to roam the streets alone or take bike rides at ten o'clock
at night, but if you're at a playground and you're supervising your kid,
there's only so much you can do. Let him go and explore a little.
If you need a piece of mind, perhaps you can go to the park when there
aren't any kids around, or at least not on that particular structure, and
have someone sighted explain it to you in thorough detail. You can even go
inside of it to explore it on your own and commit it to memory, so that you
can better gauge whether  this is safe for your son to go it alone.
That's an idea.
Hope it helps.

Bernadetta

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