[blparent] How do you start to explain people's unfounded fearsto your children?

[Nevzat Adil]

There is nothing you can say to make sense of a nonsense. The child
knows it's nonsense. It is the adult who does not know. I guess the
only way to allay fears of the adult is to go to the park together
with you at least once.

Once I had a seven-year-old blind student who challenged me to take
him to the park. I guess an adult put into his head that since I am
blind I could not take him to the park. But I did take him to the park
and the nonsense went away.
Misconceptions can only be dispelled by actions and not by words. You
can say a thousand times that you do something safely, but unless you
prove it in practice it means nothing.

I would also put in a word of caution: no matter what you do some
adults will not change, because they have not been around competent
blind people. And I use the word competant, because not all blind
people are that.

Nevzat Adil, father of a twelve-year-old sighted child.

On 3/15/15, Judy Jones via blparent <blparent at nfbnet.org> wrote:
> It isn't anything to worry about ahead of time.  As your child grows, you do
> too, and when the time comes, should something happen like that, you will
> have the foundation with your child and the experience that will help you
> handle it.
>
> Judy
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Tara Briggs via blparent
> Sent: Sunday, March 15, 2015 7:43 AM
> To: Sheila Leigland ; Blind Parents Mailing List
> Subject: Re: [blparent] How do you start to explain people's unfounded
> fearsto your children?
>
> Hi, I hope you will share what ends up happening. I have a seven month old
> baby. I am not looking forward to the time when it is my turn to experience
> what you have experienced. I'm so sorry! I hope things are able to work out
> well!
>
> Sent from my iPhone
>
>> On Mar 14, 2015, at 10:11 PM, Sheila Leigland via blparent
>> <blparent at nfbnet.org> wrote:
>>
>> you have explained unfounded fears very well and I'm sorry that you have
>> this situation.
>>
>>> On 3/14/2015 6:14 PM, Jo Elizabeth Pinto via blparent wrote:
>>> My sighted daughter just turned seven years old a few weeks ago.  Hard to
>>>
>>> believe.  Anyway, we’re having one of the first really beautiful sunny
>>> spring days, so she asked me to take her to a nearby park.  She invited a
>>>
>>> neighbor boy her age to come.  His parents said no, there had to be an
>>> adult along.  She told his parents her mom would be taking them.  The dad
>>>
>>> said no, he meant an adult who could see.  She came home really confused,
>>>
>>> of course.  She said we go to the park all the time, which we do.  So I
>>> tried to explain that some parents don’t feel that their kids will be
>>> safe supervised by a blind adult.  Her next natural question was why.  I
>>> told her some parents worry that their kids will get hurt if no one is
>>> watching them.  Her answer was that we’ve been to the park millions of
>>> times and she hasn’t gotten hurt.  Also true.  She’s a smart girl.  I
>>> told her some parents haven’t ben around blind people much.  The odd
>>> thing is, the neighbor boy’s mom is one of the higher-ups in the special
>>> ed department with the local school district.  So I’m just wondering, is
>>> there anything in particular you have said to your kids that has helped
>>> make sense of nonsense?
>>>
>>> Jo Elizabeth
>>>
>>> Truth is tough. It will not break, like a bubble, at a touch; nay, you
>>> may kick it about all day like a football, and it will be round and full
>>> at evening.--Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.
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>>
>>
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-- 
❝"If you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his
head. If you talk to him in his own language, that goes to his
heart."❞
‒Nelson Mandela